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For
more than 30 years,
the Gurney's Pitta, a colourful ground-living bird
of the rain forest, was believed to be extinct. Following
its rediscovery in the lowland forests around Khao
Nor Chuchi in 1986, a Non-Hunting Area was declared
in 1987. Prinz Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, who
is a serious bird lover and close to the Royal Family
of Thailand, might have played an influential role
in this declaration.
 As
most of the Gurney's Pitta lived outside the established
Non-Hunting Area, in lowland forests protected as
National Reserve Forest, the Royal Forestry Department
moved rapidly to put in place protected area staff
with a headquarters and guard posts.
Since 1989 the Centre
for Conservation Biology at Mahidol University in
Bangkok is supporting the efforts to protect this
unique biosphere with the Khao Nor Chuchi Lowland
Forest Project. This project was financed exclusively
by donations and provided infrastructure, training
and provision of equipment. A nature trails network
and an information centre was established and more
than 200 000 seedlings of locally grown rain-forest
trees have been distributed to temples, schools and
villages and used for reforestation in the area. . |
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The
area was upgraded to
a Wildlife Sanctuary in 1993, but the most extensive
and important area of lowland forest was excluded,
because of the existence of a small and scattered
rural human population in the area.
 From
September 1995 until May 1999, conservation
efforts were supported by the Danish
Ministry of Environment and Energy and managed
on their behalf by the Danish Ornithological Society/BirdLife
Denmark. Other supporters included the International
Council for Bird Preservation, World Wildlife Found-US,
Children's Rainforest Network and the GEO-initiative
Projekt Tropischer Regenwald-Germany.
Despite the efforts
of provincial and local government officials and project
activities, to address the underlying economic and
socio-political forces at work in the area, it has
not proved possible to stem the process of forest
clearance for rubber and oil palm. This continues
to be the primary motivation for land-use change in
Southern Thailand, sometimes backed by government
incentives. Small-scale illegal logging continued
in the project area and has destroyed 406 ha of the
critical lowland forest in only 3 years. Efforts to
reforest and prevent planting of cleared areas have
not been successful. Since 1992, the population of
Gurney's Pitta has declined from ca 21 pairs to 10-12
pairs. |
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Centre for Conservation Biology
at Mahidol University in Bangkok, the Bird Conservation
Society of Thailand, and BirdLife International currently
support monthly monitoring visits and a three-monthly
review of encroachment. New wooden walkways have been
added to the nature trails network, making the area
around the "Blue Lakes" easier accessible to visitors,
who arrive on daytrips from Krabi during the dry season.
Most tour operators bring their picnic food with them
from Krabi, leaving the local population with little
chance to earn a living from the increasing number
of visitors. Local enterprises, who offered basic
accommodation in the village near the headquarters
closed down, as the income from the few overnight
visitors was not sufficient to maintain the bungalows. |
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To
the Top of Khao Nor Chuchi
(3 days / 2 nights)
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© 1996-2011 All Rights Reserved. South Orchid (Thailand) Co., Ltd.
P.O.
Box 267, Phuket Town, Phuket, Thailand 83000
Tel:+66 8 9170 4100 Fax:+66 7652 1735
Email: mail@nature-travel.org
Updated:
2010-12-08
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