The Philosophy of Economic Sufficiency and Sustainability: Achieving a Sustainable Environment from the Thai Perspective

The idea of Economic Sufficiency (ES) is a philosophy bestowed by His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand to his people to provide guidance for steering in the proper course of development individually, communally, and nationally. Distilled from HM the King’s own experience from decades of development work to better the livelihoods of his subjects, the philosophy of ES is comprised of three components; moderation, reasonableness, and self-immunity in the era of rapid changes. A further two conditions of knowledge and morality complete the working definition of ES philosophy. The paper argues that the philosophy of ES, when appropriately applied, provides a pathway for achieving sustainability in terms of environment and in terms of management of natural resources. It then draws on case studies of the application of the philosophy of ES in the context of natural resource and environmental management in Thailand as demonstrations of how the philosophy of ES can provide an alternative method for effectively addressing the environmental problems faced by developing countries struggling to modernize while maintaining its natural resource base.