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Thailand joined the National Ecosystem Assessment ( in April 2021 and officially launched their assessment in February 2022. With a focus on coastal and marine ecosystems, the Thailand NEA team, led by a partnership between the Office of Natural Resources and Environment Policy and Planning () under the  the  and the  has engaged with the private sector, civil society, ethnic and local communities to incorporate the best available knowledge to their NEA by leveraging scientific, Indigenous and local knowledge systems as envisioned by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework ().

Since the inception of the assessment process, the Thailand NEA team has acknowledged that the inclusion of Indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) could enhance the robustness, accuracy, legitimacy, and cultural relevance of the NEA. The assessment team nominated an ILK lead author, Dr. Narumon Arunotai, and eight ILK contributing authors have joined the assessment team. 

The assessment team also adopted an inclusive participatory process where coastal ethnic and local communities in Thailand were consulted to frame the focus of the assessment during the scoping stage. With the support and guidance from UNESCO Bangkok and the UNESCO's Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems () Programme leading the ILK Support Unit for the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Network () initiative, the Thailand NEA team engaged over 200 ILK holders in the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea through key interviews and localized ILK scoping workshops. The workshops offered two-way communication and cross-knowledge exchange between and among ethnic and local communities and/or intermediary organizations and the assessment authors. 

These participatory consultative processes provided insights on how the knowledge of sea ethnic and local communities could contribute to the Thailand NEA, focusing on marine and coastal ecosystems. The workshop mainly explored ILK's relevance in the NEA and the need for a coherent policy for cultural and environmental sustainability and community well-being. Field surveys revealed that each community has a distinct knowledge and some that have experienced outside pressures have also developed innovative ways of regenerating fish and marine animal stock like creating fish aggregation devices and crab banks. 

Nowadays, only a handful of people practice traditional fishing methods.  For example, although the ancestral practice of collecting fish, crabs, and other sea animals with bare hands is now quite rare, a few older men still prefer to use bare hands since this knowledge enables them to make an adequate living without extra spending of money or time in buying, maintaining, repairing, and replacing fishing equipment. This method only relies on simple tools like net bags and long hooks.

The field activities also underscored the interconnectedness between ILK and ethnic communities’ languages and cultures. For instance, the Chao Lay People language reflects landscape and seascape features, natural resources, and group or individual activities relating to the area. However, the loss of ethnic language has contributed to the disappearance of the toponyms in the native language of coastal communities. 

The Thailand NEA team reviewed past research on sea ethnic communities of Thailand and captured it as a case study in the scoping report.  The Chao Lay, also called Sea People and/or Sea nomads, have been the original inhabitants of Thailand's coastal and island areas for several hundred years. They hold a collective or social memory of the land and sea that has been passed down for generations through toponyms, tales, songs, and even individual stories from first-hand experiences. 

Their knowledge and ways of life are based on a deep respect for nature and are vital for the conservation of coastal and marine biodiversity and ecosystems, as well as essential to their livelihood and spirituality. Chao Lay livelihood’s activities in the sea are mainly carried out through diving, fishing and gathering: free diving (Moken), hookah diving (some groups of Urak Lawoi), and mangrove and beach gathering (Moklen). The Moken and the Urak Lawoi divers have in-depth (literally and figuratively) knowledge of their fishing and foraging area, and the Moklen know the mangrove and beach areas like the back of their hand. This way, the Chao Lay are able to observe underwater occurrences and feel its surroundings, such as seawater temperature, currents, the conditions of coral reefs, fish, and other marine animals, and changes in beaches and seascape, etc.

The Thailand NEA scoping report observed that the Chao Lay rarely modified their local environment apart from cutting some wood and bamboo to build boats or temporary huts. As such, they easily recognized changes in the areas of their (temporary/permanent) residence or they frequently explored. However, with increasing development pressure, Chao Lay elders and adults have identified physical and biological changes forcing the community to adapt to their spaces. For example, as the fishing and foraging areas become limited and the fish and marine animals become scarcer, the Chao Lay have been pressured to use more sophisticated fishing equipment, and younger generations of Chao Lay are becoming less knowledgeable and less observant of their natural environment. In the past, the Moken lived on their boats for most of their lives, living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle among the archipelagos of Thailand and Myanmar. The traditional Kabang houseboats have mostly disappeared from the Andaman Sea, being replaced with modern longtails instead, while the traditional knowledge to construct them is also not being passed on to the new generations.

A study conducted by Arunotai in 2015, highlights the impact of climate change on ethnic communities of Thailand, particularly the Karen in mountainous northern Thailand and the Moken of Surin Islands, as well as other Chao Lay individuals across southern provinces. Among a few examples, Chao Lay Peoples have observed the change in local winds and monsoon patterns, the decline in rock oyster population, especially during the warmer period, and the surge or drop of certain species, which was quite unusual.

During the scoping phase, the team identified suitable participatory methods to gather and compile ILKand write an ILK dedicated chapter in the NEA report as well as interweave ILK into the summary for policymakers. The team also developed an ILK Technical Working Group led by Dr. Narumon Arunotai and so far, eight ILK contributing authors have been onboarded, and in the next step, ILK holders will be invited to contribute their knowledge, stories, songs or artwork to enrich the assessment data. 

Guided by the existing knowledge gathered during the scoping phase and the assessment policy questions, the Thailand NEA team transitioned into the evaluation stage of the NEA in 2024. This phase kickstarted with the organization of a  in Phuket, Thailand. This was followed by a three-day ILK capacity building workshop with Thailand NEA lead authors and ILK authors hosted by the UNESCO Bangkok office in July 2024. 

Apart from assessment report development, communication and outreach, and knowledge-exchange activities to share expertise and improve collaboration among ILK holders, academia, policymakers, and practitioners will also be at the forefront of the evaluation stage. 

The National Ecosystem Assessment Initiative at UNEP-WCMC is part of the Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services Network (BES-Net), working in partnership with UNDP and UNESCO. Financial support for Thailand’s national ecosystem assessment and the NEA Initiative is being provided by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection of the Federal Republic of Germany and the SwedBio of Stockholm Resilience Centre.