The Challenge

Climate change affects human beings and environment severely. This is due mainly to human activities causing emission into the environment greenhouse gases thus warming the globe. Therefore, it is the duty of the people of all sectors to cut down emission of greenhouse gases. Songkhla City has launched project “Green City” since April 2013. This project is under the concept of “City of Tree”, one of 4 strategies for “Low Carbon City”. It aims to develop Songkhla City to be a low carbon city by preserving exist urban forest and natural landscape , and increasing green areas in communities by integrated local participatory including citizen engagement. Introducing local residents to urban forestry and the natural landscape has been a challenge since many opportunities for experiential learning do not exist in many neighborhoods.  Many urban people, including youth and women in Songkhla City do not have access to environmental educational opportunities or programs. Providing an opportunity for introducing Songkhla citizen to urban forestry educational concepts is a challenge that provides many opportunities to let them engage in project “Green City”.

 

 

Current Situation

Songkhla City is a small coastal city in the South of Thailand with the area 9.27 sq.kms., divided into 37 communities. It is located  between Songkhla Lake and the Gulf of Thailand, so it’s well-known as “City of Two Seas”. The current population in Songkhla City is 68,000. For sustainable green area management, a suitable proportion of green area is 5 sq.meters per 1 population, so the sustainable green area in Songkhla City should be 340,000 sq.meters. It’s approximately to 4% of total area. We have done a big event on 9th August 2013 : Tree Planting Activity was held in Honor of HM Queen Sirikit's Birthday Anniversary 12th August, aimed to raise awareness for urban community and increase green area. We have done also related activities such as “Bike to Plant” in many occasions to promote urban forest awareness, introduce environmental educational opportunity, and enhance citizen engagement. Of course, the project is in the beginning stage, and we would like to have the guideline on promotion of citizen engagement in increasing of green areas in urban communities. We need effective strategies to encourage more people to get involved in this project, and other local development activities as well.