Horticulture
In addition to reforestation, Doi Tung Development Project provides agricultural training in the more detailed aspects of plant cultivation, such as the cultivation and care of decorative plants. Part of the decorative plants grown by the villagers are used in the landscaping of the Mae Fah Luang Garden and the Mae Fah Luang Arboretum (at Doi Chang Moob) to provide colourful floral gardens all year round. This is in line with the Princess Mother’s royal initiative that visitors who have never travelled overseas can still have an opportunity to enjoy temperate climate flowers throughout the year.
Horticultural development that includes research, the propagation of rare plant species, and plant tissue cultivation have helped to create jobs and income for the local communities, allowing them to support themselves and their families, while helping nature to regenerate.
Doi Tung Lady’s Slipper
The Lady’s Slipper orchid is indigenous to Doi Tung, but due to deforestation and poaching in the past, the number of Lady’s Slipper orchids was reduced drastically, to the point of near extinction. The Princess Mother initiated the idea of Lady’s Slipper propagation to replenish the forests.
The Mae Fah Luang Foundation under Royal Patronage began conducting studies and collecting Lady’s Slipper varieties in 1994 in an effort to preserve the Lady’s Slipper orchid from disappearing from Thailand’s forests, and to create a greater awareness of this orchid species which would lead to an increased interest among orchid enthusiasts for the cultivation, development and propagation of this orchid as a sustainable and marketable product without adversely affecting the natural environment.