As Thailand ramps up its palm oil sector, peat forests feel the pressure
Thailand is aiming to increase its domestic palm oil production by up to 50 per cent over the next nine years while at the same time trying to reclaim encroached peat forest from smallholders.
“Look, the peat here is so deep” 61-year-old Preecha Chimtong, a smallholder farmer growing oil palm on his 49-rai (about 20-acre) farm in southern Thailand’s Chumphon province.