CHIANG MAI, Thailand — During the second half of the 20th century, Thailand’s forest cover plummeted from around 50% to 25% due to urbanization and rapid economic development. Although legislation such as the Community Forest Act of 2019 has helped to slow the rate of deforestation by empowering those who live in the forest, the demands of economic growth continue to take priority over protecting the country’s environment, pushing several plant and animal species toward extinction. Yet, many Thais are nature lovers and fight to preserve what tour brochures frequently describe as a “tropical paradise.” One such person is Bunrak Thanacharoenrot, who recently fulfilled a lifelong dream of creating a heritage park that displays a large number of rare and unusual Thai trees. Thanacharoenrot was raised in a family with a longstanding agricultural background in the southern region of Thailand, and as he says, “A lifestyle closely connected with nature and working intimately with the land has profoundly shaped my understanding of the value of natural resources, particularly trees and the environment.” Bunrak Thanacharoenrot, the designer and owner of Changthong Heritage Park. Image by Ron Emmons for Mongabay. This background inspired him to pursue a career in landscape design, which has included the procurement of plant species for the landscaping of Disneyland Hong Kong in 2001-2003 and collaborating with landscape consulting firms on the Sentosa development in Singapore. Thanacharoenrot’s idea of curating a collection of rare and unusual Thai plants took root about 25 years ago, when he began the…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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