In recent years Thailand has enjoyed a remarkable increase in protected area coverage. It now has 128 terrestrial National Parks, 26 Marine National Parks, 60 Wildlife Sanctuaries and 63 Non-hunting Areas. Managed by the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, these protected areas cover c. 23% of Thailand's territory. This substantial allocation of land, freshwater and sea is justified by the protected areas being managed to deliver multiple benefits to farmers, fishers, students, visitors, researchers, tourism agencies, and others.
To respond to this growing responsibility, the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation organized its first Thailand Parks Congress during 15–17 September 2019. Organized by a team led by Dr. Songtam Suksawang, Director of the Department's National Parks Office, over 500 staff were joined by environmental, media and non-governmental conservation organizations to explore ways to apply modern management approaches to the protected areas. New mobile phone apps for visitors were demonstrated, along with electronic registration for popular National Parks. The National Parks are now all linked by the internet, and field staff have hand-held management systems that facilitate patrolling, reporting and resource management. Aerial drones were demonstrated that are now patrolling the large protected areas to support efforts to limit encroachment and poaching. Congress participants were introduced to a system under development that will provide online booking for visits to National Parks, including lodging, transport, guides, special sites, and elephant safaris.
Thailand's protected areas are generally effective at curtailing deforestation within their boundaries, but continuing conversion of forests into plantations in areas surrounding some of the protected areas is isolating them as islands in a sea of agriculture. Such areas may be too small to support all species that occupied the larger landscape before it became fragmented, and the Congress gave significant attention to this issue. To promote landscape connectivity the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation has adopted the concept of Forest Complexes, in which a collection of National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries and Non-hunting Areas can be linked to form a larger area that supports viable populations of wide-ranging species such as elephants, tigers, gaur and hornbills, and contributes to regional social and economic development through provision of ecosystem services. Conservation corridors can include buffer zones, lands managed by government agencies other than the Department, and private lands. Presentations showed how these corridors can expand the effective size of protected areas to enhance their ecological value. Discussions also highlighted management of potential negative ecological impacts of connectivity, such as the the spread of disease, invasive alien species, forest fires and other natural hazards.
New legislation for Thailand's protected areas was approved in May 2019 and will have entered into force in November 2019, and was discussed in detail, to prepare site managers for its implementation. Highlights include encouraging research that supports more effective management of protected areas and building understanding of difficult issues such as collecting of voucher specimens, samples of genetic materials for laboratory studies, photographic documentation and intellectual property rights.
Climate change affects all parts of Thailand's national economy and is a major policy concern. The Congress heard that the role of National Parks is critical but needs to be given more attention. For example, National Parks may store more carbon than the rest of the country combined, judging from the biomass of the mature forests and coral reefs they protect; the coastal National Parks provide protection from extreme climatic events; and many of the National Parks support generation of hydroelectricity, a sustainable form of energy. Perhaps most importantly, the great diversity of the natural ecosystems in the protected areas provides nature's capacity for adapting to the changing environmental conditions that will surely come from global warming. The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation was challenged to become a more important part of developing national policies for mitigating the impacts of climate change and adapting to the new conditions as they emerge. The Thailand Parks Congress was an opportunity for introspection as the Department seeks to manage the protected areas to an international standard so they can play their proper role in global efforts to implement sustainable forms of development in balance with nature.
