Tech-equipped Indigenous firefighters protect Thai forests

Across about a dozen villages in the hills of Doi Suthep-Pui National Park, just above the city of Chiang Mai, Indigenous volunteers patrol on foot and clear firebreaks while also deploying drones and treetop cameras -- all to detect blazes early and defend Thailand's second-largest city from wildfire smoke.

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The blazes lasted weeks in March and April that year, killing at least five people and injuring and displacing residents and wildlife. The thick smoke from fires then and since has regularly pushed Chiang Mai to the top of global air pollution rankings.

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The Hmong, an Indigenous ethnic group originally from the mountains of southern China, have lived on these slopes in northern Thailand since migrating in the mid-20th century. Volunteer teams roar through the hills on motorbikes, blasting away leaves with blowers and drowning out the buzz of a drone capturing footage of the blaze-prone landscape.

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The community receives only around 50,000 baht annually in government funding -- an amount the local chief, Mathaphan, said is insufficient. Still, their volunteer-based approach to fire prevention has become a model for other communities, he said -- helping shift perceptions of Hmong villagers who are often blamed for deforestation and "destructive" farming practices. "We are not destroying the forest," Mathaphan said. "We are protecting it."