Background to the challenge
Between 1900 and 1950 it is estimated Thailand lost around 60% of its forests, with an additional 25% being lost between 1950 and 2000. At the present time only 15% of the country is forest cover and much of this has lost its biological diversity as the habitat is degraded. As well as highly mechanised commercial logging, there is also a substantial threat to the remaining forests through the activities of poorer, often displaced groups, cutting down the forest for subsistence agriculture. Although this kind of ‘slash and burn’ agriculture can be sustainable, it is now often the case that the kind of forest areas needed for this to work are no longer available and therefore this kind of activity is no longer sustainable. Consequently, in northern Thailand, there are very few areas of original forest and these are located mainly in national parks like Doi Pha Hom Pak, or a few smaller areas where local people have protected them.
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The challenge
This challenge is focused on helping to educate children and young people from the tribes and groups that are involved in the activities described above about the dangers and consequences of continuing these activities. The challenge is to use mobile technologies (e.g. phones and tablet devices) to investigate the problem, to collect data and examples comparing primary forest with degraded secondary forest, and to produce a resource that could be used in the local schools by teachers to help them teach children about more sustainable alternative to the current practices they see all around them. The final output could take many forms - an educational video; an informative infographic or an e-Book are some examples - but it must be a resource teachers in some of the more remote and marginalised communities across the region could use and would find beneficial.
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The participants addressing this challenge are:
To see how they have addressed this challenge, you should visit their Group Page:
Challenge 1 - Forestry, agriculture and biodiversity |