Rights Beautiful Collection of Professor Saneh Chamarik to the same social objective, and could be said to be complementary to one another. While the former, “dispute resolution”, deals with day-to-day affairs, the latter, “peace studies”, is basically concerned with bringing about a process towards long-term solution of sustainability and peaceful coexistence in society with dignity, freedom, and justice. In this sense, what is being termed “conflict management” is both structural and institutional, involving people at all levels of society, indeed a truly democratic process that is so lacking in Southeast Asia. And that is the crux of the whole problem that urgently needs to be looked into. Getting to know Southeast Asia To begin with, it is the question of how Southeast Asia is to be looked at and objectively understood. So a brief description may be in order here. The region has generally been known for its geo-political and military position as the strategic sea route from the Middle East to the Pacific coast. That is only part of the whole story, however. Of more import still, and inherent in its strategic status, Southeast Asia constitutes one major part of the world’s biologically diverse tropical forests. With less than 7 % of the Earth’s land surface, these habitats accommodate more than half the species in the entire world biological resources and diversity. Of some estimated 3 to 10 million species that exist globally, about 70% are in the tropical forest areas.1 As we all know, these plant species serve as the vital sources of food, medicine, shelters, and clothing: in short, all the necessities of our daily life dubbed “four-fold livelihood” in a Thai jargon. For all the vast quantity of the tropics’ genetic resources, fortunately or unfortunately, the state of human knowledge is still extremely limited. Of some 125,000 known plant species in the tropical forests, researchers have taken a cursory look at barely one in 10, and a close look at only one in 100. It means 1 E.O. Wilson, “The Current State of Biological Diversity”, and Ariel E. Lugo, “Estimating Reductions in the Diversity of Tropical Forest Species”, in E.O. Wilson, ed., Biodiversity, Washington D.C, Washington Academy Press, 1988 pp. 8 and 60. 52 OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF THAILAND