ABSTRACT
For many years, Thailand has experienced severe destruction of its forests. In 1961, the country’s forests covered 27.36 million hectares, or about 53% of the land area. This tumbled to 27.9% in less than three decades. In 1989, the government canceled all commercial timber licenses, but this failed to halt the decline. By 1993, the forested area had fallen to 26.6% (Planning Division, RFD 1991, 1993) because of population growth, illegal logging, shifting cultivation, and forest encroachment for agricultural land. Recent estimates put the current rate of forest destruction in the country’s north at 32,000 ha per year, mainly because of fires, illegal logging, and swidden cultivation.
