Showing 1 - 10 of 11
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.
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.
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.
Park rangers train sights on logging gang targets
News, Piyaporn Wongruang, Published on 07/07/2013
» Senior park ranger Chatchai Laikrathok successfully finished his shooting training course yesterday _ most of his bullets, however, failed to hit their paper target 10m away.
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.
Clock ticks for parks to keep promises
Spectrum, Piyaporn Wongruang, Published on 02/06/2013
» Officials in charge of overseeing the Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai Forest Complex are scrambling to come up with a plan to stave off a potential downgrade by Unesco's World Heritage Committee this month.
When a ranger falls in the forest
Spectrum, Piyaporn Wongruang, Published on 31/03/2013
» On the evening of March 14 in the deep forest of Pang Sida National Park, a ranger was shot dead in an encounter with a group transporting illegally logged Siamese rosewood. At the same time in Bangkok 300km away, international conservationists were wrapping up a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), which gave greater protection to the tree which is rapidly disappearing from Thai forests.
Strong deeds needed from new forest chief
News, Piyaporn Wongruang, Published on 30/12/2012
» The Seub Nakhasathien Foundation paints a grim picture of the state of the country's forests with its 2012 report, which estimates that in the last 50 years Thailand has lost 50% of its forest cover. The report says forests now account for only about one-third of the country's total area, or about 171,000 square kilometres and there are now only five provinces that have a forest cover of more than 70%. No wonder the foundation's secretary-general, Sasin Chaloemlap, says, ''We cannot afford to lose more forest and forest encroachment cannot be allowed and tolerated any more.''
A walk in the park: Business as usual at 'encroaching' resorts
Spectrum, Piyaporn Wongruang, Published on 30/12/2012
» oDwn a path leading into dense bush at Thap Lan National Park, Chaloem Jainok and her family are busy gathering wood for a New Year's Eve bonfire they're planning to hold at their resort, Ban Thong Kham. The resort has been fully booked since early this month, filling up with holiday revellers and those planning to see in the New Year here.
Two agencies diverged in a wood
Spectrum, Piyaporn Wongruang, Published on 26/08/2012
» Road 304 slices through Nakhon Ratchasima's Wang Nam Khieo district running north by northeast, forming the unofficial boundary between the Phu Luang national forest reserve to the west and Thap Lan National Park to the east. Charges of forest encroachment are rampant throughout the area, but the fates of those deemed guilty are vastly different depending on which side of the road they lie.