Deforestation of Thailand

"Rocks as big as tractors were washed down the hills...In three days we saw the equivalent of 1,000 years of erosion. It shows people the direct link between environmental destruction and floods." —Surin Pitsuwan, Parliament of Thailand Between 1976 and 1989, Thailand lost 28% of its forest cover. "The causes of deforestation in Thailand lie partly in excessive logging, but primarily in large scale, illegal clearance of forest land for conversion to agricultural purposes." As of 1988, seventy million cubic feet of wood was being removed from Thailand soil annually. After devastating flash floods killed over 300 people in 1988, Thailand instituted a logging ban, which helped to ease the forest encroachment in the region.