Doi Tung's Bare, Opium-Era Mountains in Thailand Now Carry 13,000 Hectares of Forest

Around Doi Tung in Chiang Rai province, the mountains were bare and eroded by the 1980s, and some villagers grew illegal drugs. The Mae Fah Luang Foundation began the Doi Tung Development Project in 1988, tying reforestation to new livelihoods such as coffee and macadamia so villagers had a reason to protect the trees. The foundation's 2021 factbook describes a coordinated effort to reforest over ten thousand hectares of degraded hillsides. Its website now reports 83,515 rai (about 13,362 hectares) of forest in the project area, with 1,465 plant species and 1,201 animal species recorded and a 1.21 percent forest-fire incidence. These are the foundation's own figures.