In northern Thailand’s Ban Pong village, a group of women has spent nearly two decades restoring and guarding their community forest to prevent dry-season wildfires. From the restored forest, residents now harvest forest products to sell in markets and feed some of Ban Pong’s 7,100 residents, Mongabay staff writer Carolyn Cowan reported. Led by Rachaprapa Kamphud, the women work as frontline firefighters to reduce toxic wildfire smoke and keep the forest soil moist, allowing wild mushrooms, vegetables and other forest products to thrive. The food is harvested across the 40-hectare (100-acre) Ban Pong Community Forest, formerly a peanut farm. “When we started out, people were often surprised when they saw women like me venture out to extinguish blazes carrying heavy equipment,” Rachaprapa t

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