Culture, Forest, and the Future: Bancha Muhae

Bancha Muhae, also known as Deporthu, is a Pgakenyaw community leader from Doi Chang Pa Pae village in Lamphun Province. He grew up surrounded by mountains, forests, and ancestral knowledge, and learned early that cultural heritage can be both deeply resilient and quietly vulnerable.

As climate change and modern pressures began to affect daily life, Bancha saw the risk of traditions fading alongside the forests that sustained them. 

Rather than resist change, he chose to shape it. Working with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), he helped develop a model of ecotourism that protects the environment while respecting the community’s way of life.

His work began close to home. Bancha encouraged family members to monitor fire risks in the village, using simple tools to reduce damage before it started. Over time, these efforts expanded across the community.

In 2020, Doi Chang Pa Pae was officially designated a Cultural Conservation Zone, with support from UNESCO through the “Field School for Capacity-Building in Safeguarding Living Heritage of Ethnic Communities” project. Residents strengthened their resource-management skills, including the installation of sprinkler-based firebreak systems. Cooperation among ethnic communities in northern Thailand also grew, helping pass local knowledge to younger generations.

Alongside conservation, the community developed homestays and small-scale tourism programmes that share daily life, traditions, and forest stewardship with visitors. The approach has created steady livelihoods while keeping cultural and natural heritage intact. The work has since gained recognition at both national and international levels, particularly in discussions on ethnic community rights.

For Bancha, conservation is not about preserving the past unchanged. It is about building forward, with roots.

“Technology can show us new perspectives on nature,” he says, “but culture teaches us how to care for it.”