ฉันรักแปลPhrakhru 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.