With drought and flood problems in the Chao Phraya River basin, many people in Bangkok blame deforestation on rural residents who live near the heads of rivers for expanding farms and aggravating Thailand’s water woes.

The issue can be clearly seen in Nan province, where some 1.8 million rai (288,000 hectares) of mountainous forestland, at the head of the Nan River, has been turned into maize plantations. Many urban people criticised people in Nan for damaging the environment.

However, Narong Apichai, field operations director for Mae Fah Luang Foundation’s Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, argues that the real root cause of the problem was the imbalance of resource consumption and conservation between people living in cities and those living near forests.

“If we look at the real situation, we can see that those who get the most benefit from forests are urban people, as our water resources that we consume in everyday life and steer our economy come from the forests. But we do not really help preserve the forests much, compared to people living at the water heads,” he said.

Narong said even though people think that others living in forests cause the water problems experienced along the Chao Phraya River basin, it was the capitalist economy that city dwellers benefit from that led to deforestation. If people living at the head of the river got proper assistance, he said, they could live in harmony with the forests and play a major role in preserving them.

“The people here [at the head of the river] are poor, so they encroach on the forests for more land to plant maize in a contract farming system. This system is very convenient for the farmers, but in the end they will not escape the poverty, as the cost of seeds, fertiliser, and pesticide is high. So they have to expand to get even more farmland for more money,” he said.

“So, Mae Fah Luang Foundation is working with people at the head of the river to encourage them to shift their production towards more sustainable farming – to create forest zones that people can use and preserve.”

Thailand Research Fund (TRF) researcher Pracha Koonnathamdee said city dwellers did not do much to save forests, despite the benefits they received from them.

“People in the city often do not realise that we get a lot from forests. First of all, we get the clean air from forests, as the trees absorb carbon dioxide and pollution. Moreover, the water we use in cities, especially for Bangkok, comes from forests,” Pracha said.

“According to the economic principle, those who get benefits from something should pay for it, and we can help preserve forests by supporting people at the heads of the river save the forests for us.”

He said people were often driven to do something for financial gain. For instance, he said, maize farmers destroyed the forest to earn money.

He suggested that urban people provide financial advantages for people living in the forest so they save the forest and adopt sustainable conservation.

Narong said city dwellers needed to realise the true value of forest resources and the benefit they get from forests, and to raise awareness about this issue.