As a
result, Thailand ranks as one of the most rapid deforestation countries in the post-war period with forest cover declining from 50 per cent of land area in the early 1960s to approximately
20 per cent in the mid-1980s. This was lowered to 15 per cent in 1986 according to unofficial
estimates. Not surprisingly, deforestation proceeded so rapidly that by 1968 Thailand became
a net importer of wood.