MQDC is dedicated to building sustainable happiness for all life under its principle of “For All Well-Being”. Responding to the wide-reaching social impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak, MQDC is using The Forestias, a real estate project for a city in the forest, to help relieve hardship, using forestry as the main means of assistance.

“Forest for Life” is a collaboration between the Buddharaksa Foundation, which is linking with communities, and the Royal Forest Department, which is sharing expertise in market gardening. The project aims to boost support for expanding green space in Thailand, to reconnect people and trees, to relieve hardship, and to develop market gardening as a sustainable livelihood for communities.

“Forest for Life” takes seedlings to a network of families who will grow them for about 90 days. Each household will receive 3 monthly installments of THB5,000 for a total of THB15,000.

After 3 months, the plants will be given to the people of Bangkok for creating green areas, to the urban seedling distribution program, and to the communities that grew them. Some trees will be planted at The Forestias to help create an urban forest.

Communities will care for 2 types of seedling:

1. Forest species including valuable trees such as teak, Afzelia xylocarpa, rosewood, Hopea odorata, mahogany, Dalbergia oliveri, Dolichandrone serrulata, and rosemary.

2. Herbs and vegetables that are easy to care for, have few pests, and can be consumed by the families, helping save money. Communities can sell what they don’t eat to generate income.

The chosen trees will benefit society sustainably and develop professional skills in both the short and long term. The value of wood will rise and those with expertise in raising seedlings can become self-employed workers while benefiting the environment through increasing green space.

Communities taking part in the scheme should have the following characteristics:

1. Located in or near Bangkok.

2. The community should have at least 20 households, with priority for communities in the greatest hardship. Each family must apply and pass the selection requirements as having suffered from the COVID-19 lockdown. No family members can have received help from government programs.

3. The households must have at least 20 square meters to grow seedlings or their community must provide an appropriate central location such as a temple or a school. The project will help provide water to the organization whose area is used.

4. Each family will care for 1,200 seedlings, of which 1,000 will be saplings and shrubs and 200 will be herbs and vegetables.

The project aims for 1,000 families to look after 1.2 million seedlings, divided into 2 phases. In each phase, 500 households will take care of 600,000 seedlings.