Contribution of Forestry to Poverty Alleviation - APFNet

Introduction
X
Assessment of the Contribution of Forestry
to Poverty Alleviation in Thailand
Orapan Nabangchang*
Thailand’s Forestry Sector: An Overview
Throughout the 1970s, forest cover in Thailand declined as agricultural land expanded. Between 1984
and 1993, the increase in agricultural acreage and the reduction of forest coverage was alarming. By
the mid-1980s, associations were gradually made between the declining forest cover and environmental
consequences, such as higher frequency of flash flooding, long periods of droughts, dried-up streams,
and disappearing forest products that once constituted a significant source of non-marketable food
supplies. The trade-offs from the continued expansion of extensive cultivation were becoming more
apparent which expedited policy responses and launching of measures to protect the forest resources,
compromising the needs of marginal farmers for land. Deforestation continued, however. Between 1993
and 1995, approximately 192,000 ha 1 of forest area was converted to agricultural land. This highlighted
the ineffectiveness of control mechanisms and the urgency to find workable means for control and
monitoring of resources. 2
Towards the end of the 1990s, not only was there concern over less than satisfactory measures to protect
the remaining 25% of the total area of Thailand, that still remained under forest cover, but there was
also concern over the unsuitable agricultural practices resulting in land degradation. The supply of
easily cultivable land was pushed to the limit and the potential threat to the environment conditioned
adjustments in the institutional framework, which became no longer supportive of further conversion
of forest areas for alternative land use.
Into the new millennium, there was a reversal of trends. According to the 2000 figures in Table X.1,
forest area increased from 12,972,200 ha (25% of the country’s land area) in 1998 to 17,011,078 ha
(33%) in 2000. The increase of 8% in two years could have been due to the adjustments in map scales
or, from a more positive interpretation, could be the result of efforts of preceding years to reforest. The
latest figure available for 2006 indicated that the percentage of forest coverage was approximately 30%
or 15,865,259 ha. Most of the remaining forests were concentrated in the Northern Region. Up until
1996, mangrove forests were also rapidly declining and one major cause was the expansion of shrimp
farms along the coastline of the Gulf of Thailand as well as the Andaman. Statistics nevertheless
showed some significant reversal of this trend from 2000 onwards and, in 2008, Thailand’s mangrove
forests were estimated to be around 255,000 ha.
* Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA)
1 Rai is a local unit of area measurement where 1 hectare is equal to 6.25 rai.
2 Agricultural Statistics of Thailand, Crop Year 1996/97, Office of Agricultural Economics, Ministry of Agriculture
and Cooperatives.
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