It is apparent that high economic growth from the 1950s to the 1970s was responsible
for rapid deforestation in Thailand which has now turned into a major national problem.
Ninety million rai of forest were denuded between 1960 and 1990 at the average of three
million rai per year. Less than 28 per cent of the country (about 90 million rai is now under
forest cover (see Panayoutou and Parasuk, 1990; Panayoutou and Sungsuwan, 1989).