Threats to the park

Unfortunately, Thap Lan’s modest place in the shadow of its famous neighbor, Khao Yai, does not mean the park has escaped the legion of problems bombarding all of Southeast Asia’s protected areas. Illegal Siamese rosewood logging, poaching of endangered species such as Pileated gibbons, vast encroachment, dams, and widening roads are all slowly eroding the overall ecological integrity of the park. Ranger Salak Chairacha has been working at Thap Lan for nine years and has seen the impacts of illegal loggers and villagers going into the forest to poach. “In the temporary camps we have found skins and carcasses, wild pigs, muntjac deer, squirrels, wild chicken, (they shoot) whatever they see in the forest,” he told Mongabay. “The poachers, they go out at night. They use a torch, look for eyes in the dark. If they see it, they shoot it.”

Poaching is just one threat to conservation that, if not sufficiently subdued, could see the DPKY-FC’s Heritage status downgraded to inscription on the “List of World Heritage in Danger” this year. Thailand is due to submit its updated report on the “state of conservation” of the Complex by Feb. 1. At its 41st session in July, the World Heritage Committee is expected decide whether the current scenario warrants a move to the Danger List. Thailand’s World Heritage Office in Bangkok declined to give comment at this time.

Leaving Thap Lan with the conservationists on one evening, another of the key threats to the park becomes starkly obvious. Cascades of glowing embers are sprouting from fifteen meters up in the air, as laborers for construction giant Italian-Thai weld metal atop a giant, Y-shaped, concrete structure that will support the expansion of Highway 304. Work is underway on a project to expand the road, one of the main arteries connecting Bangkok to the country’s entire northeast via the forest complex. It runs through Thap Lan and Khao Yai, severing the latter from the rest of the protected areas. Already a two-lane highway when the UNESCO World Heritage site was declared, Highway 304 is currently being widened to four-lanes, increasing deforestation within the complex and driving a massive wedge between Khao Yai and Thap Lan.

Prawatsart sees the road expansion as a necessary evil. “Highway 304 is a problem, but we need it for the development of our country. It is a major route to Isaan (Thailand’s northeastern region),” he said. “We have to explain to the World Heritage Committee that it is necessary to have some things. I think if we can’t have them, then we don’t have to be a World Heritage site. We need these things for our country. We need to compromise.” Prawatsart’s view is not mirrored by some conservationists, who see the expansion of Highway 304 as yet another assault on one of the last remaining significant tracts of lowland forests in Southeast Asia.

To mitigate the effects of the road, wildlife corridors — including both a viaduct and overpasses over Highway 304 — are planned to be completed by 2018. If the wildlife corridors work, they will keep Thap Lan connected with Khao Yai, and help keep the entire forest area connected and suitable for large mammals who require large areas of forest habitat. The need for safe corridors for animals was made all too real by the news of a male tiger found injured near a road in Thailand’s northern Lampang province this January, some 300 kilometers (180 miles) from the Huay Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary, the nearest viable habitat and Thailand’s last stronghold supporting a breeding population of Indochinese tigers.

“This is a first of a kind project in Thailand and we’ll have a lot more work to oversee its effectiveness,” said Win Trivitayanurak, an environment specialist at the Thai government’s Department of Highways, who works to ensure the provisions in the project’s EIA are met. Win was positive about efforts to ensure the wildlife corridors’ implementation. “I think the construction company are trying to get it on track,” he told Mongabay. “Of course all the mitigation measures must be complied with because we rigorously monitor that.” Win also noted that the wildlife tunnels designed to run under Highway 304 have been devised to give enough clearance for elephants, even though none appeared during ecological surveys. “This project will be a good collaboration with the DNP and there will be a lot more projects like this I’m sure,” said Win.

Tim Redford, project coordinator at Freeland Foundation, an NGO that has been working in Thap Lan for over 8 years, echoed those sentiments. Effective construction of wildlife corridors over Highway 304 sets an important precedent for the future of wildlife connectivity in Thailand, he said. “It’s very important as it’s a testing site for these methods in Thailand. They have never been tried here before.”