The depletion of forests in Thailand has generated concern because of its economic implications on the future of timber supply, of the recognition that reforestation could not keep up with deforestation, and of the emergence of strong social controversies over alternative land uses.
This study is the researcher’s interpretation of forest loss in largely deforested Northeast Thailand. The purpose of this study is to show how an environmental problem, such as deforestation, can be better understood if the thinking of agents are given equal voice. This study specifically inquired on how loggers, farmers, and foresters, utilized the forest, and what their images of the forest are, in order to explain why the forests of Northeast Thailand were depleted.
This study reveals several definitions, meanings, and values that people have of deforestation and in so doing shows why some global perspectives do not connect with local consciousness. To show how deforestation can have many meanings and why global and local consciousness often do not connect, the episode of deforestation was described from three relative time scales. These are the geologic time of environmental history, the human activity time frames of human projects, and environmental perception or the time span of meanings and values attributed to perceived phenomena. These three levels of inquiry provide the dynamics in terms of which the significance of an eclectic approach might be assessed.