Root Garden is a project run by Plick Feun Puen Din Thai (Land Reform in Thailand), an NGO that promotes four land-related laws that create opportunities for poor and small-scale land owners and farmers — the Progressive Land Tax Bill, the National Land Bank Bill, the Community Land Title Bill and the Justice Fund Bill.
The idea of Root Garden, which showcases efficient land use, was conceived by 29-year-old Eakdanai Wongwattana.
“Most land is possessed by a small group of wealthy people. Plenty of land plots were left unused, while many people don’t own any at all,” said Eakdanai. “However, land is not just property — it’s essential to life, and affects food and security.”
In order to push these bills into the parliamentary process, members of the NGO believe that social support, especially from Bangkokians, is important. Thailand’s constitution allows 10,000 people to sign a petition pushing for a law that concerns the public good. Plick Feun Puen Din Thai’s movement, however, aims for 1 million signatures.
“We want to communicate with city people that there is an easy way to make the use of land by transforming a seemingly useless area into a garden,” said Warut Boontarig, 25 the garden’s manager and a graduate of the Faculty of Law, Thammasat University.
While the team was searching for land it could use to launch the project, it spotted an abandoned, weed-filled area in Thong Lor. Luckily, the land belonged to the Jayavana Foundation, which does charity work for children and the rural poor. The foundation was willing to help, and granted the team a one-year contract.