This qualitative research investigated food security and access to food and natural resources according to conventional community rights of the Urak Lawoi and the Mogan in the Rawai Beach areas in Phuketprovince, as well as developments that had changed their rights to access to food and natural resources.The research also recommended a guideline to maintain food security to community rights.
Traditional community rights are a management system to access food and natural resources of the Sea Gypsies since 1945, who permanently settled in the area. The resources included five ecological levels, which were on islands, in the seas, along the coasts and coral reefs, on the plains, and in the forest. The focus was on gathering food from nature.
Urban development of the province has had a great impact on land use and land ownership of the Sea Gypsies by designating the areas into conservation and restricted zones, benefit facilitation to the private sector, and zones for collective community use. These affected their traditional lifestyle of the Sea Gypsies, who were obliged to become naturalized under the Thai laws, depriving them of using their food skills and potential that had been passed on from generation to generation due to being unable to access to food sources. They had to change their food consumption value by depending on the market. They were under pressure to become accepting. Children and adults encountered nutritional problems and they turned to begging, which brought about a negative image to them. It was thus recommended that community rights should be revitalized in order to solve these problems. The state should support policies related to their quality of life, especially traditional fisheries. Collaboration from various sectors should be integrated to solve a plethora of problems as a result of a change in access to food sources. The ethnic group should form into a group to demand for the solutions of their problems. Furthermore, food security potential should be established in simultaneity with the revitalization of traditional lifestyles in accordance with the constitution on community rights.