Rural Rovings

FORRU runs a local education program that provides forest restoration support to 12 rural communities in northern Thailand.

3 of us education staff are just back from a visit to one of them, a 5 hour (jeep) drive away. We had a lovely homestay with the local coordinator, and crammed a lot of activities in.

We planted trees with some school group kids and visited the local group of senior citizens who are developing a bush foods & herb garden in the temple grounds.

We visited some of the beautiful (rustic) stilted teak houses, saw local biogas setups and traditional rural artifacts such as bamboo water mills and rice threshers.

The main activity was heading along with a group of Thai and Hmong villagers to the watershed forest about an hour away. There was a pig slaughter to thank the forest spirit for providing water, and then the following 2 hours involved chopping the pig up for a feast. On this occasion I managed to miss the big event by going on a challenging group hike up through the river to see some waterfalls. When I got back the cleaning of the entrails was in full swing. Sorry if the photos are a bit gory but it was a very interesting biology lesson! Traditional forest ceremonies are not available to the average tourist – this day was certainly an experience I should treasure.

One of the waterfalls enroute Our journey with the pig into the jungle


Feast preparations and lots of home brew rice whisky


Pork mince – just add chillies and you have yourself a delicacy Entrail stew anyone?

I was saddened by the amount of forest clearing I could see continuing to happen in the Pha Yao province, and especially the disregard for erosion and land degradation caused by planting maize right into drainage lines and on steep slopes. Also in maintaining traditional forest ceremonies while destruction of the watershed forest which is the sponge for the water source continues. Lots to ponder. How to kick off Landcare with uneducated subsistence farmers?!?!

Some all too common scenes of land degradation in the hills

Not two hours after writing this yesterday I found myself sitting in a sustainable agriculture conference run by an organisation called ECHO that provides support to Christians working in the agricultural sector in developing countries. How about that!

Also I should mention that I’ve actually been planting willows in the last week and I’ve changed my way of thinking and now believe that willows are an excellent plant choice for stabilising river foreshores (I’ve joined the dark side!). He he he…………