Royal Forest Department
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The Royal Forest Department ( Abrv: RFD; th, กรมป่าไม้, ) is a department in the Ministry of Natural Resources and 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 ...
.


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 An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministr ...
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 Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters ( pan ...
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 National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department (DNP), also part of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. Today, the agency aims to monitor
forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...
s, coordinate research, encourage community forest management, conserve forest land and monitor the wood industry.


Budget

In
fiscal year A fiscal year (or financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. Laws in many ...
2018 (FY2018), the RFA's budget was 5,501 million
baht The baht (; th, บาท, ; sign: ฿; code: THB) is the official currency of Thailand. It is divided into 100 ''satang'' (, ). The issuance of currency is the responsibility of the Bank of Thailand. SWIFT ranked the Thai baht as the 10th-m ...
, increasing to 5,584 million baht in FY2019.


See also

* Deforestation in Thailand


References

{{Authority control Government departments of Thailand Environmental agencies in Thailand Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (Thailand) Forestry in Thailand