TERF Information
Dong Payayen – Khao Yai Forest Complex : A World Class Conservation Area
Congratulations to the Thai Government, particularly the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department for their achievement in obtaining World Heritage Site status for the Dong Payayen – Khao Yai Forest Complex. In fact, probably the whole of Thailand can give themselves’ a quick clap or pat on the back, as this triumph reflects on the country and its people and the value that is put on nature and wildlife.
This achievement has been a long time in coming – Khao Yai was first proposed as a WHS back in 1991 – however, then the national park by itself did not qualify. Now, the larger complex – Khao Yai, Tap Lan, Pangsida and Tha Phraya National Parks, along with Dong Yai Wildlife Sanctuary – has met the stringent demands of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) criteria with regards to biodiversity and threatened species. So well done, NPD – perseverance and good management have definitely paid off.
The diversity of wildlife in these protected areas is huge – over 800 different species of animal, including 112 species of mammal, 392 species of bird (that is about 100 more than has ever been seen in the UK!) and 200 reptiles and amphibians. Twenty-four of these creatures are threatened with extinction on a global scale – animals such as the Asian elephant, the Siamese crocodile, tiger, leopard cat, clouded leopard, pigtailed macque, pileated gibbon, black bear, wild dog, guar, green peafowl and the silver oriole.
Just like us, all of these animals have four main requirements – a home, food, water and finding a mate so that they can reproduce. They can find all of these within the forests, streams, grasslands and wetlands of the DPKY-FC. As anyone who has visited one of these parks will know, the complexity of relationships in the forest is quite astounding.
Take the case of the elephant.
Nobody could call the elephant a fussy eater – grass, leaves, fruits, vines, bark, roots, young shoots are all eaten, and in Khao Yai, the Wild Elephant Research and Rescue Fund (WERF) has found that the elephants eat at least 103 different species of plants, though there are some favourites – bamboo, most of the ginger family, banana trees and rattan. Finding enough food to feed an animal as large as this is no easy task – about 300kg per day for a fully grown elephant. So the elephant’s life is spent walking and eating and these two activities play a vital role in forest life.
Have you ever been for a walk in the forest in Khao Yai? If so, you have walked along an elephant trail. Humans have modified the trails in many places, but originally it was the elephants who bulldozed the trails through the forest. Along such a trail you may meet fellow tourists enjoying the rich plant and animal life; a researcher studying about hornbills, gibbons, lichens, elephants or even leeches; or perhaps a group of students discovering for themselves the excitements and wonders of the forest.
Humans are not the only other animal to use these forest highways – WERF has put camera traps (see box) along some of the elephant trails and found many other animals that also favour these easy-to walk-on paths, including Sambar deer, guar, wild dog, leopard cat and Asiatic Black Bear. Some animals almost seem to specialise in following the elephants – WERF field staff have often seen guar following along after elephants between July and September and wondered why. Our Head Elephant Tracker, Plan Boon did a bit of detective work and found one answer – ‘climbing bamboo’. It appeared that the guar like the leaves and base of young bamboo stems, but it can be quite hard for them to get to either of these parts of the growing plant. The elephant likes the middle part of the stem and is quite capable of pulling down stems and scrunching up the middle section, leaving the top and bottom for the guar who is not that far behind!
Further along the trail you might meet a huge pile of round, fibrous dung-balls – the after-effect of elephants eating all those plants! Take a close look for things living on or inside the dung – fungi, termites, dung beetles all feed on elephant dung. Then along comes the jungle fowl or silver pheasant, scratching the dung-ball open to munch on the termite and beetles. Being a rung in the forest food web is not the only role of elephant dung. Seeds of plants eaten by the elephant often germinate in this rich pile of fertilizer, growing in an area far from their parent plant, thus finding a new home with no competition from siblings or parents.
In this intricate web of life, all the animals and plants have a role to play and all are important in the maintaining the ecosystem for the future. If there were no predators to keep the population of deer from expanding hugely, then the deer may eat young tree seedlings, gradually killing the forest. If there were not animals in the forest, the forest would slowly die due to the loss of the creatures that pollinate flowers and disperse seeds.
You could argue that humans have the greatest role to play in the survival of the forest – to leave it, to not destroy it for short-term gain, to protect it and to ensure that others do so as well. This is why we have designations such as national parks and wildlife sanctuaries and why achieving the status of World Heritage Site is so important – this is a promise from us humans to the forests and wildlife of Khao Yai, Tap Lan, Pangsida, Ta Phraya and Dong Yai to protect them from harm and ensure that they have a long term future.
Some might ask why Khao Yai could not become a WHS by itself, but only as part of a much larger forest complex. As far as ecosystems are concerned, size is very important – the larger the area that is protected and maintained as an intact working system, the better. Intact is also a key word for ecosystems – small islands of forest surrounded by oceans of human activity don’t work as many animals find it hard to cross the human sea between potential island homes. However, if corridors of natural habitat exist between the patches of forest, then the animals can move to find sufficient food, water and mates. This idea of a natural corridor is a key to the DPKY-FC achieving World Heritage Status. Plans are afoot to create three such corridors. Two will have to somehow cross the major Korat-Kabinburi road that cuts a vehicle-filled swathe between Khao Yai and Tap Lan national parks, the third connects Dong Yai and Tha Phraya, crossing the road there.
For large animals like the elephant, Khao Yai has been a forest island since the major Korat-Kabinburi Road was built in the 1960’s. This road effectively stopped elephants from Khao Yai and Tap Lan from inter-breeding and without re-creating the connection inbreeding, resulting in poor genetic diversity and possible health problems, is a real threat. Already there are a number of rumours about the elephants in Khao Yai – they are smaller than they should be, due to inbreeding and that they cannot reach the eastern edge of the park due to the steepness of the Kampang Phet Escarpment. But are these rumours true?
This is something that only patience and good scientific research can answer. At the moment WERF is in the first stages of carrying out a survey on the demographics of the elephants in Khao Yai – how many elephants are there? Where do they live? Do they use different parts of the park at different times of year? How many elephants are in each area? – are all questions we are trying to answer through monitoring dung decay, counting dung densities along line transects and, with luck, following elephants to see how many times they defecate in one day. This will take us about 2 years in total – so please be patient if you want to know the answers to the above questions.
From the results of this research, WERF can offer the Park scientifically correct information as to whether wildlife corridors between Khao Yai and Tap Lan are likely to be used by elephants and advise as to what actions might need to be taken to increase the use of this area by elephants. WERF will be honoured to play a small role in the future of the DPKY-FC WHS.
Just as the achievement of this designation should belong to the whole of Thailand, so should the responsibility for the future of this wonderful natural heritage.
Obviously the National Parks Department and the Thai Government have a leading role – protecting the forests from encroachers and loggers and stopping the poaching of wildlife through good patrolling and law enforcement. Researching and monitoring wildlife and plants to ensure that the diversity is maintained and endangered animals are surviving. Managing the tourists so that the human desire to visit natural beauty and see wild animals does not in turn destroy the forest.
But they cannot do these things alone.
Visitors to the DPKY-FC need to take responsibility for this World Heritage Site and not unwittingly destroy it through the careless throwing of litter, speeding along roads, feeding wild animals, collecting plants and flowers, releasing pets or washing in streams. And, if in the future the NPD finds out that the carrying capacity (the amount of tourists an area can take without destroying it) is being exceeded, all visitors should support and respect the decisions the NPD takes to reduce the impact of tourists.
The resorts and tourist attractions around the DPKY-FC have an excellent opportunity to play an important role. Possible actions that would help protect and enhance the WHS include giving their visitors good information about what to do and what not to do when visiting the national parks; collecting water in the rainy season and using water responsibly so that streams and groundwater sources are not depleted; managing their waste by recycling and reducing the total amount of waste and especially discouraging the use of plastic bags and foam containers in the national parks; taking care not to encroach inside the protected areas and finally ensuring that they do not introduce alien plant or animal species to the national parks.
Local communities, from villager, farmer and village head to monk, second home owner and government official all have a key role to play in the future of this WHS and should be actively involved in its’ management and protection. Without the assistance of local communities, illegal activities such as encroachment, logging, poaching and grazing of livestock inside the park occur all too easily and the NPD will have a continuing battle on their hands. Fortunately, local community participation and involvement in protected area management is becoming increasingly common in Thailand as the value of the support of these groups is realised. Some local examples include the Community Forest at TawangSai, where a patch of natural forest on the edge of Khao Yai has been maintained and enhanced by the local community through the setting and enforcing of local bye-laws regarding allowed and illegal activities. Further down the road at Khao PhangMaa, the Wildlife Fund Thailand has, over the past 10 years or so, converted bare hillsides into lush forest through a re-planting programme and working with the community to reduce and fight forest fires. Many of you will know that gaur can be regularly seen in this secondary forest. There are also many areas around the DPKY-FC where communities work closely with the park officials to provide eco-tourism facilities for tourists.
The wider Thai community, perhaps especially academics and ecological researchers, also have a responsibility to the DPKY-FC – to support and, if needs be, challenge the work of the NPD to ensure that the area is being managed and protected in the best possible way.
Last, but not least, the international community has a responsibility to Thailand’s newest WHS in supporting and encouraging good management.
If we all work together to help protect and improve the DPKY-FC, then this World Heritage Site will have a great future and our great grand children, and their children, in turn will be able to experience the amazing diversity of life in these forests that we are so privileged to know.