Mae Fah Luang Foundation Convenes MFLF Sustainability Forum 2026

Mae Fah Luang Foundation Convenes MFLF Sustainability Forum 2026

Bringing Together Government, Business, Academia and Civil Society Leaders to Advance “Natural Capital” as a New Economic Foundation

Connecting Policy, Business, Finance and Communities to Turn Nature Positive from Concept into Action

           When nature is no longer simply a matter of conservation, but also economic infrastructure, a source of business risk and a form of capital that will shape the country’s future, it must become part of how development decisions are made.

           Against this backdrop, the Mae Fah Luang Foundation under Royal Patronage (MFLF) convened the MFLF Sustainability Forum 2026 for the fourth consecutive year as a central platform connecting knowledge, policy, finance and experience from real-world implementation. More than 500 participants from nearly 100 organizations across government, business, finance, academia, civil society and communities came together to advance a “Nature-based Economy” — an economy that grows on the foundation of nature — from the policy level and corporate financial statements and investment plans, all the way to creating income and greater security for communities that safeguard natural resources.

           Held under the theme “Nature Positive: Making Nature the New Normal,” MFLF Sustainability Forum 2026 was officially opened by Thanphuying Putrie Viravaidya, Chairperson of the Mae Fah Luang Foundation under Royal Patronage. She was joined by members of the Foundation’s Board of Directors, M.L. Dispanadda Diskul, Secretary-General and Chief Executive Officer of the Mae Fah Luang Foundation under Royal Patronage, and representatives from across sectors at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center in Bangkok on 27 August 2026.

           Thanphuying Putrie said that the environmental crisis, degradation of natural resources and increasingly severe disasters are having direct impacts on the economy, society, health and people’s quality of life. Nature, therefore, cannot be separated from development; it is the foundation of life and the entire economic system.

           “Making nature the new normal is not a burden on development. It is about designing a future in which nature functions as infrastructure that strengthens food security, reduces disaster risks and creates new and sustainable economic opportunities.”

           Dr. Raweewan Bhuridej, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, said in her keynote address that the world is confronting three interconnected environmental crises: climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss. Thailand must therefore move beyond merely reducing negative impacts towards a Nature Positive approach that halts nature loss and genuinely restores ecosystems.

           The government is accelerating the development of the policy and legal architecture required to support this transition. This includes a draft Biodiversity Act, comprising eight chapters and 63 sections, as well as a proposed biodiversity development fund and mechanisms governing access to and utilization of biological resources, together with fair and equitable benefit-sharing.

           At the same time, Nature Positive is being integrated into the draft 14th National Economic and Social Development Plan for 2028–2032 through a range of instruments, including Nature-based Solutions (NbS), the designation of Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs), Natural Capital Accounting (NCA), the creation of added value from biological resources through the Bioeconomy, as well as Green Loans and Biodiversity Credits designed to mobilize private capital for nature conservation and restoration.

           Thailand has also set a target to increase terrestrial and marine protected areas, including OECMs, to at least 30% of the country’s area by 2030. At present, 22 OECM sites covering approximately 161.74 square kilometres have been recognized, while a further four potential OECM sites cover approximately 856.69 square kilometres.

           The government has also linked financial mechanisms to national sustainability targets through Sustainability Bonds and Sustainability-Linked Bonds. Key indicators include reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 152 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2035, representing a 47% reduction from 2019 levels, as well as achieving the target of protecting 30% of the country’s area by 2030.

           Dr. Raweewan emphasized that biodiversity should not be viewed solely as a cost. With clear legislation, robust data systems and transparent benefit-sharing mechanisms, biodiversity can drive research, innovation and commercial development, creating a new S-Curve for Thailand’s economy.

           “Nature Positive is not the responsibility of the government alone. It requires collaboration among businesses, communities and organizations to turn biodiversity into both national resilience and new economic opportunities.”

Nature Positive Business: Business Strategies in an Era Where Nature Is a Partner

           The Nature Positive Business panel highlighted how nature is simultaneously a resource on which businesses depend, a risk that must be managed and an opportunity to create new value. Nature must therefore be incorporated into urban design, water management, supply chains and long-term investment, rather than treated as an activity separate from core business operations.

           Mr. Panote Sirivadhanabhakdi, Group Chief Executive Officer of Frasers Property Limited, said cities account for as much as 60% of carbon emissions. Real estate development must therefore look beyond financial returns and bring nature and biodiversity back into urban environments, including green spaces, plant species, birds and ecosystems that have often been removed from conventional design in the interest of easier maintenance.

            “We need to maximize the use of real estate, use less land more efficiently, and make nature better. That is at the heart of value creation.”

            Ms. Jareeporn Jarukornsakul, Chairman of the Executive Committee and Group Chief Executive Officer of WHA Corporation PCL., said industrial estate development must consider people, forests and cities together. Large-scale developments inevitably affect waterways, ecosystems and surrounding communities. If an industrial estate blocks the natural flow of water, communities downstream will immediately feel the impact — and ultimately that impact will return as a business risk.

            Development must therefore begin with an understanding of both nature and communities, while environmental action should be regarded as an investment that generates returns rather than an additional cost.

            “ESG is not a cost. It is an investment, and investment must generate a return. Green has to be economically viable, because if green cannot sustain livelihoods, it cannot last. And if we start first, we can become leaders and help shape the rules.”

           Mr. Saravoot Yoovidhya, Chief Executive Officer of TCP Group, said that although natural resources do not appear on corporate balance sheets, they are fundamental to the beverage business — from water and sugar to energy and materials used in packaging.

            Resource management must therefore extend beyond the factory to communities, suppliers and the entire watershed. When communities are affected, businesses and consumer purchasing power are affected as well.

            “We cannot look after only our own products, and this does not end at the factory gate. Businesses must help ensure that the surrounding ecosystems, suppliers and communities can continue to move forward as well.”

Nature Positive Society: From Mountains, Through Rivers, to the Sea — Understanding to Drive Change

            The Nature Positive Society panel demonstrated that ecosystems have no boundaries. Changes in mountain ecosystems affect rivers and ultimately flow downstream to coastal areas and the sea, with consequences for food security and community incomes.

            Environmental management must therefore take an ecosystem-wide approach, supported by data, science and mechanisms that enable communities to manage natural resources over the long term.

            Assoc. Prof. Dr. Apinun Suvarnaraksha, Dean of the Faculty of Fisheries Technology and Aquatic Resources at Maejo University, said many rivers are facing contamination, sediment accumulation and the loss of aquatic habitats. When rocks and the substrates supporting plankton disappear from riverbeds, aquatic insects and small fish disappear with them, leaving some stretches of river as little more than “rivers of sand” with almost no life remaining.

            The Yom River alone is capable of producing more than four million kilograms of fish each year, illustrating the economic value and food security provided by healthy rivers. Yet approximately 85% of freshwater fish consumed today are non-native species, which could have long-term impacts on indigenous fish populations and biodiversity.

            “If we listen to the fish, we can hear the river. When fish and other aquatic life disappear, it means the river is losing its ability to sustain people’s lives.”

            Mr. Banjong Narupornmethee, Chairperson of the Ban Pru Chut Fish Cage Farming Community Enterprise in Trang Province, said planting mangroves or seagrass may only provide a short-term solution if there is no mechanism enabling communities to continue caring for them.

            Restoration must therefore build understanding, community rules, livelihoods and income — for example through community-based tourism — so local people have the capacity to continue protecting resources even after external support comes to an end.

           “We are not simply planting seagrass. We have to plant seagrass in people’s hearts, while using data and science as our compass so communities understand how to restore nature without interfering excessively with the ecosystem.”

            Mr. Thanit Kongkaew, Director of Sustainability at the Mae Fah Luang Foundation under Royal Patronage, said that although the Doi Tung Development Project has successfully restored forests and increased local incomes by around 30 times compared with the project’s early years, the challenges facing the area have changed.

            Instead of poverty and degraded forests, communities are now dealing with increasing climate volatility, including summer storms, hailstorms and landslides that are becoming more severe and frequent.

            Field data showed that when a summer storm struck, a forest dominated by a single pine species suffered damage to as much as 80% of its treetops, while a nearby forest with greater plant diversity suffered only 2% damage. This demonstrates that biodiversity is not merely valuable for conservation; it provides resilience that helps ecosystems withstand disasters.

            “Nature does not exist in separate compartments. A change in one place can reverberate throughout an entire system. Caring for people, forests, water and biodiversity therefore has to happen together, in an integrated way and within the ecological boundaries that nature itself has defined.”

Nature Positive Finance: Natural Capital as a New Foundation for Sustainable Financial Growth

            The Nature Positive Finance panel highlighted the enormous imbalance between finance flowing into activities that negatively affect nature and finance directed towards nature restoration.

            The ratio is approximately 30 to 1, with around THB 260 trillion a year flowing towards activities with negative impacts on nature, compared with approximately THB 7 trillion annually for nature restoration.

            The financial sector must therefore bring natural capital into data systems, risk assessment, disclosure and capital allocation in a tangible and systematic way.

            Mr. Kwanpadh Suddhi-Dhamakit, Senior Country Officer for World Bank Thailand, said nature is “economic infrastructure.” Yet existing accounting systems do not reflect the extent to which GDP growth may occur alongside the degradation of nature.

            Natural Capital Accounting is therefore an important tool for measuring the quantity and condition of natural resources and the ecosystem services they provide, before using this information for risk assessment and financial decision-making.

           “If we think of Thailand as a company, natural capital is like its machinery. The more it is used, the more it deteriorates. If we fail to maintain or restore that machinery, eventually it will no longer be able to produce anything for us.”

            Ms. Chananun Supadulya, Director of the Financial Institutions Strategy Department at the Bank of Thailand, said nature degradation can transmit risks to businesses and financial institutions through both physical risks, such as natural disasters and resource scarcity, and transition risks arising from new global regulations and standards.

            One example is the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which requires agricultural products exported to the European Union to be traceable and verified as not originating from deforested land.

            Thailand can build on its existing climate finance infrastructure and extend it towards Nature Finance through frameworks such as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and Thailand Taxonomy. The challenge, however, is that nature impacts are highly location-specific and therefore more difficult to measure.

            “The key is to make the impacts measurable and to connect those impacts on nature back to products and the decisions people make in their everyday lives in a tangible way.”

            Mr. Pipit Aneaknithi, Chairman of Global Sustainability at KASIKORNBANK Public Company Limited, said there is no need to wait until the Nature Positive market or every regulatory framework is fully developed before taking action.

            If stakeholders share a common intent, they can begin immediately by establishing disclosure standards, common rules, risk-reduction mechanisms and incentives to mobilize private capital towards addressing structural challenges. He proposed four principles for driving progress: target, measure, incentivize and scale.

            “New rules may take ten years to materialize, but capital can move immediately. Today’s externalities can become tomorrow’s natural assets.”

           Ms. Sarinee Achavanuntakul, Executive Director of Climate Finance Network Thailand (CFNT), said Nature Finance must aim to restore nature to a condition better than before.

            The carbon credit model should not simply be applied directly to biodiversity because ecosystems are location-specific and one area cannot be substituted for another. Indicators must therefore be simple enough for financial institutions to use, but not so simplistic that they facilitate greenwashing.

           "Money loses value as it is spent, but nature gains value as it is restored. What we need to measure is therefore not simply the number of trees planted, but the health and integrity of the ecosystem that has been restored.”

Five Community Businesses Show How Natural Capital Can Create Local Economic Opportunities

            Another major session showcased the outcomes of five community businesses selected as finalists in the 2026 Sustainable Community Business Leadership Incubation Program.

            The initiative builds on livelihoods created under the Carbon Credit from Community Forests for Sustainability Project, with the objective of transforming carbon credit revenues into seed capital for businesses, income generation and green local economies that communities can sustain independently.

            The five businesses demonstrated how natural capital and local environmental challenges can be turned into economic opportunities.

            Their approaches ranged from returning business income to community forest management, creating livelihoods for women affected by changes in the Mekong River, transforming marine waste into creative products, converting dry leaves into soil-enrichment materials while reducing wildfire risks, and turning plastic waste into energy for the agricultural sector.

            The session reinforced the principle that conservation can only be sustainable when communities are not merely recipients of financial support, but are able to become entrepreneurs who generate income, manage capital and reinvest profits into the natural resources under their care.

            This enables people to thrive while forests survive, while strengthening local economies at the same time.

Building a Nature-based Economy

            M.L. Dispanadda Diskul, Secretary-General and Chief Executive Officer of the Mae Fah Luang Foundation under Royal Patronage, said in his closing remarks that the Foundation has long worked with the reality that “when people are hungry, forests disappear.”

            As long as people lack choices and income, forests will continue to be used as a means of survival. Yet lessons from all the Forum’s sessions show that this equation does not have to remain true if forests and the environment can become part of income generation and business.

           “I would like everyone to imagine a balance scale. On one side is development and on the other are natural resources. The triangle underneath that keeps the scale in balance is people. All of us determine which way that balance will move.”

            M.L. Dispanadda called on all sectors to work together to build a Nature-based Economy, or an economy that grows on the foundation of nature.

            The process begins with assessing the value of and impacts on nature through Natural Capital Accounting, disclosing businesses’ resource use and environmental impacts transparently, and incorporating this information into balance sheets, financial statements and investment plans.

           The same information can then be used in risk assessments and to direct capital towards conservation, restoration and income creation for communities responsible for managing natural resources.

            This process would allow businesses to see both the “yolk” — the resources directly used and the direct impacts of their operations — and the “white” — the wider impacts extending across value chains, communities and surrounding ecosystems.

            It would also help bridge the gaps between businesses, financiers, government agencies and communities, with nature serving as the common link among them.

            “We have to shift our perspective from seeing nature as an expense to seeing nature restoration as an investment whose returns can be measured. The question is: what is the Cost of Inaction? If we fail to act today, there may come a time when no amount of money will be enough to solve the problem, because we will simply have run out of time.”

            In addition to valuing nature and integrating it into the economic system, M.L. Dispanadda proposed advancing the recognition of Nature Rights — the rights of nature — so that nature has the right to restore itself and maintain the integrity of ecosystems, rather than being viewed solely as a resource that humans are entitled to exploit.

            “We often talk about human rights. But when we talk about Human Rights, perhaps we focus too much on ourselves. Today, I would like to add another right: Nature Rights — the rights of nature. How can we give nature the right to restore itself and the right to regenerate its ecosystems, so that all of us can live better lives and have a better future?”

From Forum Discussions to Practical Action

            In addition to the main sessions, four afternoon activities provided participants with opportunities to explore practical tools and approaches for applying Nature Positive principles within their own organizations.

            These included Business & Biodiversity 101, co-hosted with PwC Thailand; Climate Adaptation & Climate Risk Assessment, co-hosted with PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited (PTTEP); Water Stewardship, co-hosted with TCP Group; and an ESG Clinic, co-hosted with KASIKORNBANK Public Company Limited.

            The sessions were designed to connect insights from the main Forum with practical approaches to risk assessment, strategy development and implementation within the specific context of each organization.

            MFLF Sustainability Forum 2026 therefore went beyond the exchange of ideas. It laid out an interconnected pathway for action — from legislation and national targets, to the assessment and disclosure of natural capital, the integration of nature-related information into business and financial decisions, the design of financing mechanisms that channel capital to local areas, and the creation of livelihoods that enable people to care for nature sustainably.

           Ultimately, a business that seeks to grow sustainably must bring nature into the equation as a fundamental factor in its growth.

            This is no longer something we can afford to ignore.

ข่าวภาษาไทย / Thai Version

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