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The participatory development communication is a key process of bringing stakeholders together to cooperate towards addressing the problem of dissolution of the environment and natural resources. It let them work together towards a sustainable social change away from individual behaviour change. It is a set of techniques to make people change their knowledge, attitudes, and practices that allow people to voluntarily engage in the activities related to natural resource management. In the case of natural resources management, multiple stakeholders are involved in administration and implementation. The model of this study assumes that all levels of participatory development communication will relate knowledge, attitude and practice of stakeholder's concerning natural resources management. Ratchaburi province is a major agricultural area in Thailand. The area is prone to severe natural disasters in the past few years such as drought, inundation, hurricane and conflagration due to climate change. The government of Thailand allocates an increasing budget for natural resources management in the area, but this does not solve the problem alone. The government needs an effective strategy in mitigating the problems. The participatory development communication in community based natural resources management can help the government in formulating effective strategies to alleviate future disasters. This means that the community where the disasters occur helps in solving and mitigating the problems caused by natural disasters and natural resources degradation respectively. The study centers the following variables; the levels of participatory development communication which is (1) information sharing, (2) consultation, (3) collaboration, and (4) empowerment and knowledge, attitude and practice. The research assumes that the levels of participatory development communication affect the knowledge, attitude and practice of stakeholders. Which means higher the level of participatory development communication corresponds to higher knowledge, attitude and practice measure on natural resources management. Considering the relationship between these variables and the need to address the growing problem on natural resources management, it is important that the government using participatory development communication explore the different ways in conserving nature and lessen its expenses on unprepared disasters. The result assumes that levels of participatory development communication are correlated to stakeholder's knowledge, attitude and practice measure. There is a relationship between stakeholder's knowledge, attitude and practice towards natural resources management and participatory development communication practice. Particularly it puts into assumption that: (1) participatory development communication is directly correlated to knowledge, attitude and practice, which means that as participatory development communication level increases, knowledge, attitude and practice among stakeholders also increases, and (2) participatory development communication levels are inversely correlated to knowledge, attitude and practice, thus, as participatory development communication increases, knowledge, attitude and practice decreases or vice versa. Looking at the situation of Ratchaburi province, the increasing budget on natural resources management can be lessen if there is proper communication and participation between stakeholders and the government. Thus, study will give a new government approach towards natural resources management and increasing knowledge, attitude and practice of stakeholders.
Kheerajit et al. (Fri,) studied this question.