Thai highlands

The Thai Highlands are mountains in the north of Thailand that extend through Laos, Burma and China to link to the Himalayas, of which they may be considered foothills.

Inhabitation

They have been inhabited with hilltribes who immigrated into the empty region fleeing persecution in their respective Chinese or Tibeto-Burman environments, or simply seeking new land for their shifting agricultural productions system. At higher altitutudes, above about 1,000m, a principle crop was opium until the 1990s, when the combined effects of development became evident - from the construction of roads into the remote area, integration of these non-Thai persons into the Thai nation, increasingly efficient policing, and opium replacement programs.

Environment

The environment is tropical mountain with clearly delineated wet and dry seasons, cool winter temperatures (frosts occur most years at higher elevations) and a mixed vegetation resulting from capacity of the efficient shifting agricultural system being exceeded and large areas becoming dominated by "Imperta cylindrica" grass, which is used throughout Thailand as roofing material. Cattle can graze on the grass to an extent, as agricultural science research in the 1970s defined, but the longer term environmental care of the region is associated with forestry and in the lower reaches, perennial fruit and other trees.

References

*Cattle and Sheep in Northern Thailand; (1979) Lindsay Falvey104p; Chiang Mai. 104pp