Nan

Nan was Thailand's last independent kingdom, absorbed into Siam only in 1931. For centuries before, this remote valley—surrounded by the Phlueng Range to the west and the Luang Prabang Range to the east—maintained autonomy through inaccessibility. Lanna influence arrived in the 14th century; Burmese control came and went; but Nan's rulers kept their distance from Bangkok until distance itself became anachronistic.

The teak built this isolation's wealth. Nan Province holds some of Thailand's most extensive teak forests—61.3% of provincial area remains forested—and during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the logging trade constructed impressive teak houses for nobility. Over 75 companies still process teak today. But the wealth proved unsustainable: Nan now suffers Thailand's highest unemployment rate and heaviest household debt. Hill tribes have converted 1.5 million rai of forest to cornfields, and deforestation continues despite national declines elsewhere.

The province exemplifies resource curse dynamics at the local level. The 37.6 billion baht economy (2022) cannot generate sufficient employment; annual household income hovers around $7,000. Tourism contributed 30% of GDP in 2016, with visitors seeking the temples and teak houses that the logging wealth created. RECOFTC now pilots sustainable forestry approaches here, trying to convert illegal cultivation back to legal, traceable teak production. Nan's future depends on whether the forests that built its past can survive its present.