Showing 11 - 20 of 20
Power play draws flak from experts
Spectrum, Piyaporn Wongruang, Published on 14/04/2013
» The public was thrown into a panic in February when Energy Minister Pongsak Rattapongpaisal said a power crisis was likely over the Songkran holidays. He attributed this to feeder lines from Myanmar's Yetagun, Yadana, and M9 natural gas fields in the Andaman Sea being closed for maintenance.
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.
Shots in the park threaten nation's endangered species
Spectrum, Piyaporn Wongruang, Published on 10/02/2013
» It was the shooting of the cat-sized krachong (mouse deer) that really made Kaeng Krachan National Park chief Chaiwat Limlikhitaksorn angry. He and a team of park officials had just arrested a group of illegal hunters who had shot the krachong for sport, along with more than 100 rare giant Asian river frogs, in November of last year inside the park.
Heavy metal tragedy still playing out at Klity Creek
Spectrum, Piyaporn Wongruang, Published on 27/01/2013
» Ma Aung Seng's bamboo thatched-roof home has no running water, and the 50-year-old blind Karen woman has no money to buy bottled water as she can no longer work her rice fields. So when she needs water she normally asks her 16-year-old son to walk down to Klity Creek and fetch some to use for drinking, cooking and cleaning.
Thailand at the centre of rising illegal ivory trade
Spectrum, Piyaporn Wongruang, Published on 13/01/2013
» 'They are all authentic elephant ivory,'' a middle-aged retailer of crafted ivory ornaments told a group of visitors at her shop in Nakhon Sawan's Phayuha Khiri district last week.
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.
Restrictions sinking sea gypsies
News, Piyaporn Wongruang, Published on 11/11/2012
» Sanit tried to maintain his stride while walking towards the sea, but everybody knew that he was sick.
Villagers vow they won't give up homes for dam
Spectrum, Piyaporn Wongruang, Published on 04/11/2012
» As soon as staff from an engineering consultancy company arrived at the site of the proposed Kaeng Sua Ten dam project in Phrae province late last month, a scuffle broke out between them and locals from the nearby village of Sa-Iab. Later there was another brief confrontation between officials trying to install water level monitors in the Yom River and villagers who tried to stop them. The officials were surrounded and finally driven out of Sa-Iab in a scene reminiscent of one 10 years ago when villagers seized staff from a consultancy firm employed by the World Bank, injuring some of them.
Koh Samet's serenity shattered by development and disputes
Spectrum, Piyaporn Wongruang, Published on 23/09/2012
» As we arrive at the exclusive five-star beach resort on the southern tip of Koh Samet a young security guard approaches us and asks us where we think we are going.
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.