ABSTRACT
Economic development involves progressive changes of several kinds, including increase in infrastructural services and facilities, increase in the application of science and technology to a wide range of problems, and increase in energy consumption, which usually implies a switch from an emphasis on biomass fuels to fossil fuels and hydropower. The major effect of economic development and population change on Thailand’s forests has been the rapid conversion of forest to agricultural use. The limits of expansion are being reached, both because the southern limits of the mountains are being reached, and because of the increasing effectiveness of governmental controls on cutting in previously uncut forest. The traditional pattern of forest use was either for swiddening or for the taking of small amounts of lumber. Ecological consequences of swiddening vary depending on the pattern of land tenure, method of cultivation, length of the cycle of cultivation and fallow, and the environment in which the swiddening is carried out.
