Re-greening the forests

[KoratCat]

Re-greening the forests

Twenty-five years ago, Huai Hong Khrai in Doi Saket district, Chiang Mai, was an arid land. Now, the area is turning green again

The materials are simple - bamboo, rocks, wood and earth. The construction is simple, too. The materials are placed together, the builders ensuring that they are strong enough to hold back the water flowing downstream. But the benefits of a check dam - a small dam in a gully to decrease the flow of water, reduce erosion and encourage the deposition of sediment - are far from ordinary. They can regenerate both nature and people's lives.

And the simple yet practical check dams were suggested by His Majesty King.

"When His Majesty visited the North of Thailand, he noticed how local villagers dammed mountain streams in order to retain water," said Pradab Kladkempetch, director of the Huai Hong Khrai Royal Development Study Centre.

The idea was later developed at the centre, where reforestation, small-scale irrigation, land development and farm technology are the focus of research to help improve the locals' livelihoods.

Twenty-five years ago, the area in Huai Hong Khrai in Doi Saket district, about 30km from Chiang Mai, was arid, the result of massive deforestation. Forest fires were annual occurrences, indicating the urgent need for reforestation.

"His Majesty, however, said that in the next 30 years, people would be jealous of the fertility of Doi Saket. And it became a reality, eventually," Pradab said.

Thanks to the naturally irrigated reforestation projects - including check dams - it took about seven years for the 1,360 hectare area to start turning green. New leaves began to bud. Flowers started to bloom and the wildlife slowly returned.

According to statistics collected by the centre, compared to 1984 there are now 60 to 80 more plant varieties, the mineral content of the soil has increased by three to four per cent and the temperature is lower by 1.7C.

Check dams are small barriers built across shallow rivers and streams. The small weirs retain excess water from monsoon rains, allowing time for water to be absorbed by the soil.

"The moisture spreads to nearby areas," the director explained, and by keeping the soil damp, the forest becomes fertile again more quickly.

More trees mean more leaves to decompose. And more decomposed biomatter means better soil, rich in nutrition, helping the ecosystem recover.

Increased moisture also reduces the chances of forest fires, one of the major causes of deforestation in the North.

"We can't say that humidity alone could prevent the fires, but it rather limits the areas where fires can start," said Pradab.

Farmers and residents in the area, who often face water shortages in the dry season, have also benefited from the check dams.

Check dams are not just useful in dry areas. When the monsoon rains come, these small water barriers slow down the flow of water running off mountains, helping to reduce erosion damage.

According to Rapeepol Taptimthong, an irrigation expert at Huai Hong Khrai Royal Development Study Centre, there are three kinds of check dams based on different materials. Simple check dams are made of local materials, such as wood, bamboo and earth, while semi-permanent dams are stronger, and use rock and clay in their construction. The strongest check dams are built with concrete and steel.

What materials to use is location-dependent. Check dams made of natural materials are suitable for streams in the highlands, where access to tools and equipment is limited, said Rapeepol. More durable materials should be used to construct dams where the current is stronger.

Though the purpose of check dams is mainly to hold back water, they are not meant to be totally impervious, like a plastic sheet.

"It's okay if a little water leaks through the dam. It's natural that water is absorbed through the soil," said Rapeepol.

The best period to construct a dam is in the dry season, when it is easier to check the quality of the soil - soil with too high a sand content should be avoided because of its poor ability to hold water. When a suitable spot is chosen, Rapeepol said loose soil and pebbles must be cleared away to prepare for construction.

There are no firm rules for building check dams, he stressed. Techniques can vary and be adjusted to suit different typographies.
Despite their simple construction, the benefits of check dams are great.

"What you need is local wisdom and a touch of creativity," Rapeepol noted. "For example, the best bamboo to use is large and thick. But if suitable bamboo is unavailable, villagers can drive smaller diameter bamboo poles into larger diameter lengths, to strengthen them."

Choosing the right location is important. Areas where streams are 3.5 to 5m wide and the water is shallow - between 0.5 and 1m - are perfect. After a bend is a good place too, since the water flow is normally reduced. However, if it is necessary to construct check dams across straight sections of streams, Rapeepol advises the building of several check dams, to reduce the power of the water.

Knowledge and check dams alone are not the most significant factors for regenerating deforested areas. The sense of belonging and ownership created by the participation of local communities in building and maintaining check dams is also very important.

The villagers have seen changes in nature. They saw how the forest near their villages became arid after trees were chopped down and how it affected their farming," Pradab said. "So they started to realise they should do something to bring nature back into balance."

Many communities seek advice about check dams, both the theory and practice, from the Huai Hong Khrai Centre. For example, about 200 villagers at Tambol Tha Pladuk, Mae Tha district, Lamphun, built 20 check dams in two days. "His Majesty the King once said that the key to protecting and nourishing nature effectively is local people," said the director.

Bangkok Post April 16, 2007

[KoratCat]

Saving Thailand's Forests

Villagers Learn to Conserve their Heritage

© Paul Lightfoot

A recent project in Northeast Thailand has motivated local communities to play an active role in protecting their forests and could serve as a model for other areas

Wirat and Thongjan Sidaduang farm a small plot adjacent to the boundary of the Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary in Thailand's Chaiyaphum province. They have a few acres of rice, some fruit trees, a fish pond where ducks are feeding and a mud kiln for making charcoal. The rice is a beautiful, translucent green as the afternoon sun lights it up towards the end of the rainy season.

"Our farm does not make us rich," Wirat says, "but we can manage."

It was not always like this. Not long ago Wirat spent much of his time inside the sanctuary, dodging the rangers and making his living by hunting birds and small animals, cutting trees and collecting bamboo shoots. Even his charcoal kiln was inside the boundary. The change has been dramatic, not only for Wirat and Thongjan but also for many of the 11,000 households who live in the Phu Khieo 'buffer zone.'

"Until a few years ago our forestry officers never reached out to the villages beyond the sanctuary boundaries," says Dr Kanjana Nitaya of the Wildlife Conservation Bureau. "The farmers did their best to avoid them and hamper their work. Villagers attacked and burned down two of our protection units."

Dr Kanjana and her colleagues spearheaded a project designed to engage with local communities and encourage them to understand the importance of protecting the sanctuary while at the same time addressing the livelihood issues that led to their encroachment.

They targeted 65 'buffer zone' villages whose lands touched the sanctuary boundary with awareness and information campaigns, mainly through a local FM radio station.

"The numbers of on-air phone calls show how popular the forest protection programmes are," says DJ Manit Udombua, who was delighted to get good quality material that boosted the station's audience while requiring almost no budget.

To change behaviour as well as attitudes the project established a network of 'model farmers' who serve as demonstrators of appropriate production systems, emphasising the 'sufficiency' and low-cost, environmentally friendly methods advocated by Thailand's revered King.

Supporting community forestry organisations has been the project's farthest-reaching strategy, helping to introduce sustainable management systems for small areas of forest near to but outside the sanctuary.

"The project helped us incorporate six other villages," says Mongkhon Khamyang, a member of the Na Somboon village group's management committee.

The group drew up rules to control forest access, with activities allowed or restricted depending on the season and the committee's assessment of whether particular plants can be collected and small animals can be hunted sustainably. One thousand households have agreed to use the community forest under a set of regulations they have all signed up to.

In 2006 the Department of National Parks recognised Phu Khieo as its best-managed sanctuary, welcome recognition for Dr Kanjana and her staff that helps promote their approach and methods in Thailand's 54 other wildlife sanctuaries. The extent to which it is copied will ultimately be the measure of the project's success.

Much remains to be done before the future of Thailand's environmental heritage can be considered safe; but showing how to turn some of the sanctuary's enemies into its allies, poachers into gamekeepers, has been an important step forward.

"We have really changed now," says Wirat. "The patrols are more difficult to avoid, and the project helped us improve our farms to meet our basic needs. But to be honest, after attending the meetings and demonstrations we all feel a bit ashamed about our past activities and we don't want to damage the forest any more."

suite101.com Jan. 6, 2008

[KoratCat]

Hundreds of golden teak trees poisoned

Villagers believe forest being cleared for dam

Phrae _ Hundreds of valuable golden teak trees have died in Mae Yom national park, and villagers believe they were poisoned to clear the way for a revival of the controversial Kaeng Sua Ten dam project.

Forestry officials have retrieved empty cans of herbicide from under the dead trees.

Villagers say at least 700 trees have been poisoned by people wanting to destroy the forest so that the long-shelved dam project could finally go ahead.

A large number of teak tree stumps were also found in the area. Villagers said the trees had been cut and loggers were preparing to haul the logs away.

The dead trees were discovered in tambon Sa Eiab, Song district, during a recent survey headed by a village leader.

Seng Khwanyuen, village head of Sak Thong village, said he had told local officials several times about the tree poisoning, but no one believed him.

He said his team found empty herbicide cans scattered on the forest floor.

He and other villagers believe poachers poisoned the trees to get the logs while at the same time ruining the fertile forest to justify dusting off the dam project.

Mr Seng said that in the areas his team surveyed more than 700 teak trees had died from herbicide poisoning.

There could be more dead trees in other areas of the park.

National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department chief Chalermsak Wanichsombat inspected the affected area in the national park on Saturday and said his initial survey confirmed the trees were poisoned.

Dead trees were easier to transport as they float better in water than freshly-cut timber.

He had instructed the head of the department's Phrae office, Prachakpong Thaiklang, to send him a report on the matter immediately.

Permsak Makarabhirom, former director of the Regional Community Forestry Training Centre Asia and the Pacific, said some of the trees may not have died, but merely shed their leaves.

The richness of the forest was no longer the momentum behind opposition to the planned dam.

The weight of the argument now centred on the dam's inability to prevent flooding in the lower northern provinces, Mr Permsak said.

Support for the dam project, originally put forward in 1989, resurfaces every time severe floods and drought hit the central and northern provinces.

Some believe the dam could help manage and prevent natural disasters in the area.

But the proposal faces stiff resistance from villagers and environmentalists, who fear the dam would flood a large portion of the country's richest and largest remaining golden teak forest in the national park.

Bangkok Post Jan. 14, 2008

[KoratCat]

CONSERVATION MAE YOM PARK, LAW ENFORCEMENT

Teak tree poisoning verified, park sealed

APINYA WIPATAYOTIN

The National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department has sealed-off teak-rich Mae Yom national park in Phrae province to prevent the smuggling of about 300 dead teak trees from the forest. Chalermsak Wanichsombat, the department chief, issued the order yesterday and also transferred the national park chief, Mongkol Sang-arun, to an inactive post for alleged dereliction of duty leading to severe damage to the country's most pristine teak forest.

The move came after villagers from tambon Sa-iab in Song district and a green group on Sunday found hundreds of valuable golden teak trees poisoned and dead.

Some of them had fallen down and been hauled out of the area, they said.

Forestry officials retrieved empty herbicide cans from under the dead trees.

The villagers strongly believe the trees were poisoned to clear the way for a revival of the controversial Kaeng Sua Ten dam project, which would be possible if the pristine forest becomes degraded.

Mr Chalermsak, who inspected the area yesterday, confirmed the villagers' finding and suspected that the mass destruction of high-grade teak trees was done by illegal loggers.

He said 269 teak trees had been poisoned, not more than 700 as earlier reported. The dead trees would be left where they were and would not be taken out for auction as previously speculated, to prevent claims that officials deliberately felled the trees to earn money auctioning off the timber. Under forestry law, seized illegally logged timber belongs to the state and is auctioned off.

The department chief also insisted that the culprits would be brought to justice as soon as possible.

Sa-iab villagers, who are known for their forest conservation role, lauded the department's decision not to sell the timber, saying the move would ''white-wash'' the teak poaching gang's business.

Prasidhiporn Karn-ornsri, an adviser to the Mae Yom forest conservation group, however, doubted the official report that there were only 296 dead trees and not 768 dead golden teak trees as reported by the villagers.

He said the villagers were tipped off about the deforestation in December and finished counting the dead trees earlier this month.

Mr Prasidhiporn said the department had already set up a joint state-local committee to verify the number of dead golden teak trees in the park.

Manoonsak Tantiwiwat, director of Forest Industry Organisation (FIO), also denied there was any plan to auction off the valuable teak logs from the park.

''The agency doesn't want to be accused of helping illegal loggers transform the seized logs to the legal ones,'' he said. The FIO is a state-enterprise in charge of commercial forest plantations and auctioning of confiscated timber.

Bangkok Post Jan. 15, 2008

[KoratCat]

Four held after teak trees in Phrae poisoned

Police have arrested four men for poisoning a large number of preserved teak trees in Mae Yom national forest reserve in Phrae.

Of 296 dead teak trees, which grew in the last complete stand in the forest reserve, 19 have been felled and 33 logs were found nearby.

The four suspects - Narung Kardmanee, Theerawat Bunyuen, Kanya Saenkhamlue, and Phajon Khamkhern - admitted felling the trees. They said they wanted the logs to renovate homes and sell for money.

Phrae police later searched sawmills in the province for illegally felled logs and to find out if the mills had bought the logs or hired the suspects to kill the trees in order to secretly fell them later on.

The men were arrested on Tuesday night at their homes. Found with them were 12 gallons of chemical weed killer, logging equipment, four home-made hunting rifles and a number of teak logs. They have pleaded guilty to felling preserved trees and having logs in their possession.

Forest rangers said Mongkhol Saengrung-arun, the chief of the Mae Yom national forest reserve, had been transferred for failing to protect the teak trees.

Soldiers will be asked to assist in jungle patrols, which would be joined by civilian volunteers.

Natural Resources and Environment Technology Minister Yongyuth Yuthavong said in a meeting yesterday he would propose a national committee to tackle deforestation and illegal logging and poaching.

Prasitthiphorn Kalonsri, a villager who heads a scout volunteer group, said the number of the trees poisoned and killed was 768, not 269.

Forest reserve rangers will inspect the area again to ascertain the exact number of poisoned trees.

The Nation Jan. 17, 2008