The real reason for burning the forests

[jko]

According to this, apparently not just mushrooms for the local market

 

 

 

(In Thai with English subtitles)

[heybruce]

If the video is true, the sell and export of these mushrooms should be banned.

[orchis]

it's one of the reasons but it's genuine.

[vivid]

Hmmm....China is involved.    But i guess can't be blamed, there is demand and then there is supply.

To indirectly curb the demand, you'd need enforcement and nick the supply.  And there is failure in enforcement due to corrupt, unless the very top (PM) squeezes very hard. 

 

 

Edited March 18, 2019 by vivid

[jonwilly]

Farmers have been burning since before Buddha, nothing new.

No money in Rice farming, or farming, just a survival living for the family.

 

john

[Date Masamune]

8 hours ago, heybruce said:

If the video is true, the sell and export of these mushrooms should be banned.

I have always been told mushrooms have no nutrition other than trace minerals. SAD.

 

[Beatriz]

31 minutes ago, Date Masamune said:

I have always been told mushrooms have no nutrition other than trace minerals. SAD.

 

Yeah you probably right on the nutrition aspect but the consumers(whoever they are) are interested in the taste not nutrition and these consumers are overfed pigs with lots of money to buy the most expensive mushrooms you have that is the reason the farmers are keen on growing them. I am not sure but I guess for every kilo of mushrooms they get more money than other agricultural products.

[sfokevin]

2 hours ago, Date Masamune said:

I have always been told mushrooms have no nutrition other than trace minerals. SAD.

 

Either does Dukes pizza but I still can’t get enough of it... 

[4MyEgo]

Hmmmm, something strange going on here, could they be they the magic type ?

[digger70]

9 hours ago, Date Masamune said:

I have always been told mushrooms have no nutrition other than trace minerals. SAD.

 

Health Benefits of Mushrooms: Healing Powers of This Food Medicine

[connda]

Considering I live out in the areas being burned, I've written about the Het Dtawp mushrooms a number of times on TV.  It really is the primary reason for this pollution - forest arson, not agricultural burning.  You can't burn fields this time of year as the local government officials would be all over the farmer; but, walk up into the mountains 800 meters above those same government offices and set a fire in the forests and 'nobody knows nothing.'  The villagers will not 'snitch' on who is setting those fires, but I'm sure they know. 
Thanks for posting that video.  That gets sent to all my friends Thai and foreigners alike.

[Date Masamune]

Health Benefits of Mushrooms: Healing Powers of This Food Medicine

Lose weight and cure cancer with mushrooms! What reason are there hospitals anymore ? I’d call this a “Clickbait” link spouting pseudoscience. Very low calorie content in mushrooms vitamins and minerals that is it.

[digger70]

40 minutes ago, Date Masamune said:

Lose weight and cure cancer with mushrooms! What reason are there hospitals anymore ? I’d call this a “Clickbait” link spouting pseudoscience. Very low calorie content in mushrooms vitamins and minerals that is it.

I myself a bit dubious about all the (health Claims) 

[notagain]

2 hours ago, connda said:

You can't burn fields this time of year as the local government officials would be all over the farmer

???? here in the NE every damn sugar field in sight has been burnt along with the rice fields. Those police can be  a little blind sitting in their offices or at the everyday road stops where they get to keep 50% of the fine money collected. Get real.

[Teak]

On 3/18/2019 at 9:29 AM, orchis said:

it's one of the reasons but it's genuine.

Agreed, but it also clears the leaves and undergrowth so the young bamboo shoots can be harvested, as well as let you spot the scorpions and snakes better...It also make trails less slippery. However, years ago, walking off the mountain (Doi Pa Daeng) my brother in laws would randomly throw lit matches on either side of the trail, much to my concern, as I still have a teak house at the foot of the mountain. That was 30 years ago and it still goes on, and the house is still there. Quite impressive sight at night with the mountain ablaze. The winds take the fire uphill to barren rock and the fire ends. Like it or not, it is what they have always done....and may probably continue to do so. Possibly a new generation will change through education, rather than just repeat 'tradition'. However, forest food harvesting is still a vital part of seasonal survival in some rural areas. There is no way mountain fires can be reported or controlled which will have any effect. Added to this there is the knowledge that when the rains come, all will be clear again.

[vivid]

4 hours ago, Teak said:

Agreed, but it also clears the leaves and undergrowth so the young bamboo shoots can be harvested, as well as let you spot the scorpions and snakes better...It also make trails less slippery. However, years ago, walking off the mountain (Doi Pa Daeng) my brother in laws would randomly throw lit matches on either side of the trail, much to my concern, as I still have a teak house at the foot of the mountain. That was 30 years ago and it still goes on, and the house is still there. Quite impressive sight at night with the mountain ablaze. The winds take the fire uphill to barren rock and the fire ends. Like it or not, it is what they have always done....and may probably continue to do so. Possibly a new generation will change through education, rather than just repeat 'tradition'. However, forest food harvesting is still a vital part of seasonal survival in some rural areas. There is no way mountain fires can be reported or controlled which will have any effect. Added to this there is the knowledge that when the rains come, all will be clear again.

 

So what's their (your BILs) reason for throwing lit matches at the side of the trail all these years?   Not only them, but probably many of the thais as well.

 

Not blaming anyone, just curious to know....

[canuckamuck]

It's a good video, as far as it goes, the negatives of burning for outweigh the positives but there are other types of burning going on that it doesn't mention. In our area, which is all mountains, The majority of burning is agricultural.

People burn away new sections of the hillside so they can plant. Most of the burning here is for corn that goes to animal feed. But there are lots of other crops being tried recently since corn is not a money maker. There really isn't any other way to clear new land or land that has been left alone for years.  The animal feed industry is the reason for a lot of smoke. I do see some of the forest burning, the kind described in the video to clear the underbrush. But I would say that is only about 10 percent of the fires up here.

[Dinobot]

Good video. Since it’s not always easy to know which mushroom species is being served, I plan to just give up all mushrooms in Thailand (don’t eat them terribly often anyway). But from the sounds of it it’s not local consumption but the Chinese demand that needs to be curbed somehow.

[jak2002003]

All these problems seem to keep coming back to traditional Chinese medicine and just Chinese people wanting to eat wildlife and rare things.

 

Burning the forest and destroying the ecosystems, environment to get mushroom to sell to China.

 

Pangolins going extinct as they are smuggled over to China to be eaten.. same as tigers (for bones and skin), Rhino (for the horns) Asian beans for their bile, etc etc, etc...

 

Just read about a small dolphin that is going to go extinct only 10 left) because of them getting accidently caught in illegal nest used for illegal fishing of a critically endangered weird fish, which is caught for...…… Chinese traditional medicine.

 

There will be no hope for any wildlife or any stopping of the jungle here in Thailand if China does not stop this demand for their traditional medicine.