The Natural Resource Base and Industrialization in Asia : In assessing phenomenal deforestation and industrialization of Thailand

In pre-industrial societies, forests provide most daily necessities, ranging from fuelwood to construction material and from supplementary food to fertilizer. Forest resources become even more important as the firsthand source of energy and materials for both industrial and household uses when the society tries to industrialize itself, thus making the availability of forest resources one of the key factors for successful industrialization. In this paper, the present endowment of forest resources in the countries of South and Southeast Asia is analyzed in a historical and geophysical perspective so as to assess their potential for industrialization from a natural resources point of view, with a special emphasis on Thailand. Though at the heavy cost of deforestation, Thailand seems to have been one of the successful forerunners in the post-World War II Asian effort of industrialization, and its experience in the ordeal of deforestation and associated socioeconomic conflict should provide a good lesson for the rest of the countries in the region.