The past year will be remembered as relatively quiet, compared with tumultuous recent years.
Luckily, there were no major mishaps such as oil spills or fires or serious chemical accidents. However, "uneventful" is not the same as "unimportant".
The year indeed was like a watershed period where environmental problems were being hatched and worrying signs started to emerge. We saw the discovery of "alien species" such as the black chin tilapia, damaging the shrimp farm industry. The harmful New Guinea flatworm has invaded, and may also wreak havoc on biodiversity.
We witnessed worrying signs of clashes between wild animals and humans when gaurs were shot dead after wandering into farm areas. In the later part of this year, environmental problems intensified as protesters against the coal-fired power plant in Songkhla were arrested as they tried to send a petition to the prime minister during a mobile cabinet meeting.
We also saw a gold mining company seeking compensation from the government for cancelling its concession. These events will have lasting and continual impacts on the upcoming year ahead.
1. DUSIT ZOO TO RELOCATE
Paddle boats ply the lake inside Dusit Zoo. The Zoological Park Organisation board is drawing up plans to move the zoo to Pathum Thani. (Photo by Patipat Janthong)
Opened almost 80 years ago, Dusit Zoo -- touted as the country's first public zoo -- is facing a major challenge. Over the coming three years, the small zoo, which is located in the inner city adjacent to parliament and the royal palace, will move to a spacious new location in Pathum Thani. The relocation was made possible after His Majesty the King Rama X in November donated a 300 rai plot of land in Klong 6 of Thanya Buri district, which will serve as the new zoo.
The Zoological Park Organisation's board has set up two working groups: one to oversee design and construction and another to manage the relocation of more than 1,000 animals.
Details of the project will become clearer next year, but so far the board has outlined a vision of the new Dusit Zoo being an environmentally friendly facility where animals will live in more natural habitats and energy to power the zoo will be drawn from renewable sources.
Three times larger than the current zoo, the new location is expected to become a major breeding and research centre for wild and exotic animals. Visitors will also be able to enjoy a modern natural science learning centre. It is expected that construction will take three years to complete.
Dusit Zoo welcomes about two million visitors a year and has an income of more than 150 million baht. The star attractions are "Mae Mali," a hippopotamus, and the red-shanked douc langur, a species of old world monkey. The zoo has the largest collection of these monkeys in the southeast Asian region.
2. THEPHA COAL-FIRED POWER PLANT
A child joins a protest against the planned construction of a coal-fired power plant in Thepha district, Songkhla province. (Photo by Thanarak Khunthon)
Local protests against the construction of a 2,200 megawatt Thepha coal power plant in Songkhla province have been simmering for several years now. But the campaign gained nationwide attention in November when 16 local protesters -- among them one child -- were arrested in a clash with local officials as they joined a march to submit a letter to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha who was attending the mobile cabinet meeting in the region.
A group of human rights activists expressed their anger at the arrests and pressed the government to release the group without condition. After spending one night in prison they were released when a team of academics from a local university offered a guarantee to the court.
The release infuriated the prime minister who said the protesters broke the law by causing unrest. Despite the news growing quiet a week after, the issue is expected to heat up again next year as the government attempts to ramp up the project while it is still in power. The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand is continuing to press ahead with tours for villagers and the media to visit similar facilities in other countries.
The project's health and environment impact assessment (EHIA) study has been approved despite local critics recently submitting a letter to the ONEP, demanding an investigation into the transparency of the project's consultant company and asking that the EHIA study be made available for locals to read.
Meanwhile, locals remain adamant they will continue their protest against the project which they say will damage marine ecology and the environment and force communities to relocate.
3. KILLING OF THE GAURS
A gaur is spotted in the Khao Phaeng Ma forest area in Nakhon Ratchasima's Wang Nam Khieo district. (Photo by Pattarapong Chatpattarasill)
Gaurs are a part of the Thai forest and stories of their death often get media attention and front page treatment. Four years ago, the country was gripped by news of the mysterious death of 30 gaurs in Kuiburi National Park (disease was later found to be the cause of the incident.)
News of dead gaurs resurfaced again in November when three gaurs were killed in Khao Phaeng Ma, a famous forest area in Nakhon Ratchasima's Wang Nam Khieo district.
But this time, the cause reflected a social problem -- encounters between humans and wild animals.
In early November, the carcass of a dead gaur was found in a cassava field, in a farm community next to the Khao Phaeng Ma forest area.
A farmer was arrested and admitted to police afterwards that he shot the gaur as the beast had trespassed on his property and ate his cassava.
Four days later, two more gaurs were shot dead in the province. Their horns, meat and organs were taken away. For this later case, forest officials pointed the finger at a group of hunter poachers, who sold the carcasses and horns of the gaurs.
The suspected hunters remain at large.
The death of the gaurs, however, caused worries for local authorities and tourism businesses at Khao Phaeng Ma -- a mountainous forest area that is a popular site with tourists who come to watch gaurs. It is estimated there are about 100 gaurs living in the area.
The beast's growing population is the outcome of more than a decade of conservation efforts to rehabilitate once bare mountainside into lush forest areas.
Khao Phaeng Ma serves as the buffer zone between the villagers's farm areas and Khao Yai National Park.
More than 100 gaurs living in the area are known for their friendly nature, and some even come to mingle with cows -- something that causes a headache for forest officials who wonder how to bring them back to nature and prevent them from becoming targets for angry villagers and poachers.
The loss of three gaurs prompted local authorities to devise long-term solutions.
One is to relocate them to inner areas of forests by developing wildlife corridors to lure gaurs back into the deep woods.
Another measure concerns compensating villagers whose property is being damaged. Both proposals, however, were rejected because they required heavy investment.
The most viable solution, it was agreed, is the construction of bamboo walls to prevent gaur intrusions on farm land.
Next year, and in years to come, we can expect more clashes between wild animals and villagers as the forest dwindles while human settlements continue to invade nature.
4. QUAGMIRE OF THE GOLD MINE
A bird's eye-view of a gold mine in Phichit, taken after Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha invoked Section 44 in the interim charter to halt the operation of such mines in Phichit and Phetchabun provinces. (Photo by Natdanai Maison)
The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) won plaudits from some conservationists in December 2016 when Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha used Section 44 in the interim charter to halt the operation of gold mines in Phetchabun and Phichit. In doing so, the government cited the impact of mining on health and the environment. In 2015, a health check of 300 villagers living near the mines showed their blood tested positive for arsenic and manganese poisoning.
However omnipotent the military and its Section 44 may seem to be on Thail soil, Akara Resources Plc, the mining company, a subsidiary of Australia-based Kingsgate Consolidated Ltd, allegedly demanded compensation of 24 billion baht ($US750 million).
In November, the company said it had been unable to reach a settlement with the government and claimed the government may be in violation of the Thailand-Australia Free Trade Agreement (Tafta) by unlawfully terminating its operations.
Further dialogue is expected, but if a settlement cannot be reached, a foreign arbiter may have to be brought in to adjudicate on the matter.
Critics have said that the government may lose in such a scenario as use of the Section 44 might may be deemed undemocratic and insufficient to void a pre-existing contract.
5. ALIEN SPECIES
Pla Mor Si Karng Dam, or black chin tilapia, are an alien species that have preyed on baby shrimps in shrimp farms. (Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute)
People often become familiar with the term "alien" in the form of extra-terrestrial monsters they might have seen on television or in sci-fi films. But for the passing 2017, Thais have witnessed "alien species" that invade the local environment, causing impacts on ecology, humans and business.
One such alien is the "black chin tilapia", or Pla Mor Si Karng Dam -- an invasive alien fish species that came to Thailand about five years ago when the country's major agricultural company imported them to sell as food.
The project to reproduce these alien fish did not get off the ground and the company reportedly said it had informed authorities about their existence. Somehow, they escaped into natural waterways and were found en masse this year. In October, a large invasion of these fish took place in canals and shrimp farms along coastal areas.
Shrimp farmers in Samut Songkram suffered the most. News reports said the fish devoured juvenile shrimp stocks to the point where they did not have any produce to sell. Farmers said they have seen these fish about for a few years, yet in small numbers. However, they multiplied and reproduced massively this year.
They were introduced into aquatic farms by farmers who pump water into their shrimp facilities. The authorities are coming up with plans to get rid of them. The weapon to cull the alien species is bass fish, which feed on black chin tilapia. Next year we expect to see whether the move was successful.
Another alien species is the New Guinea flatworm (Platydemus manokwariis), recognised as one of the world's 100 most invasive alien species, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The first report was in October when a resident of Pathum Thani province posted an image of the worm on a website and experts confirmed it was the New Guinea flatworm. It is believed to have been introduced to Thai soil via a wood cargo shipment. The news worried ecologists and scientists as New Guinea flatworms are known to be a threat to biodiversity as they eat snails and other invertebrates -- which could lead to the extinction of some soil invertebrate species.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has ordered a special committee to study their impact on the environment.