Northern Thailand - Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Northern Thailand - page 955

Thais are social eaters: meals are rarely taken alone and dishes are meant to be shared.
Usually a small army of plates will be placed in the centre of the table, with individual
servings of rice in front of each diner. The protocol goes like this: ladle a spoonful of food
at a time onto your plate of rice. Using the spoon like a fork and your fork like a knife,
steer the food (with the fork) onto your spoon, which enters your mouth.
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Environment
Like all countries with a high population density, there is enormous pressure on Thail-
and's ecosystems: 50 years ago about 70% of the countryside was forest, it's now 28%. In
response to environmental degradation, the Thai government has created a large number
of protected areas since the 1970s. Following devastating floods, exacerbated by soil
erosion, logging was banned in 1989.
Though Thailand has a better record than most of its neighbours at protecting en-
dangered species, corruption hinders the efforts and the country is a popular conduit for
the illegal wildlife trade.