The cabinet's approval in priniciple at its April 10 meeting of the 13 billion baht Mae Wong dam construction project inside the Mae Wong National Park in Nakhon Sawan has sent shockwaves through conservation communities inside and outside Thailand.
The ultra-clear and pristine water of the Mae Wong River enjoyed by visitors and the home of numerous endangered wildlife species. The area will be inundated by a planned dam.
The dam will have a maximum capacity of 258 million cubic metres of water and it will help to irrigate farmland covering an area of 480 square kilometres (300,000 rai).
Proponents say the dam will also control water flowing into the Chao Phraya River and, perhaps, reduce flooding. However, following the original plan, the dam will block the Mae Wong River, called Mae Rewa by locals, and inundate an area of more than 18 sq km inside the well-protected Mae Wong National Park. The dam will surely destroy forest, wildlife and scenic areas long appreciated by Thailand and the international community which have supported government efforts to help forest ecosystems and endangered species recover _ especially tigers and elephants inside the park.
The national park has been protected under the 1961 National Park Act for more than 24 years. Along the long journey of protection efforts successive governments have invested in total more than 300 million baht to make the park as secure as it is today. The park covers an area of 900 sq km. It is part of the largest protected area system in mainland Southeast Asia called the Western Forest Complex, which covers 17 protected areas of 18,000 sq km. Strategically, the park serves as an important protective buffer for the Huay Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary, a globally important world heritage site. Located next to the south of the Mae Wong River, Huay Kha Khaeng has been internationally recognised as one of the very few places on Earth that can protect functioning populations of wild tigers, an endangered species with only 3,200 remaining in the world.
The entire Western Forest Complex is also Thailand's very last stronghold for many globally endangered and vulnerable species including the Asian elephant, banteng, tapir, gaur, sambar, green peafowl and rufous-necked hornbill. In support of the effort, the international community fighting to prevent the extinction of endangered species has hailed the long and firmly held policy of Thailand to protect the Western Forest Complex and its associated natural heritage as an example for others to follow.
Unfortunately, last week's decision by the cabinet on the Mae Wong dam project will set back the natural recovery course by furthering the destruction of one of the most sites offering most hope for protecting endangered species.
In short, the future of this world-class protected area is at risk.
It took generations of dedicated park rangers and officers to secure the park from various forms of human destruction. More than 20 years ago logging concessions, shifting cultivation, and hunting almost denuded the forest and wildlife inside Mae Wong before it became a national park. Clear evidence of past exploitation is evident as stumps of past glorious teak and hardwood trees still dot the landscape inside the park. Twenty years ago the forest was almost empty of large mammals and birds.
Tigers, elephants, banteng, and sambar were nearly hunted to extinction from the park. Green peafowl, the largest pheasant in Asia, went extinct from its foremost habitat along the Mae Wong River. Thanks to an amazing recovery under excellent protection together with species reintroduction programmes, today visitors can appreciate the return of endangered wildlife to this forest. The park is surely on course to becoming a world-class protected area.
Walking along the pristine banks of the Mae Wong River today we can easily come across dense tracks of sambar deer, the largest deer in Asia, together with tracks of muntjac, wild pigs, smooth-coated otters (globally vulnerable large otters) and other wildlife. We can hear green peafowl calling loudly right on the very part of the Mae Wong River where the dam is proposed to be built.
The most striking recovery among all the wildlife is that of wild tigers.
Following the government-led tiger conservation project of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation with support from key international organisations, including the World Wildlife Fund and Wildlife Conservation Society, the impressive recovery of wild tigers in the Mae Wong National Park has been confirmed. It's been proven that some of the tigers recorded have come from the Huay Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary. It is a success story for Thailand's environmental policy of protecting large forest tracts and maintaining connectivity in order to give tigers and other endangered species a chance to recover.
In the next 10 years wildlife experts believe that if we keep doing the right things by improving protection in Mae Wong, the park will be teeming with tigers, sambar, gaur, green peafowl and many other endangered species. The recovery of those animals ultimately means the revival of an ecosystem and watershed long abused. In terms of the economy, it will promote ecotourism and raise incomes and revenues more sustainably and sufficiently for the government and local communities living next to the park. Crucially, it will secure the integrity of a contiguous natural world heritage site _ Huay Kha Khaeng and the whole Western Forest Complex _ for future generations.
However, that vision will vanish if the Mae Wong dam is allowed to proceed in this great forest. The dam will destroy the most scenic site on the Mae Wong River where large numbers of tourists have come to appreciate the natural beauty. The reservoir will inundate all the land below 200 metres, which is considered the best habitat for wildlife. The reservoir will open easy access for poachers to come in by raft or boat to hunt sambar, muntjac, wild pigs, and, surely, tigers until the area becomes empty of wildlife. Similar things have happened in other forests next to dams and reservoirs in Thailand. Because the dam site is only about 10km to the boundary of Huay Kha Khaeng, the dam will send damaging ripples to the world heritage site by allowing easy access and escape routes for poachers and wood and forest product smugglers. It will be like setting the clock back to the destructive and exploitative era when park rangers were unable to control the forest.
In recent decades many countries have halted large development projects that would lead to the destruction of the very few remaining forests. Some developed countries have decided to tear down dams to help river and riverine ecosystems recover. The decision by the government on the Mae Wong dam is a move in the opposite direction to the global trend towards conserving the world's natural heritage. It is unwise to tread such a destructive path.
Policymakers should reconsider and stop the Mae Wong dam project and other large development projects inside other national parks and wildlife sanctuaries that will follow. The Mae Wong National Park belongs to all Thais, not just the locals.
Water volume from the Mae Wong River is not a major source of flooding and it is not worth spending the billions of baht required to build this dam. National parks and wildlife sanctuaries contain irreplaceable endangered species and intrinsic ecosystem values that we should be able to borrow from for the benefit of future generations.
National parks such as Mae Wong and wildlife sanctuaries such as Huay Kha Khaeng are there to protect the global natural heritage that current and future governments do not have the right to decimate.
Anak Pattanavibool is director of the Wildlife Conservation Society Thailand Programme. He can be reached at anakp@wcs.org.