Abstract:
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This independent study aims to evaluate social benefits derived from “Watershed Conservation Project an Initiative of Her Majesty the Queen” in Chattragran District Phitsanulok Province. To fulfill the study, information has been obtained through focus groups and stakeholder interviews, including the inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes. Subsequently, financial proxies, derived from all outcomes, have then been consolidated and followed by the analysis of outcome proportions from the progress of finding the values of deadweight, attribution, and drop-off to calculate the benefit values. Such benefit values were obtained from discounting future values to present values. The present values of all accumulated outcomes were then divided by the utilized investment funding and thus ended up with the Social Return on Investment (SROI).
The result of the study shows that every 1 baht of investment can create the social return of 6.78 baht. This can imply that farmers have truly learned and applied what they have learned in order to enhance their independency and trigger the knowledge transfer from one farmer network group to the other communities for further involvement. With this in place, farmers have given higher emphasis on environment-friendly agricultures and thus have decreased the usage of chemicals to grow monocultures and instead shifted to grow organic crops in the plant-house, which required less plantation area but provided even more values to the crops. This method has allowed the farmers to earn more as well as to apply the knowledge to enhance sustainable development in the other highland communities. The effect of this also includes better standard of living within the communities and balance in the sustainable co-existence between the people and environment.
Keywords: 1) Evaluation 2) Social Return 3) Watershed Conservation Project 4) Chattragran 5) Phitsanulok
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