Introduction The linkages between levels of democracy and effective environmental governance are suggested by observing their effects on a global scale over the last century. Despite the limited success of relatively democratic countries in providing effective environmental governance, this failure pales in comparison to the environmental destruction wrought in many less democratic countries such as those of the Communist Eastern Bloc. Although some relatively illiberal states, such as Singapore, are taking greater steps towards effective environmental governance, there is now virtually universal acceptance within the environmental politics literature that a deepening of democratic values is the best way to address environmental issues (Dryzek et al. 2003; Hay 2002; Paehlke 2005). Nevertheless, environmental governance in a greater part of Asia is undertaken within a broader societal frame of authoritarian governance (Beeson 2010; Doyle and Simpson 2006), sometimes despite the institutions of democracy. Thailand is an exemplar of this situation, having a long, albeit chequered, history of nominally democratic governance and competition curtailed by authoritarian tendencies that run deep, both within its ruling classes and other parts of society (Chachavalpongpun 2014; Farrelly 2013). In early 2014 the second military coup in eight years again severely interrupted its democratic development.