Foreword

Thailand has been endowed with rich and diverse biodiversity in its seas, coasts, rivers, swamps, caves, forests, hills and mountains. From large wildlife such as elephants to tiny bats, giant forest trees to exquisite orchids, and from the relatives of domestic chickens to traditional rice varieties, the variety of life has sustained the Thai people in their daily lives. Thailand’s economic development has been rapid but not without ecological costs, as was shown by the failure of many of the coastal areas cleared of mangrove forests to establish shrimp ponds, and the major loss of forest cover leading to a ban on logging in natural forests in 1989.

Thailand, as a party to the Convention on Biological Diversity, has implemented many measures to protect biodiversity and has allocated government budgets to the tasks of biodiversity conservation, awareness raising and research. In addition, Thailand has taken upon itself a regional leadership role in biodiversity research and commitment to control illegal trade in wildlife. At the recent Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES COP13) held in Bangkok, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra proposed Thailand to be a coordinator for a regional network to combat wildlife trafficking. By the end of the meeting this had become an official ASEAN-wide declaration of intent to suppress the trafficking, with Thailand taking the lead in implementing it and training of the ASEAN partners.

The Thailand Environment Monitor Series seeks to present a snapshot of key environmental trends in the country. It seeks to engage and inform stakeholders of environmental conditions and changes, in an easy-to-understand format, and to provide benchmarked indicators for the subject they cover. Previous volumes have covered broad environment issues (2000), water quality (2001), air quality (2002), and solid and hazardous wastes (2003). The Thailand Environment Monitor 2004 assesses the status, trends, lessons and challenges related to biodiversity and its conservation. The report is in six sections. Section 1 provides an overview of Thailand’s biodiversity and why its conservation is a national concern. Section 2 looks at the biodiversity in the four major ecosystems of the country, especially at the threatened species, while Section 3 describes the ways in which conservation is both planned and executed. Section 4 focuses on awareness and interest in biodiversity conservation. Section 5 assesses biodiversity in the context of the legal framework, institutions, and current expenditures. Finally, Section 6 outlines the challenges faced by Thailand.

Information for this Monitor has been compiled from a variety of sources including published and unpublished data and reports by government agencies, universities, non-governmental organizations, individuals, the World Bank, and international partners.