Farmers, foresters and forest temples: conservation in the Dong Mun uplands, Northeast Thailand

In recent years, Buddhist monks in forest temples found through the uplands have achieved some effective forest conservation and restoration. Their efforts stem from the Buddhist precepts of the sanctity of all life and a view that forests are places for contemplation and spiritual renewal. Monks have been able to protect and restore some forest land because their views and wishes are far more likely to be honored than laws and demands of government officials. This reflects a broader phenomenon in Thailand where considerable impetus for a contemporary environmental movement has come from religious sources in contrast to the west where it is largely a secular in origin.