In northern Thailand’s Ban Pong village, a group of women has spent nearly two decades restoring and guarding their community forest to prevent dry-season wildfires. From the restored forest, residents now harvest forest products to sell in markets and feed some of Ban Pong’s 7,100 residents, Mongabay staff writer Carolyn Cowan reported.
Led by Rachaprapa Kamphud, the women work as frontline firefighters to reduce toxic wildfire smoke and keep the forest soil moist, allowing wild mushrooms, vegetables and other forest products to thrive. The food is harvested across the 40-hectare (100-acre) Ban Pong Community Forest, formerly a peanut farm.
“When we started out, people were often surprised when they saw women like me venture out to extinguish blazes carrying heavy equipment,” Rachaprapa told Cowan, pointing to equipment such as ventilation blowers and fire beaters. “But when they saw how effective we could be, our reputation grew.”
Ban Pong lies within the Ngao Model Forest landscape, a government-established initiative to promote sustainable forest management. It includes 58 community forests as well as national parks and teak tree plantations.
Every year, the region suffers spikes in pollution from smoke caused by crop burning and forest fires. Such wildfire smoke carries PM2.5, an inhalable fine particulate associated with increased heart disease, lung cancer and stroke.
“I got fed up with having smoke irritating my eyes each year. The smoke was visible in the air,” 31-year-old Jirathip Malanuan, the youngest member of the group, told Cowan.
Villagers began restoration in 2007 by planting native trees and building hundreds of small dams to slow runoff and replenish water that had been depleted from years of aggressive farming. Today, more than 300 of these check dams, each a meter (3 feet) high, made of rocks and earth, have raised the water table in the forest.
A lake that used to dry up each dry season now has water year-round, allowing a group of residents to start a tilapia fish farm.
With more soil moisture and fewer fires, the community forest has also been harvesting termite mushrooms, bamboo shoots and red ant eggs, which can be sold in local markets to supplement both diets and incomes.
According to the residents, wild animals including lizards, kingfishers, wild boars, squirrels and deer have also returned to repopulate the regenerated forest.
Read the full story by Carolyn Cowan here.
Banner image: Rachaprapa Kamphud leads the Ban Pong community forest and fire management group. Image by Carolyn Cowan/Mongabay.
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