Royal Address, Given at the Closing Ceremony of the Northern Agricultural Seminar, Northern Agricultural Office, Chiangmai, Thursday, February 26, 1981. Revised and translated by His Majesty the King.
Last year, I spoke at the meeting about remote sensing and I had some comments; since then some moe new ideas have occurred to me. Formerly, I spoke about the "Three Kinds of Forests". Now everyone should know what the "Three Kinds of Forests" are. But you should know that the "Three Kinds of Forests" have 4 kinds of use, not three. I said that these "Three Kinds of Forests" consisted of trees for firewood, fruit trees and construction wood. In fact, firewood and general-purpose wood is the same kind of wood; construction wood and
general-purpose wood is also the same kind of wood, but we distinguish them firewood and construction wood, along with wood for making handicraft and fruit trees.
Now, I am going to criticize the report further. The report says that the "Three Kinds of Forests" will be planted in places that are not watershed areas. After some throught, I think it is a rather silly idea because these forests are all watershed areas. If it says that the "Three Kinds of Forests" will not be planted in the watershed areas, these watershed areas will all become bare because these "Three Kinds of Forests" are meant to be useful, and when they are useful for the people,
the people will not cut down the trees, and will not allow anybody to cut them down. This is important : wherever there is a good forest, not bare, the people will not cut down the trees because they know better. I have been in many places, and I have inquired the people about the condition of the forest ; they said that the forest was still in good condition. Then I asked them if they would cut down the trees; they said they would not, It would be silly to cut down the trees." They do understand that deforestation will bring about dryness and soil erosion. The rice fields will be ruined, and they know it.
This report underestimates the people; the people are clever, those on the hills as well as those on the plains. They are knowledgeable; they have worked for generations; they have earned their livelihood; they are intelligent; they know where to cultivate and where to conserve and keep intact. But the forest was destroyed by those who are ignorant, those who have not cultivated rice for a long time; they left the fields and cultivation a long time ago. They have lived an easy life so they have forgotten that life is possible only with a right kind of agriculture, but the
country people or the hill people have proper knowledge. Only after some simple explanation, they will say, "Ah! Ah! We understand; we understand." If we just give an understandable explanation, they will understand. But if we talk in a confusing language, they will be confused.
This is why, if we plant the "Three Kinds of Forests" which have four uses - the fourth use being the most important for preventing soil erosion and conserving the watershed areas - the people will take care of it for us. By "us", I mean the Forestry Department. The Forestry Department has the duty of keeoing the forests in good shape; it is one of their most important duty, but sometimes, when we inquired the forest officers about who would look after the forest, they answered that they were the ones who looked after it.
When asked about what they would do if the trees were felled, they would say, "Well, tel the police." How many policemen are there? In each district which can be quite a large area and especially if it is a mountainnous area with many forests, it cannot be so well looked after. Each district has about 50 policemen; this is from what I have heard, but the forested area to be looked after are in the hundreds of thousand rai. This means that there will be about one quarter of a policeman for each area; the policeman cannot do anything because he is not even a whole person; he cannot walk; he cannot look after anything; he canot do anything.
If we implement the "Three Kinds of Forests" project so that the people see its use and their own advantage, they will look after their own interest. The people will not destroy the people, and they will prevent others from destroying it. It means that if the people are given the opportunity to have enough to live on, they will become forestry officers for us in great numbers.
For example, in a small valley where there is a clearing of only 50 rai, a village for villagers has been established. The word villagers can mean people from the plains as well as those from the hills; they are all villagers. Once, I talked with some hill-tribesmen about various projects and emphasized, "You have to take good care of it." They said, "Sure, we are also Thai people." This means that they also are villagers, working together; they said that they wanted to abide by the law and do honest work.
If we do a good thing, reasonable thing, they will guard the "Three Kinds of Forests" for us. If these "Three Kinds of Forests" are not considered watershed protecting forests, it will be a wrong attitude because trees, no matter what kind, are all usefull. Among the usefulness of the trees, there is a fourth use, that is soil conservation and watershed protection. These are my observations on this subject.
.... Consequently, the course of operation would be to enlist villagers who are relatively well-to-do to be forest rangers; they would see to it that nobody come and fell the trees, or in case of a forest fire they would help putting it out. Take the example of the pire forest in Mae Chaem District at the village of Wat Chandr; the forest is very large, and pine trees are extremely flammable, but there is seldom a fire. Wht? Because the villagers look after their own property.
At the beginning no government officials had come to teach them this and that; they did it on their own; they saw to it that under the trees would be clean, no combustible material that could catch fire, or in case of a small fire, they would put it out. They did that because it is in their own interests; they make a living on the resin of the pine trees. It is their main income, in their own primitive way. Now if we want to assist them, we have to provide them with techniques that will help the better section of the resin, with better quality and improved tecniques, and also better marketing;
all this is what has to be done. The ability is already there in the villagers; it is in principle the same technique of keeping the forest so that it won't be destroyed or go up into flames. This is how to look after the forest, which after all, is the main object of this seminar. We have to let these villages and trees villagers look after the forests themselves. In some places it is difficult because it is a rather dense forest or a reserved forest.
Royal Address, Given at the Closing Ceremony of the Northern Agricultural Seminar, Northern Agricultural Office, Chiangmai, Thursday, February 26, 1981, P. 29 - 39.
