Trees – Preservation, Conservation and Monitoring
EcoThailand Foundation are actively engaged in cataloguing, monitoring and helping to preserve key trees on the Gulf Islands. This includes both trees in urban, public access, jungle and mangrove areas.
Tropical trees play a pivotal role in supporting the Earth’s biodiversity and ecological balance. They are vital carbon sinks, absorbing significant amounts of CO2, thus mitigating climate change. The lush canopies offer essential habitats for countless species, fostering rich biodiversity, and aiding in plant and animal evolution. Additionally, these trees sustain indigenous communities, providing food, medicine, and valuable resources like timber and fruits. Their roots prevent soil erosion and enhance water infiltration, supporting local water supplies and safeguarding against natural disasters. Mangrove species (protected in Thailand) provide essential sea and erosion defences. Tropical forests serve as vast reservoirs of undiscovered bioactive compounds that have potential applications in medicine, agriculture, and technology. In urban and semi urban situations they provide visual amenity value, shade and an urban refuge for insect and bird species. Preserving these trees is crucial for a sustainable future.
We work with expert arborologist groups from mainland Thailand and Universities to provide training and instruction workshops for interested individuals, local utility providers and tessabaan so supporting effective and considerate tree preservation and maintenance.
Arborology, the scientific study and management of trees, is important for municipalities and utility companies alike. Trees provide environmental, social, and economic benefits to urban areas. They enhance air quality by absorbing pollutants and carbon dioxide, reducing the urban heat island effect and mitigating climate change, trees beautify cities, attracting tourists and residents alike. Tree safety in many public areas is a tessabaan responsibility.
For utility companies, arborology is crucial for maintaining a reliable power supply. Proper tree care prevents tree-related power outages, reducing operational costs and enhancing customer satisfaction. Trained operatives also ensure that trees don’t interfere with utility infrastructure, reducing safety risks and avoiding costly damages. A critical balance needs to be sought between visual utility, safety and effective power supply, often a difficult balance. Together, municipalities and utility companies benefit from arborology’s expertise in creating sustainable, green, and resilient urban environments.
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We believe education, awareness and information are key in helping to preserve and maintain the key trees in the Thai Gulf. It is essential that individuals, companies, schools, utilities, property developers and municipalities are adequately informed and supported in caring for the tree heritage that the area has and in doing so enhancing our local environment with the practical advantages of decreasing pollution, climate change, erosion and deforestation.
To that end we have ongoing and new projects supporting those objectives:
Promoting and sponsoring mapping of tree groupings as part of the national Green Area initiative identifying and mapping trees in Thailand.
Similarly identifying, tagging and mapping of key individual amenity trees on the islands as part of an EcoThailand and locally supported initiative.
Continue to work with tessabaan, utilities, businesses and individuals to help maintain and preserve the tree heritage of Thailand.
EcoThailands (and other groups) tree identification and mapping can be seen on the Surat Thani page of the Green Area Mapping Website – click HERE (turn on Google Translate in your browser for translation from Thai).
Details of the tree species, size and carbon capture capabilities can be accessed by clicking through name links and accessing the Green Area Reporting System.
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EcoThailand Foundations ‘Big Trees on Koh Phangan and Koh Tao’ project aims to inspect, catalogue and map the big and visual amenity trees on Koh Phangan and Koh Tao (with the option of extending to Koh Samui and Surat Thani province mainland at a later date). The data will be visible to all online and include species, height, diameter, carbon capture potential and precise geo mapping via the iNaturalist App or Website
Big Trees are identified by our trained members and volunteers and the data uploaded to our iNaturalist Project Page, click HERE or on the project graphic to view. We hope that identifying and mapping key trees in the Thai Gulf will act as an incentive for sustainable tree development and preservation.