'It's gone': conservation science in Thailand's burning forest

Umphang, Thailand (AFP) April 4, 2025

Scientist Inna Birchenko began to cry as she described the smouldering protected forest in Thailand where she was collecting samples from local trees shrouded in wildfire smoke. "This beautiful, diverse community of trees and animals is being destroyed as you see it, as you watch it," she said. Birchenko, a geneticist at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, was collecting seeds and leaves in Umph