Environment in Thailand Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Neve r formal ly colonized, Thailand emerged as a modern nation-state in the mid to late-19th century during the period of European colonial expansion in Southeast Asia. This country’s elongated geography is a result of its own imperial expansion out from its central core in the valleys of the Chao Phraya River to the north, south, and northeast. Linguistically, the country is diverse, although Central Thai is the dominant, formally recognized language taught in schools and used in all public affairs.

This linguistic diversity parallels the ethnic and religious diversity in the country, which not only represents a number of Thai speakers (Northern Thai, Northeastern Thai, and Southern Thai), but also a number of minority ethnic groups, euphemistically called “hill tribes” or chaaw khaaw in Thai. While Buddhism is the dominant religion, represented in the image of the constitutional monarchy, animistic practices are common, as is Islam, which is dominant in the country’s south.

Thailand is located in the tropics and is subject to a yearly monsoon, which brings significant amounts of precipitation through the rainy season from November to May. As a result, the country’s main crop is rice. Thailand exports rice to other parts of the world and this crop remains one of its most significant economic sectors behind tourism. The extensive river system, which runs through much of the north and central regions of the country, fuels irrigated wet rice agricultural practices and a dynamic fisheries industry. Thailand is often portrayed as a rural country with extensive agricultural lands based around relatively small villages. Despite this popular image, the country’s economy is diverse, including significant manufacturing and service sectors. This economic diversity parallels the growth of both urban and suburban areas, the latter of which includes the conversion of agricultural land into numerous housing subdivisions on the edge of the country’s major cities, such as Khon Khaen in the northeast and Chiang Mai in the north.

This expanding economic diversity has had a number of environmental and social consequences. The expansion of the manufacturing and service sectors in cities, such as the capital of Bangkok, has drawn in massive numbers of people (it is estimated that one in six citizens of Thailand live in the capital for at least part of the year). This rapid expansion of the capital has fueled the growth of slums and other areas that are rife with environmental problems linked to the spread of illnesses, such as tuberculosis and cholera. Secondary cities are also witnessing similar patterns of urban growth, with a growing middle class occupying formal housing units in city centers and the poor living in the fringes often in illegal or temporary housing structures. The shifting nature of rural and urban life has also led to a number of social problems, including an expanding commercial sex work industry serving local and tourism communities as well as an increase in undocumented migrant populations from countries such as Burma, Cambodia, and Laos working in the rapidly expanding construction industry.

The Thai government, despite its commitment to its rapidly expanding economy and position as one of the new economic “Tigers” of Asia, has not made similar commitments to environmental regulation. There are numerous reports of environmentally related health problems linked to the pollution emanating from expanding rural and urban factories, as well as problems linked to the pesticides used in the agricultural sector. Thailand has also been a historical site for the export of wood products, and deforestation (and flooding) has been a growing concern that has been mitigated, to a certain degree, with the establishment of a national parks system. Despite this shifting environmentalism, which has been fueled by a growing nongovernmental sector and Buddhist environmental movement, Thais and their government often struggle over the ownership and use of common resource properties, including forest, river, and fishery resources, which have historically been critical to local economies.

Bibliography:

Jim Glassman and Chris Sneddon, “Chiang Mai and Khon Khaen as Growth Poles: Regional Industrial Development in Thailand and its Implications for Urban Sustainability,” Annals of the Academy of Political and Social Science (v.590/1, 2003);
Clemens Grünbühel et al., “Socioeconomic Metabolism and Colonization of Natural Processes in SangSaeng Village: Material and Energy Flows, Land Use, and Cultural Change in Northeast Thailand,” Human Ecology (v.31/1, 2003);
Philip Hirsch, , Seeing Forest for Trees: Environment and Environmentalism in Thailand (Silkworm Books, 1997);
Mary Beth Mills, Thai Women in the Global Labor Force: Consuming Desires, Contested Selves (Rutgers University Press, 1999).