“Saving flagship species and iconic wild places”

In the world today for each minute that passes 25 hectares of forest are felled which is equivalent to 0.42 hectare per second. This is an astounding figure and is equivalent to approximately a football pitch being removed every 2 seconds.

How will we feel, if the area of forests in Thailand is reduced to only 90,309 km2 or 17.16% of the total land area? However this is the total area of watershed forests that provide hydrological services to the 63 million population of the country. Are these watershed forests of only ninety thousand square kilometres sufficient to ensure the sustainable livelihoods of the total Thai population?

Protected Areas

Today this forest area is protected under the National Parks Act (1961) for those areas designated as National Parks, and under the Wild Animal Reservation and Protection Act (1992) for those areas designated as Wildlife Sanctuaries. These two classifications comprise the two principle categories of Protected Areas in Thailand. Despite having these two pieces of legislation designed to protect these forest areas however destruction and multiple threats impact upon the forest area and continue to reduce its extent. This means that the livelihood security of the Thai population continues to be undermined.

Wildlife

Wildlife in Thailand is protected by both National and International laws. Unfortunately though, unique species have declined over years through lack of scientific knowledge and illegal poaching and hunting. This has renderded many protected areas “empty forests”. Conservation practice and collaboration are at early stages of development, even in Thailand with a relatively long history of PA establishment.

WWF is saving threatened species and communities of wildlife through ecological research, training of protected are staff and local people, and field-based conservation projects. Our approach combines scientifically rigorous monitoring and innovative methods of collaborative management to conserve wildlife and natural habitat.