Asia's Great Climate Frontiers: In the rainforests of southern Thailand, locals are spearheading efforts in environmental protection. In the last part of a monthly series, CNA looks at the catalysts to changing attitudes and hope for the future.
SURAT THANI, Thailand: The rangers move in formation, alert as they weave through dense foliage and wade across waist deep rivers. The rainforest is loud with the siren calls of birds hidden in the canopy.
Most of Khao Sok comprises virgin rainforest. It’s dense and humid, part of an ancient rainforest system that’s older than the Amazon. The Khao Sok rangers stop now and then to document what they find on patrol. Their discoveries are mostly mundane, like plastic bottles. “We didn’t have any laws or a national park at the time. So, it’s normal that they would go and find wildlife. They didn’t sell them but they did it for survival.
“This is why incidents of encroachment, destruction of resources and poaching of wildlife are now zero.”OLD PAIN, NEW OPPORTUNITIES Karun Pengchan, now 78 years old and residing on the outskirts of the national park, remembers that time with a lingering sorrow. “My wife and I memorised where our house was by heart. We can point where it is. If we take a boat with our children and grandchildren now, we can tell them that our house was here and our land was here,” he said.
international not-for-profit assisting local communities to actively manage forests in Asia and the Pacific.“People are confronted with difficult choices and trade-offs. And when you want to send grandma to the hospital, and your kids to school, this takes money,” she said. “I personally see great promise and something really transformative as we start to see markets offering incentives and recognising these really marginalised historically impoverished groups for the absolutely vital role that they play in protecting the remaining shreds of ecosystems that we rely on as a global community for our survival,” Pairojmahakij added.
“They're one of the highest carbon sequestering forest types that exist. They're relatively more resilient in the face of climate change, as opposed to say the dry deciduous forests in northern parts of these countries which are much more subject to drought as well as wildfires,” RECOFTC’s Pairojmahakij said.
Anurak Community Lodge is on the edge of the national park. It is surrounded by jungle but most of its grounds are quite different; they are full of palm oil trees. This land used to be a plantation.
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