The Royal Forest Department (
Abrv: RFD; th, กรมป่าไม้, ) is a department in the
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment
An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment, ...
(MoNRE), part of the
Government of Thailand
The Government of Thailand, or formally the Royal Thai Government ( Abrv: RTG; th, รัฐบาลไทย, , ), is the unitary government of the Kingdom of Thailand. The country emerged as a modern nation state after the foundation of t ...
.
History
On 18 September 1896 King
Chulalongkorn
Chulalongkorn ( th, จุฬาลงกรณ์, 20 September 1853 – 23 October 1910) was the fifth monarch of Siam under the House of Chakri, titled Rama V. He was known to the Siamese of his time as ''Phra Phuttha Chao Luang'' (พร ...
established the Royal Forest Department under the
Ministry of the Interior to manage forests and control revenue from the teak forests of northern Thailand.
A British forester, Herbert Slade, former Deputy Conservator of Forests in Burma, served as the first director of the department. In its early days the department focused on obtaining tax revenue for the use of forests rather than conservation, although its conservators expressed concern about unsustainable harvesting of
teak in Thailand's northern forests. In 1899 all forests were declared government property and all logging without payment to the Royal Forest Department was prohibited.
Formerly the agency controlled
Thailand's national parks but in 2002 they were taken over by the
(DNP), also part of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
Today, the agency aims to monitor
forests, coordinate research, encourage community forest management, conserve forest land and monitor the wood industry.
Budget
In
fiscal year 2018 (FY2018), the RFA's budget was 5,501 million
baht, increasing to 5,584 million baht in FY2019.
See also
*
Deforestation in Thailand
Deforestation in Thailand refers to the conversion of its forested land to other uses. Deforestation numbers are inexact due to the scope of the issue. According to the Royal Forest Department (RFD) in 2019, Thai forests cover 31.6% (102 million ...
References
{{Authority control
Government departments of Thailand
Environmental agencies in Thailand
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (Thailand)
Forestry in Thailand