This is a sustainability project that aims to build relationships with communities. The process is participatory, involving collaborative thinking, action, and development to create projects in three work groups: agriculture, processing, and community tourism. The goal is to develop local economies and increase income for communities so that they can manage themselves sustainably.

Over the past five years, the project has operated in 32 provinces and generated a total of 65,814,260 Baht in community income. In 2023, it generated income for 105 communities, totaling 24,380,712 Baht, with 3,122 beneficiaries. This project aims to solve the problem of forest fires and haze by focusing on the local ecosystem as a whole, including sustainable management of forests, land, and resources and community economic development. The project promotes the cultivation of bamboo according to agroforestry concepts, rather than monoculture crops. This helps prevent and control the expansion of arable areas, which causes soil deterioration. It’s a sustainable solution to the smog problem caused by forest fires in Chiang Mai Province.

ThaiBev is supporting the purchase of 20,000 bamboo seedlings to plant on a land area totaling 326 rai in 6 sub-districts of Mae Chaem District: Kong Khaek, Pang Hin Fon, Ban Thap, Tha Pha, Mae Na Chon, and Mae Suek. The communities are encouraged to participate in the project by growing the Phai Sang Mon and Phai Ruak Dam varieties of bamboo. The first plot was started at the end of 2017. Whole bamboo can be sold and processed into more than 20 home decoration products, which has generated more than 1,637,200 Baht of income for the communities.

The problems of flooding in the rainy season and drought in summer bring great damage to agricultural communities. In the upland area of Ban Kaeng Sai Mun, Tha Ton Sub-district, Mae Ai District, Chiang Mai Province, the basin between the mountains is steep. In the rainy season, this causes the soil to subside, causing damage to villagers’ homes and accumulating in the reservoir. ThaiBev, therefore, has supported the Ban Kaeng Sai Mun community of 746 households (1,897 people) in building gabion box-type weirs to slow the water along three flood routes. A total of 13 weirs have been built as barriers to prevent landslides in the long term. It also helps reduce soil erosion and the intensity of the water currents in the creek, as well as creating moisture for the watershed forests of the community. This project helps to develop communities in Phunphin and Tha Chang districts around our Surat Thani factory. It uses the holistic Bio-Circular-Green economic model: “Bio” means focusing on using biological resources to create added value; “Circular”, reusing materials as much as possible; and “Green”, aiming to develop the economy and environment together in a balanced way to achieve sustainability. In this case, the “Bio” emphasis is on agriculture and processing, such as producing safe vegetables and growing mushrooms; “Circular” is about producing bio-compost from waste to reduce costs for farmers and for waste management, with the savings going into community welfare funds; and “Green” is about community forestry, creating the Yang Hiang Tree Bank for conservation.

Six communities totaling 395 people benefit from the projects, with more than 20 network organizations participating. The extent of green areas has been increased by 65 rai and the amount of waste from the factory has been reduced by 600 tonnes per year, while meeting the safety standards of the UN’s Good Agricultural Practices. ThaiBev continues to open marketing channels for selling community products online, including through the Line application. Communities are encouraged to learn online selling skills, as well as to bring products to sell at various events. Currently, the Chumchondee Meeroiyim Shop Line account has 1,548 followers and has generated 359,240 Baht of income for the 27 participating communities (1,197 beneficiaries). ThaiBev supports government policy to develop the grassroots economy according to the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy, with the goal of “generating income for the community to create happiness”. Accordingly, we established the Pracharath Rak Samakkee (PRS) Social Enterprise (Thailand) Co., Ltd., which coordinates a provincial network of 76 PRS social enterprises.

In the past seven years, the Pracharath Rak Samakkee Social Enterprise Network has helped drive a total of 1,552 community projects in three work groups: agriculture, processing, and community tourism. It has generated over 2,141 million Baht of community income, creating jobs for more than 114,362 households in 4,852 communities. In 2022, 414 million Baht of community income was generated. The project has succeeded in reducing inequality, improving quality of life, and increasing the competitiveness of communities.