Wanakaset Forest Gardening, a Thai system of integrated polycultures that mimics and parallels natural forests while including valued food and economic crops and building and restoring knowledge of the values of all species whether planted or which come in the ecological regeneration process, as documented, not only contain a high diversity of species in the system, but provide habitat, fodder, favorable microclimate and conditions for pollinators and wildlife. In the last decades, where these systems are centered around a key economic crop, such as coffee, cacao, rubber, or coconuts, that integrates well in these forest garden polycultures improving quality and productivity- particularly when faced with climatic stress, these practices and their recognition and adoption by farmer communities has started to take off. As these systems also provide multiple yields both for home- family use, local markets, and larger markets, and require little to no external inputs once established, they reduce costs, increase household income and economic resilience in particular, and promote nutritional security and community self-reliance (for food, herbal medicine, materials) These systems while innovative and adaptable, draw from a long body of practice and knowledge- such as the "Som Rom" forest garden practices of Southern Thailand, that connect with very similar systems in other parts of wet tropical South and SE Asia. Similar practices can be observed in other parts of the world such as the Maya Forest Gardens of Guatemala and Belize, a living tradition / practice well documented by Dr. Anabel Ford.
Mr. Michael Commons