A small battle won but we are losing the war

A drop in the bucket is better than nothing. There should be reforestation programmes all over the country. Thailand’s environment, both land and sea, has been going downhill for decades. The best type of reforestation would involve dozens of species of indigenous plants and trees. I suspect the celebrities’ programme will plant just one type of tree. 

I’m a farang and I plant hundreds of trees each year around Chiang Rai. One species is fishtail palm (Caryota gigas), which is native to Thailand and is probably the bulkiest palm tree in the world. Its family goes back 70 million years, so it existed alongside the dinosaurs. There’s a beautiful grove with about 50 of those giants near Chiang Rai, but how many people know about it? Fewer than you can count on one hand. If housing developers wanted to build condos there, they could hire a tractor to destroy that majestic grove in an hour. 

Corporations and farm bosses are scraping and killing forests as fast as they can. Celebrities are adept at putting on whitening cream and fake smiles for cameras, but what do they know about silvaculture – the study and care of forest trees? They should get some local experts involved. Their plan for 500 rai is small. That’s about as many rai of Thai forest as are destroyed in any three-day period, year round. Even so, a small effort is better than nothing, so any little bit of forest renewal is appreciated. 

Ken Albertsen