Neighbouring colonial powers were pivotal in the early development of Thai
forest management institutions. After the Second World War international
influence in Thai forest management shifted to the American government and
multilateral institutions including the Food and Agriculture Organisation
(FAO), the International Union of the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the
World Bank, which continued to provide Western methods and expertise
during the modern era of forest management. Globally, this era witnessed the
exportation of the US National Park model, which insists on a nature free of
human habitation as the conservation ideal. Between 1950 and 1990 almost
3,000 protected areas were established worldwide, almost five times the number
established in the previous four decades. This rapid growth was facilitated by
the rising international concern with deforestation and loss of biodiversity, the
availability of foreign funding for conservation and the promise of foreign
currency earnings through tourism (Ghimire, 1994). With increasing global
concern over tropical forests Thailand found itself in the middle of the Southeast
Asian hotspot, identified for its rich biodiversity and rapid rate of deforestation.
Thailand was not immune to these changes in global forest governance and
took full advantage of international expertise to manage its forests initially for
timber production and eventually for conservation.