TERF Project detail
Around Thailand
Many parts of Thailand are already suffering from HEC. A report by Wildlife Fund Thailand in 1997 found that HEC occurrs around eight protected areas – four wildlife sanctuaries and four national parks. Since then HEC has been found around 5 more protected areas – Phu Luang Wildlife Sanctuary in Loei Province, Thap Lan and Khao Yai National Parks in Nakon Ratchasima Province, Khao Sok National Park in Surat Thani and Thon Pha Phum National Park in Kanchanaburi. However, HEC may occur in farmland adjacent to other protected areas.
In all of the places where HEC is recorded, both the frequency and the intensity of the problem are increasing.
There is no up-to-date information about the human elephant conflict in Thailand, however the problem continues to result in considerable economic loss – though there is no information about the level of this loss or its impact on the affected communities. Each community affected by elephants has little knowledge about how to deal with the problem and often little knowledge about elephants. Often affected communities don’t know about other areas suffering the same problem and there is little networking or information sharing between communities, even around the same protected area. Finally, every year there are human and elephant fatalities resulting from human elephant conflicts.
In Thailand, human elephant conflict (HEC) has been recorded as an issue in communities around 14 protected areas. There are many projects dealing with the HEC problem at a local area but at present there is no national overview of the problem and nor is there a national database to record and monitor whether the instances of HEC are increasing, decreasing or staying the same at either the local or national level.
WERF feels that this is a very important area of wild elephant conservation in Thailand that really needs to be coordinated at a national level. We aim to start by hosting a National Conference on HEC, after which we will set up a nationwide HEC survey and monitoring team.
We will have a team member in each of the 5 regions – North, Northeast, Southeast, Central and South – and a HEC Coordinator. The role of the team will be to survey and monitor all cases of HEC, keeping their results in a database that can be easily accessed by others working in this field.
The team will also work with other organisations and local communities to network and find ways of reducing or overcoming the problem of HEC. The HEC team will use models from within Thailand, Asia and elsewhere to provide ideas on how to reduce HEC problems such as crop raiding, interference with tourists and property damage.
The HEC team will also monitor proposed developments within elephant habitat and, together with the research team, will offer advice to the EIA consultants for these developments.