I would like to request assistance in correcting the categories for several locations in Thailand. They are currently misclassified as “National Park”, but according to official government classification, they are actually “Forest Park” (วนอุทยาน).
Despite submitting photo evidence of the official signs and trying alternative categories like “Nature preserve” or “Park”, all user edits are instantly rejected by the automated system. I have attached the screenshots of the immediate rejection and photos of the official signage for your reference.
Could a moderator please review and help update these categories to accurately reflect their status?
In Thailand, “National Park” and “Forest Park” are two distinct official classifications managed by the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP).
Here are the main differences:
National Park (อุทยานแห่งชาติ): These are large-scale protected areas with high ecological significance. They are established by Royal Decree, have strict laws, substantial tourist facilities (like visitor centers and accommodations), and usually charge official entrance fees for locals and tourists.
Forest Park (วนอุทยาน): These are smaller protected areas, often centered around a specific local natural feature (like a small cave or a waterfall). They are meant for local recreation, have very basic facilities, and generally do not charge entrance fees.
Since these locations are officially designated and clearly signposted as “Forest Parks” by the Thai government, labeling them as “National Parks” on Google Maps is factually incorrect and might mislead tourists regarding the scale, facilities, and fees.
I hope this clarifies the situation. Thank you for your help!
Thank you for checking the claimed status and for your explanation!
I understand that the exact category “Forest Park” does not exist in the system. However, leaving their category as “National Park” is highly misleading for tourists who might expect large-scale facilities and entrance fees.
Since we cannot use “Forest Park”, could you please help manually change their categories to simply “Park” or “Nature Preserve” instead? Either of these existing categories would be much more accurate than “National Park”.
Thx @Panupong1996 for that clarification. I had no idea about such an official classification
Given that explanation, I agree with you that the category can be misleading (although not in a way that there would be serious consequences), so it would be nice to change them from National park to Park.
I have therefore submitted an edit on the 1st link you provided (the detailed info you provided justifies the attempt - we are typically VERY hesitant to make edits simply because someone here in Connect asks it) and the edit has not been rejected straightaway - it is pending now, which means that a human will check the suggested edit.
In case you want to know more about the way edits are evaluated, you can listen to this podcast episode
Depending on the outcome of the first suggested edit, I will follow up for the other 2, no problem. The human review might take up a few weeks, though.
I just wanted to share a theory:
Suggesting a new category for a place is quite easy to get approved when moving from a general/not very specific category to a more specify category.
I wonder if moving to a less specific category is more difficult to get approved. It would make sense to me as higher specificity normally means higher data quality.
To keep the community organized, I removed the “Accessibility” tag from your topic as it doesn’t fit with what you shared as your topic is not focusing on accessibility.
