• THAILAND

  Seeds of hope in forest fight

  Spectrum, Piyaporn Wongruang, Published on 14/07/2013

  » Thap Lan National Park chief Taywin Meesap guides a team of rangers to a plot showing some signs of progress in the battle to win back land lost to forest encroachment.

• THAILAND

  Wild elephants on the edge of existence

  Spectrum, Piyaporn Wongruang, Published on 13/04/2014

  » ‘Stop the truck and turn the lights off now!” shouted 57-year-old Somporn Mee-im to his colleague, Mai, driving the pickup.

• THAILAND

  Tigers' final frontier

  Spectrum, Piyaporn Wongruang, Published on 23/02/2014

  » Park ranger Onsa peers out from under his cap and raises an antenna, scanning for radio signals from deep in the thick forests of Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary.

• THAILAND

  Paving a piece of paradise

  Spectrum, Piyaporn Wongruang, Published on 27/10/2013

  » Dech Khieonarong is one of many residents of Tak's Umphang district who cheered when the government announced it was reviving a plan to construct a new road from Khlong Lan to the remote town in the midst of a protected wilderness. Weary of traversing the 164km of arduous road with, by his count, more than 1,000 hairpin curves, he volunteered to head a committee of locals to push for the construction of the ''new'' Khlong Lan-Umphang road, a large part of which was actually constructed more than 40 years ago by the military as part of its efforts to suppress communist insurgents. The military managed to cut 115km of road through the deep forest inside Mae Wong National Park, 30km from Umphang in the 1970s. The military backed off on completing the road to Umphang because of objections that it would compromise the Western Forest Complex. Over the years the military road fell into disuse and is now overgrown and impassable in some places.

• THAILAND

  A different killer lurking in the forest

  Spectrum, Piyaporn Wongruang, Published on 29/09/2013

  » Yoo-ae, 18, could not decide whether or not to leave the cemetery. The Karen girl's mother and friends were urging her to go, but she replied, ''No, I want to stay a little longer,'' her eyes filling with tears.

• THAILAND

  A lesson in sustainability

  Spectrum, Piyaporn Wongruang, Published on 06/10/2013

  » The long-term Chiew Larn reservoir study can serve as a template for other threatened forest ecosystems in the Kingdom, said Petch Manopawitr, conservation programme manager at WWF Thailand.

• THAILAND

  Talking the walk

  Spectrum, Piyaporn Wongruang, Published on 13/10/2013

  » Seub Nakhasathien Foundation secretary-general Sasin Chalermlarp, 45, made headlines three weeks ago after undertaking an unprecedented long-distance walk to protest against the planned dam in Mae Wong National Park. The journey took him from Nakhon Sawan province to the heart of Bangkok, where he was welcomed by thousands of supporters. Spectrum interviewed him after the mission was completed.

• OPINION

  Compromised solution won't win the day against forest encroachers

  News, Piyaporn Wongruang, Published on 09/06/2013

  » This month marks the two-year anniversary of the start of an unprecedented crackdown on forest encroachment by large resort developments in Thap Lan National Park. But after a series of spectacular raids led by park chief Taywin Meesap, some of them involving hundreds of rangers in night-time operations, the forest take-back operation has languished. The chief reason for this is the retirement of Damrong Pidech last year as head of the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department. Mr Damrong gave Mr Taywin his full backing.

• THAILAND

  Killed for luck _ the sick new twist in big game poaching

  Spectrum, Piyaporn Wongruang, Published on 16/06/2013

  » Chaiwat Limlikhit-aksorn, head of Kaeng Krachan National Park, thought he'd heard it all, until a convicted poacher told him the going rate for an elephant's penis.

• THAILAND

  White elephants: A shade of distinction in royal Thai tradition

  Spectrum, Piyaporn Wongruang, Published on 23/06/2013

  » In the morning mist behind a small village in Tak's Umphang National Park, a 30-year-old elephant emerged and walked towards a group of people eager to see if it was actually a white elephant as had been reported.

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