EARTH ALERT
There is an urgent need to protect the forests of the Greater Mekong Sub-region
ACHARA ASHAYAGACHAT
Protecting forests is an important carbon storing initiative. Forests also protect wildlife and provide homes, food and livelihoods for the people who live in them.
However, the forest landscapes of Mekong countries have been changing dramatically over the past 10 years; the region lost more than 68,000km2 from 1999 to 2000, and the condition of the remaining forests has declined through overuse, change of use to farmland, illegal logging and development pressures.
The decline of the forests and biodiversity prompted Thailand and the other five countries of the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS), namely Burma, Cambodia, China (Yunnan and Guang Xi provinces), Laos and Vietnam, to launch the Biodiversity Conservation Corridors Initiative (BCI) two years ago.
Sponsored by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Netherlands, Sweden and the UN Poverty Reduction Cooperation Fund, the BCI is a regional technical assistance programme for promoting establishment of sound environmental management systems and institutions.
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| Tree-planting activities in Ratchaburi organised by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Asian Development Bank. |
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| The Tenasserim Range is one of the largest tracts of rainforest in Southeast Asia. |
Javed Hussain Mir, the ADB principal natural resources management specialist, said on World Environment Day last week that in the long term the ADB was hopeful that the GMS countries could have established by the year 2015 priority biodiversity conservation landscapes and corridors for maintaining the quality of ecosystems, ensuring sustainable use of shared natural resources, and improving the livelihoods of the 312 million population.
But in the medium term, for example at the end of the $15 million first phase of the BCI pilot project in 2009, the GMS members could come up with regional guidelines to protect and manage the cross-border protected forestry landscape a helping step in addressing a defining issue of our time - climate change, said Mir.
The pilot sites in the first phase included Cambodia's Cardamon Mountains and Eastern Plains, Mondulkiri; China's Xishuangbanna; Laos' Xepian-Dong Hua Sao-Dong Ampham; Thailand's Tenasserim-Western Forest Complex; and Vietnam's Ngoc Linh-Xe Sap.
The six forests cover an area of one million hectares and are home to 230,000 people.
To support the main component of the project - the alleviation of poverty through sustainable use of natural resources and development of livelihoods, the restoration and maintenance of ecosystem connectivity as well as the empowerment of local communities and government staff, the ADB also launched an advocacy tool - a 25-minute multi-language documentary on the rich biodiversity and the livelihood of the Mekong people, in conjunction with the UN Environment Programme's "Kick the CO2 Habit - Towards a Low Carbon Economy".
Songtam Suksawang, director of the National Park Research Division, said the BCI target of the Tenasserim Range, which situated between the Western Forest Complex and the Kaeng Krachan area, would not be sustainable unless Thailand sought cooperation from Burma.
"In fact, the Tenasserim Range is the largest 'lung' in Southeast Asia. However, Thailand's negotiations with Burma for a bilateral agreement on protected areas cooperation, which has been starting late, has now been halted again due to Cyclone Nargis," said Songtam.
But officials from both sides plan to discuss the matter this year; after all there was some work being done inside Burma, including the Nature Research project (opposite Sai Yok) sponsored by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
Individually, both countries are struggling to declare their forest under categories of national parks and wildlife conservation parks, but illegal logging and poaching of endangered species still remain.
The Tenasserim Range is home to two endangered species - elephants and tigers. Songtam said there were an estimated 500 elephants living in the Western Forest Complex, 200 in Kaeng Krachan, and another 120 in Kui Buri, Prachuap Khiri Khan, while there were some 120 tigers living in Huay Khakaeng and unknown numbers in the Western Forest Complex.
On June 9, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the ADB inaugurated a tree planting in Ratchaburi to support the BCI activities in the Tenasserim areas.
Apart from community-based conservation activities, Thailand is also working with Cambodia on a joint eco-cultural and tourism plan of action, trying to connect Khao Yai, Taplan National Park complex with Cambodia's Protected Landscape of the Banteay Chmor, Songtam said.
"With national efforts, through collaboration of local communities, government agencies, and private sectors, especially on the tourism side, up to the regional cooperation, we should see some light at the end of the tunnel in the next few years," said Mir of the ADB.
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