Phrakhru Pitak's sponsorship of tre

Phrakhru Pitak's sponsorship of tree ordinations and other environmental actions came from his experience in a remote mountain village affected by deforestation and the promotion of cash crops and consumerism.

In the mid-1970s, shortly after his ordination, Phrakhru Pitak became alarmed at the deforestation and damaged watersheds in the region around his home village due to extensive logging (legal and illegal) by large companies and clear-cutting by northern Thai farmers in order to plant maize.

The villagers continually had to cut into the forest to grow maize as a supplementary source of income, and the maize itself caused significant erosion and damage to the soil, necessitating further clear-cutting for agricultural land.

This caused his district to become the poorest and driest in the province, with the highest rate of adults migrating to find work in Bangkok.

For years the monk preached about ecological conservation, stressing the interconnection between social and natural environments and humankind's responsibility to each.