In the highland region of northern Thailand’s Chiang Mai province, the Indigenous Pgaz K’Nyau Karen community of Huay Ee Khang village relies on sacred and community-managed forests to maintain a spiritual and ecological balance. Church-free of outside exploitation and steeped in animist beliefs, the Karen link everyday life to the natural world—embedding rituals, prayers and customary rules into land

stewardship.

 

 

For example, newborns’ umbilical cords are carefully placed in containers hung from trees, forging a symbolic bond between child and forest. 

These traditional forests—such as “umbilical-cord forests”, women’s refuges and watersheds where logging, farming and hunting are forbidden—cover around 60 % of the 1,600 hectare territory surrounding the village. Within them, the Karen find up to 200 edible and medicinal plant species, and women in particular gain social and financial independence by harvesting herbs, dyes and forest foods. 

 

 

Yet this system faces serious threats. National conservation policies often lump the Karen’s small-scale rotational farming into “slash-and-burn” practices tied to deforestation, undermining their land rights and customs. The loss of farming knowledge also imperils seed diversity—with varieties shrinking from about 200 to just 80 in some cases. While Thailand’s new Ethnic Protection Bill marks progress for Indigenous rights and may support community-driven conservation, experts warn that without deep recognition of Indigenous worldviews, forests risk being viewed purely as resources instead of vibrant systems co-shaped by humans and nature. 

 

 

In sum, the Karen highland model offers an example of how spirituality, culture and ecological resilience intertwine—and how conservation efforts must respect Indigenous systems to succeed.

 

Key Takeaways:

 

Sacred forests managed by the Karen in northern Thailand support both cultural practices and biodiversity through traditional rituals and land-use systems.

 

Modern exclusionary conservation policies and declining traditional farming threaten seed diversity, cultural identity and environment health.

 

Legal recognition of Indigenous rights is advancing, but true conservation must integrate Indigenous perspectives—not just protect land, but also the people and beliefs linked to it.

 

 

Original article: 

 

https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/forest-sanctuaries-and-spiritual-balance-in-the-karen-highlands-of-thailand/

If only Thais had learned from them instead of cutting down all their forests.