A COUNTRYSIDE planning specialist whose work normally sees him involved with the North-East farming community has left for Thailand to share some of his skills with hill tribesmen.

Previously employed by the National Farmers' Union, Dr Malcolm Bell now specialises in rural planning and countryside development for the Newcastle-based firm of solicitors Ward Hadaway, which has given him a month's sabbatical.

"The firm has always been good about supporting personal and professional development, feeling it leads to self-improvement," said Dr Bell, who lives on the Teesdale border at Phoenix Row, Etherley.

The chance to visit Thailand came up when friends who are teaching English there asked if he fancied getting involved, using the same attributes and experiences he brings to Durham and North Yorkshire food producers.

He will be working with a coffee co-operative and a fish farm, which are both at the establishment phase, in the Chiang Rai region, which borders Laos and Burma.

The coffee will be produced as a cash crop to be sold for a fair price, along the lines of the Oxfam Fair Trade agreement, while the fish will be used mainly to add protein to their own diet. He will also be working on a "green" tourism project.

The work he will do does not tie in directly with what he does over here, but there are comparisons in that what happens in the countryside is affected by world trade agreements, so he feels it's important to keep the wider perspective.

"The problem for so many hill peoples is that what they produce they get to keep so little of," said Dr Bell. "They produce goods which are very desirable and their existence is seen as very desirable because their pictures are featured in promoting northern Thailand to tourists, but they get no money from it.

"My friend, who is a corporate lawyer, is using his skills to write contracts for them so they are not ripped off by middle men."

Dr Bell will be working with the Akah, who are of Tibetan-Burmese origin, and the more indigenous Lahu.

"Because they have not got citizenship of any country they have been refugees, pushed across the borders from different countries for years", he said.

He describes them as culturally different, though they are both hill tribes who can't remain hunter gatherers because they are forced to settle on bits of land unsuited to their traditional ways.

"Because they are not citizens their children are not citizens and they are stolen away to be prostitutes in Bangkok brothels or to a life of domestic slavery," said Dr Bell, who told of two groups working on anti-child slavery projects.

While he has a certain remit, he will play things very much by ear and expects to get his hands dirty and live like a native.

"My bed will be a hammock above pot-bellied pig and dog level," he mused. "And I will be eating the local delicacy of maggots and rice, which is actually moth larvae on the point of hatching."

Drawing similarities between the hill tribes and the hill farmers he deals with at home, Dr Bell said their situation was comparable in that they were a small portion of society and they both had traditions they wanted to keep and somewhere for their children to live, on and around the farms.

"The planning system here claims it gives farmers special privileges in allowing houses on farms, but in practice there are so many hurdles to jump through," said Dr Bell. "Changes in policy mean farmers are continually being asked to diversify, yet they face enormous bureaucratic problems in trying to do so.

"I have dealt with the problems producers of beef and sheep face when wanting to sell it themselves, and the professional help they need in overcoming the rules," he added.

He has recently been involved with a grain mill, where the producer planned to grind so much himself - mainly for watching tourists.

But if any surplus was sent away to be ground or bagged and then returned to the mill for sale, it led to the authorities questioning whether it could be treated the same as that ground on the premises, which he finds amazing when imported meat is allowed to be sold as "packed in Britain."

"So indigenous people have problems the world over," said Dr Bell, who will spend a month in Thailand.

On his return he will report back to an organisation called the British Schools Exploring Society, which takes students between 17-19 years old to do scientific work and help the community in wilder places of the world, which helps their own personal growth.

Dr Bell, who has worked with the organisation in the past, has been asked to look at whether Chiang Rai would be a suitable place to take 60-70 people. If his answer is yes, then he expects to lead that expedition