Thailand’s Pursuit of Global Arboriculture: Aspirations, Comparisons, and Reflections

Paper Abstract: Arboriculture, the scientific field of urban tree care, is increasingly adopted by Asian countries, including Thailand. An example of this emerging interest is Thai civic actors’ capacity building initiatives to introduce arboricultural knowledge and hands-on techniques to the country from overseas. Despite the support of tree care experts, the Bangkok city government, and various Thai authorities, setbacks and conflicts have followed. Drawing on interviews and information from secondary sources, this study examines how the setbacks impacted the Thai civic actors’ pursuit of world-leading arboricultural expertise. I first demonstrate the key civic actors’ aspirations to improve urban greening practices in Thailand with international best practices and facilitate Thai practitioners to be globetrotting experts. Within this context, I further examine how the key actors compared the achievements of neighbouring Asian countries, emulated the Taiwanese pathway, and considered essential lessons from earlier setbacks to create unique hybrid certifications for Thai arborists. Based on these findings, I argue for more attention to local reflections on adopting world-leading expertise and more creative explorations of unsuccessful attempts to advance our comprehension of translocal knowledge circulation.