Contribution of Forestry to Poverty Alleviation - APFNet

Northern
North-
Eastern
Lampang 2 3,609 577 116 522
Phayao 1 1,868 299 191 651
Tak 1 23,314 3,730 87 457
Nan 51 241,927 38,708 6,466 24,345
Total 65 296,580 47,453 9,071 34,631
Chaiyaphume 1 1,775 284 103 541
Ubonratchathai 4 5,170 827 183 833
Nakornratchasima 1 14,000
Burirum 2 24,246 3,879 1,170 2,022
Khon Kaen 2 45,667 7,307 1,679 6,446
Kalasin 2 156,850 25,096 1,635 15,175
Total 12 247,708 39,633 4,770 25,017
Trang 7 18,160 2,906 694 2,831
Suratthani 3 10,011 1,602 845 2,070
Southern Krabi 1 10 2 34 133
Phuket 13 338 54 1,443 4,642
Ranong 5 2,233 357 177 828
Total 29 30,752 4,920 3,193 10,504
Central Karnchanaburi 1 4,800 768 2,125 6,085
What must be said of these requests is that whether or not they are approved depends on pre-determined
criteria, on proof of management, and on agreement of the local communities to the conditions imposed.
Without a continuity of policy and commitment from the decision makers, they could just end up being
numbers. Nonetheless, there is room for optimism.
One advantage this has over the stalemate in the Community Forestry Bill is that the process was already
launched and is not caught up in two decades of debate. The other is that since local communities are
positively responding to this policy (which is not surprising since there is much to be gained), any
successive government is not likely to risk popularity by not continuing the policy. One area that should
be of particular concern is an overly active pursuit of the policy to gain political popularity at the
expense of appropriate and careful screening of applications, and will not augur well for the natural
resources base of the country.
Commercial Forestry and Industrial Forestry
Commercial forestry and industrial forestry are part of the economic sector with high potential for
employment and income generation. Thailand is both an importer and exporter of wood and woodbased
products. The increased consumption of paper is probably one of the main drivers of demand
for import of wood pulp and other types of fiber. In 2010, the value of import of was approximately
16,490 million Baht. In the same year, the import value of paper and paper scraps combined was
approximately 52,740 million Baht. Other main import products were processed wood (10,636 million
Baht) and various types of plywood. For imported logs, the main supplier both in terms of quantity
and value was Myanmar. Imports of processed wood on the other hand were mainly from Lao PDR
followed by Malaysia.
On the export side, the top three most important export items in terms of value in 2010 were paper
(42,235 million Baht), processed wood (18,145 million Baht) and wooden furniture (14,751 million
Baht). By comparison, the value of log exports was much lower at only 16 million Baht. The value of
teak wood exports alone was around 76% of the total exports, the rest coming from. The remaining
wood exports were Para wood (rubberwood or wood from the Para rubber tree, Heveabrasiliensis),
eucalyptus, and pinewood. Most of the exports of processed wood were Para wood. The export value
of Para wood in 2010 was 17,154.5 million Baht equivalent to nearly 95% of the total value of exports
of processed wood from Thailand.
In 2009, according to the RFD, there were 3,987 wood processing establishments. With the exception
of a few that were producing wooden craft products, most of these establishments were machinerybased
and capital-intensive. In addition, there were three paper pulp factories. Through the support of
the Forest Industry Organization (FIO), a key public sector agency, the areas where trees were planted
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