The best teak in Thailand

The Karen house on the right is built of teak, while the other is a typical construction.

Somroutai Sapsomboon

The Nation

Mae Hong Son

 The 62,000-rai forest of the Pai River Basin Wildlife Reserve in Mae Hong Son was last month declared Thailand's most fertile teak growth - and its loftiest, with trees growing at 1,300 metres above sea level.

 These are both records: Phrae's Kaeng Sua Ten National Park had previously been considered the home of the country's biggest teak forest, but it's "only" 40,000 rai, and the highest elevation for teak was thought to be 750 metres.

 Jakkraphan Sakulmeerit of the government's Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation says the teak trees of Mae Hong Son are on average in "the most complete condition", with a minimum height of 40 metres and circumference of four metres at chest height.

 Most of trees' trunks are straight and round, with fewer branches and narrower brush at the top, he says.

 The forest is remote enough that it wasn't officially documented until 2002, and even then its existence was kept secret to keep loggers away.

It can only be reached by raft on the Khong and Pai rivers and then by foot.

 A four-year management plan was approved last year and the area was registered as a forest reserve.

 Teak seedlings have been secured for future cultivation for both conservation and business purposes, Jakkraphan says.

 And the management plan includes reviving the once-well-known term "Siam Teak" to describe the fine quality of the trees in the forest.

 The challenge now is to protect the reserve from both loggers and area residents who often extend their farms into forests, cutting down trees to make way for crops.

 Arresting people is not seen as an effective way to stop such encroachment. Forest rangers in the Pai River Basin Wildlife Reserve are instead talking to area residents and asking for their cooperation.

 Chief ranger Suwit Naosawas says there are more patrols now, but keeping the farmers away remains the key problem.

 Officials have had success in recruiting the villagers - mostly hilltribe people - into the forest service, he says.

 Buntham Somphol, a Karen and a volunteer scout, now finds himself shunned by fellow tribe members who want to strip some areas of the forest, but, he says, "I'm still willing to keep working as a scout."

 His village was established 20 years ago and has since doubled in population to 300.

 Although Buntham declines to acknowledge any overt encroachment, many of the village houses are made with large teak timbers, unlike the typical Karen home of small boards and dried branches.

 Teak has a long history of use in Mae Hong Son. A teak coffin found in the Lord Cave, discovered a decade ago, was found to be 2,080 years old.