ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Understanding the Attributes Related to Climate Change Perceptions among Rural Households in Highlands: The case of Northern Thailand
 
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1
Natural Resource Management, Asian Institute of Technology, Pathum Thani, Thailand
 
2
Ostrom Center for Advanced Study in Natural Resource Governance, Asian Institute of Technology, Pathum Thani, Thailand
 
3
Food Innovation, Nutrition, and Health, Asian Institute of Technology, Pathum Thani, Thailand
 
 
Submission date: 2024-03-04
 
 
Final revision date: 2024-06-02
 
 
Acceptance date: 2024-08-03
 
 
Online publication date: 2025-01-27
 
 
Publication date: 2025-07-22
 
 
Corresponding author
Takuji W. Tsusaka   

Natural Resource Management, Asian Institute of Technology, Pathum Thani, Thailand
 
 
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2025;34(5):5579-5588
 
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
There remains a scarcity of evidence regarding perceptions of climate change occurrences and their impacts among people highly involved in monocropping systems in highland areas, especially in Southeast Asia. This paper assessed villagers’ climate change perceptions and socioeconomic attributes in Northern Thailand using primary data collected from 252 households, including farmers and non-farmers, based on stratified random sampling from eight villages in the highlands of Nan province, which were analyzed using descriptive statistics and probit regression. The result indicates that climate change perceptions were primarily influenced by individual attributes rather than household characteristics. One such attribute was the main occupation. Non-farmers were more likely to perceive climate change phenomena such as increased drought, higher temperature, and change in the number of rainy days, while farmers tended to perceive more climate change impacts such as pest and disease outbreaks and losses in crop yields. Other significant attributes were gender and age. Men and younger people were more likely to perceive climate change phenomena. Residential location, education, household size, household income from agriculture, household income from non-agriculture, household debt, number of farm plots, and landholding size were associated with some aspects of climate change and its impacts.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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