Trees destroyed for hillside rice cultivation. Rice is grown for 2-3 years on steep slopes, until the soil is exhausted. The fields are then abandoned and more forest land is cleared to create new fields for cultivating crops. - - FAO/UNDP Integrated Watershed Management and Forest Land Use Project. The great forests of Thailand are being rapidly destroyed by people desperately in need of land for cultivation. This problem of deforestation is extremely serious for the entire country as Thailand's main water supply is created in these forests of the north. With the forests rapidly shrinking, Thailand is having to face severe floods and droughts in the lowlands. To combat this problem, the Royal Forestry Department of the Government Ministry of Forests requested FAO/UNDP assistance, and the Integrated Watershed Management and Forest Land Use Project was set up with headquarters in Chiang Mai. The pilot demonstration centre was established in a mountain region beyond Chiang Mai called Mai Sa.