A study commissioned by the premier online eco retailer     www.e-photoframes.co.uk, written here in Both Thai   and English, has found that the high market price of a particular type of wild mushroom, Hed Thob, and its lucrative allure of potentially doubling a farmer’s yearly income, is one of the main factors underpinning the deliberate setting of forest fires. A phenomenon that, due to the emission of large amounts of smoke containing carbon dioxide (CO2), is a killer of people and tourism and is also one of the most significant causes of climate change.     A dairy crop farmer from the north of Thailand, Khun Som, states that, ‘We normally use fire in the forest because, sometimes, it’s hard to walk and find the things we want to collect. We do not hesitate to use it to burn small areas. A fire that accidentally gets out of control can sometimes happen, but such fires often extinguish themselves…..’   Alex Putnam, the leader of the research project, states that, ‘The use of fire during the dry season for the collection and propagation of forest products, particularly mushrooms, is a tradition which has been practiced for many decades, and which sustains the livelihoods of local farmers in northern Thailand. However, due to annual burning, the forests are becoming degraded and devoid of all life, and local urban areas are being plunged into a haze of suffocating smog. The degradation of dry forests, (dry diterocarp),  in northern Thailand, due to the use of fire , is also limiting  the capacity of the forests to naturally sequester carbon dioxide emissions, therefore exacerbating the issue of climate change’.     The aims and objectives of the study are to explore the causes and effects of deliberate burning within the province of Chiang Mai, northern Thailand. In addition, the project also proposes solutions to deal with the traditional practice of burning in the province, and sets out a fire prevention plan for 2010 and beyond. The project uses both quantitative, (fire data collection), and qualitative, (semi-structured interviewing), research methods. In total, during the two month study period, the project recorded a total of 58 fires, the majority of which, (36%), occurred within forests, open areas, (19%), and along roadsides, (17.5%), whilst domestic,  (15.5%),. and agricultural fires, (12% ), recorded the lowest percentage. For further Information please contact Alex Putnam - putnamalex@googlemail.com  �

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