Engaging Buddhism in Forest Management in Thailand

Abstract

Thailand’s royal forest department, the authorized office for control over the state’s forest lands and natural resources, has been chronically challenged by the increasing number of Buddhist forest monks, who have encroached and built temples and monasteries in the protected forest areas. The conflict reflects the disagreeable concept of human exclusion from nature. With the highly respectful religious status and Buddhist tradition, it has made the conflict uneasy. The monks themselves receive a lot of support to stay in the forest due to the environmental friendly lifestyle, and prior well-known roles on community development especially forest conservation. However, the state’s forest laws say something different. In the last four years the conciliation project ‘Buddha Utayan’ or the joint project with monks for forest conservation and reforestation was initiated to clear up the conflict. It made use of the provisions and interpretation of the forest laws. The project has gone extra miles in terms of monks and local people participating in the forest conservation, but unfortunately failed in the strategic objective to halt the expansion of forest encroachment by the forest monks in later years.

Keywords: Thailand; Buddhism; Forest monks; Forest Conservation