The purpose of the study was to examine the gender difference in forest
practices and environmental awareness in northwestern Thailand. Gender is an
important basis from which to approach an issue and this study assumed that
differences would be reflected by the responses from men and women. Rather
than study the issues from one gender’s view and extrapolating these to arrive at
conclusions, both men and women were involved and a complete perception
was obtained. Differences between the practices and perception of men and
women were not as great as anticipated. Men and women made similar use of
the forest and expressed a similar level of environmental awareness relative tu
the context of the areas defined in the study. The experience and findings of
this study hopefully will provide some base from which similar studies can be
explored.