Tiger Project in Thailand

In Thailand, tiger and various other threatened species such as elephant, leopard, black bear, and gaur can be found along the western border with Myanmar. There are two large tracks of forest left on Thailand’s side that are important areas for Thailand’s wildlife: the Western Forest Complex (WEFCOM) and the Kaeng Kra Chan National Park (KKNP). The core area in WEFCOM has been protected through the creation of two wildlife sanctuaries comprising of 6,000 km2.  These large sanctuaries are named Huai Kha Khaeng and Thung Yai (HKK-TY) and were awarded the UNESCO’s Natural World Heritage status in 1991, based on the areas rich and unique biodiversity. WCS-Thailand has been working to protect tigers in HKK-TY since 1997 through surveys and monitoring. The density of the tiger population in the tropical forests of HKK-TY was recently estimated using camera traps during 2004-2005 determining that this is an important site for tigers in Thailand.

The Human Aspect
The current population of Thailand is 62 million encompassing a majority of native Thai and a diversity of hilltribes such as Karen, Hmong, Akha, Lahu living mainly in the remote areas in the North and Northwest near the border with Myanmar and Laos. The entire Western Forest Complex is experiencing habitat fragmentation driven by human encroachments as forests are felled and cleared to make room for this growing human population.

Threats
Human pressures, especially poaching and farming inside and surrounding the area, poor management conservation, and inefficiency in law enforcement has all led to a high degree of uncertainty in the long-term viability of tigers and other wildlife in this area. In addition, despite all the substantial efforts in tiger conservation, due to the lack of reliable data on the distribution, abundance of tiger populations and unreliable information on tiger numbers that arises from inaccurate methods, conservation strategies have yet often been hampered.

WCS Activities
Dr. Anak Pattanavibool, Director of WCS Thailand program, has worked closely with government researchers and resource managers from the Department of National Park and Wildlife (DNP) in order to install a long-term monitoring system of tigers and prey in HKK-TY using camera trapping and line transect techniques with encouragement and guidance from experienced WCS tiger scientists. WCS Thailand has DNP’s rangers and officers to combine monitoring and patrolling that use technology such as GPS and GIS database. We are working closely with researchers and conservationists from crucial local academic institutions and NGOs so as to improve their capacity to effectively run long-term science-based conservation, protection and awareness building programs. The WCS Living Landscape Program approach is also being utilized in order to cope with the critical problems threatening the wildlife in western Thailand. Earlier studies in Asia clearly show that tiger densities are positively and predictably correlated with prey densities. Therefore, knowledge of the responses of prey and tiger populations to management efforts are extremely important for both the future management of Huai Kha Khaeng and for conservation efforts elsewhere in Southeast Asia. The photographic capture-recapture sampling revealed that this method is a reasonable approach for estimating densities of tigers in other areas of Huai Kha Khaeng. Therefore, this could be applied in other protected parts of WEFCOM as well.

Important Next Steps
While continuing the above activities, WCS Thailand will engage in the following:
· To install camera-trapping systems for long-term tiger population monitoring and transect systems for prey monitoring in the best tiger habitat in HKK, so as to act as the benchmark for long-term tiger monitoring in the best tiger populations in Thailand.
· To initiate the living landscape program approach in order to draft a conceptual model for conservation of HKK-TY and set up a monitoring system to measure the success of our interventions.
· To map tiger and prey distributions in KKNP through recce and line transect survey techniques.
· To setup and train park rangers and officials in HKK-TY and KKNP so as to integrate monitoring system into patrolling system and use the result of monitoring to guide protection.
· To support local and international NGOs regarding awareness building programs for tiger conservation based on WCS scientific findings on tiger status in Thailand.