The country of Thailand is absolutely stunning with vast forests and an

abundance of plant life. The country itself covers almost 513,113 sq. km the hot and
a humid climate has allowed rainforests to flourish intertwining with freshwater
systems. Within these freshwater systems is where animal life thrives. The country
also has a coastal ecosystem that lies off the 2,000m coastline along the country.
This coastline consists of chains of islands surrounded by coral reefs and sandy
beaches that all house great amounts of plant and animal life. This plant and animal
life within the country of Thailand holds over eight percent of the worlds plant
species (Biodiversity).
The biodiversity of the land gives the country of Thailand many advantages.
Economically the country uses its water system to its benefit. The country uses
these rivers as a means of transportation and trade. Also based of the world fact
book the major production industries within Thailand are agriculturally based
(World Factbook). Also religions within Thailand take great pride in the nature of
the country. Buddhism for example is a religion that places heavy weight on rebirth
and karma. Many people that practice Buddhism believe that rebirth can only be
achieved from bettering yourself and many people achieve this through
experiencing and appreciating nature. Many Buddhists practice theses ideas of
bettering oneself by refraining from taking any life in any way. These ancient
Buddhist ways have been derived from the appreciation of the natural world and its
essential makeup of plant and animal life and nothing should harm such things
(Buddhist).

With that being said Thailand relies greatly on the land in emotional and
physical ways. And the country struggles with major threats to its biodiversity.
These threats include things like coral bleaching, wetland loss and destruction of
forests. In 2000 33% of the country costing close to 5,000 million dollars in
damages. Coral bleaching as well has great affects on the country in obvious ways.
These great coral reefs surrounding the countrys coastline hold a large amount of
ecosystems and marine life. With both forests and coral reefs diminishing over time
gradually the ecosystems found within these vegetations will diminish as well
(Biodiversity).
That is the economic side of threats to Thailands biodiversity. On another
level as I explained above the main religion of Thailand being Buddhist how are
these people expected to practice if they have no surrounding nature to inspire
them? The religion is based off the natural world and living simply within that
natural world and with thirty three percent of the vegetation burned away in forest
fires this makes it very difficult to illustrate such ideas.

Above is a graph that was within the article that shows the devastating affects of
these forest fires that I explained earlier.
The diverse land of Thailand provides the country with many different
opportunities. The people of Thailand use these resources in economic and religious
means and rely heavily on these things. The country thrives because of this but
these resources need to be protected in order to keep the country stable.

Works Cited
A Buddhist Concept of Nature. (n.d.). Retrieved November 19, 2014, from
http://www.dalailama.com/messages/environment/buddhist-concept-of-nature
(n.d.). Retrieved November 19, 2014, from https://www.cbd.int/doc/world/th/th-nr-01-p2en.pdf
(n.d.). Retrieved November 19, 2014, from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-worldfactbook/geos/th.html