Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary

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Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary
Ramit River on the southern edge of the Thung Yai Reserve in the border area with Khao Laem National Park
Ramit River on the southern edge of the Thung Yai Reserve in the border area with Khao Laem National Park
Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary (Thailand)
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Coordinates: 14 ° 55 ′ 0 ″  N , 98 ° 28 ′ 0 ″  E
Location: Kanchanaburi , Thailand
Surface: 3690 km²
Founding: 1974
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The Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary ( Thai : เขต รักษา พันธุ์ สัตว์ ป่า ทุ่งใหญ่ นเรศวร , pronunciation: [ kʰèt ráksǎː pʰan sàt pàː tʰûŋ jàj náʔreːsǔan ], "Wildlife Sanctuary Great Plain Naresuan") is a wildlife sanctuary in the provinces of Kanchanaburi and Tak in Thailand . It was declared in 1974 Wildlife Reserve and in 1991, together with the adjoining Huai Kha Khaeng in the list of World Heritage of UNESCO added.

location

The Thung Yai Naresuan wildlife sanctuary is located on the western border between Thailand and Burma , at the southern end of the Dawna mountain range. It extends northeast of the Three Pagoda Pass and the district capital Sangkhla Buri ( Amphoe Sangkhla Buri , Kanchanaburi Province ) along the Thai-Burmese border into the district ( Amphoe ) Umphang in Tak Province . The area covers a total area of ​​364,720 hectares , making it the largest nature reserve in Thailand.

Together with the adjoining Huai Kha Khaeng wildlife sanctuary (Thai: เขต รักษา พันธุ์ สัตว์ ป่า ห้วย ขา แข้ง ), it forms the core area of ​​the Western Forest Complex , which includes various other wildlife sanctuaries, national parks and forest reserves and the largest contiguous protected area on the Southeast Asian mainland represents.

topography

The predominantly mountainous area is geologically shaped by limestone formations with granite inclusions as well as smaller quartzite and slate deposits. The predominant soil types are red-brown soils on limestone sites and red-yellow Podsolic soils over granites. In the river valleys, the soils are characterized by fertile tertiary limestone deposits.

The altitude extends from about 180 m above sea level at the Vajiralongkorn Reservoir (previously: "Khao Laem Reservoir") to the 1811 m high Khao Thai Pa.

The largest rivers in the reserve are the Mae Nam Mae Klong (Mae Klong River) and the Mae Nam Mae Chan, both of which have their origin in the Umphang Wildlife Sanctuary ( Umphang District ), which connects to Thung Yai to the north. In Thung Yai, Mae Klong and Mae Chan flow together to form Upper Mae Nam Khwae Yai , which feeds the Si-Nakharin reservoir .

Various smaller rivers in the south and southwest feed the Vajiralongkorn reservoir (Khao Laem Reservoir), while in the northwest of the reserve the Mae Kasart and Mae Suriya flow into Burma, where they flow over the Ataran and Haungtharaw at Moulmein into the Salween and the Gulf flow from Martaban .

climate

That by the monsoon embossed air is in the rainy season, hot and humid from May to October, with an average minimum temperature of 20 ° C and a maximum of an average of 33 ° C. From November to January the climate is cool and dry, with a minimum of 10 ° C and a maximum of 29 ° C, while February to April is hot and dry, with an average minimum of 15 ° C and a maximum of 35 ° C.

The daily maximum temperatures rise to over 40 ° C in April. In the cool season, the temperatures at night are not infrequently 7 ° C and below.

The annual precipitation is in the west at 2000 to 2400 mm and takes to the east of the reserve back from where he is mm 1600-2000. Over 80% of the precipitation is dependent on the southwest monsoon from the Andaman Sea .

fauna and Flora

Phytogeographically , the area forms an interface between the foothills of the eastern Himalayas and the equatorial forests of the Great Sunda Shelf. Evergreen forests make up a total of approx. 46% of the protected area area and include tropical mountain rainforests and gallery forests along the permanent rivers. Moist and dry deciduous forests also take up approx. 46% of the area and are mainly found in the locations below 800 m above sea level. About 4% of the area is occupied by savanna forests and grasslands . The remaining 4% of the area was classified in the nomination application for the world natural heritage as fallow and slash- and- burn areas , which also include various bamboo forest types that are not or only partially included in this classification.

In terms of fauna , the protected area is also the interface between different fauna regions. To the living area mammals include, among others, white-handed gibbons ( Hylobates lar ), various types of macaques ( Macaca ) and lutung ( Trachypithecus ), tiger ( Panthera tigris ), leopard ( Panthera pardus ), clouded leopard ( Neofelis nebulosa ) Malaien- ( Helarctos malayanus ) and collarbears ( Ursus thibetanus ), black- backed tapirs ( Tapirus indicus ), Asian elephants ( Elephas maximus ), gaure ( Bos gaurus ), pig deer ( Cervus porcinus ), sambar ( Rusa unicolor ), tenasserim muntjac ( Muntiacus feae ) and southern serau ( Capricornis sumatraensis ) and numerous bat species .

Occurrences of Banteng ( Bos javanicus ) and wild water buffalo ( Bubalus amee ) are assured for the adjacent Huai Kha Khaeng wildlife sanctuary and are suspected in Thung Yai. Indications of the occurrence of Java ( Rhinoceros sondaicus ) and Sumatran rhinoceros ( Dicerorhinus sumatrensis ) in the area date from the 1980s and have not been confirmed since then.

To the larger birds of various birds of the area belonging Malay duck ( Cairina scutulata ), the Nepal pheasant ( Lophura leucomelanos ), the Gray Pfaufasan ( Polyplectron bicalcaratum ), the green peafowl ( Pavo muticus ), the gray Pelikan ( Pelecanus philippensis ), the Indian Darter ( Anhinga melanogaster ), the stained stork ( Mycteria leucocephala ), the greater adjutant ( Leptoptilos dubius ), the bald head Geier ( Sarcogyps calvus ), the Nepal hood Adler ( Nisaetus nipalensis ), the brown-tail eagle ( Ichthyophaga humilis ) and all six Nashornvogel species (Bucerotidae ) Mainland Southeast Asia.

In total, the nomination application for the World Natural Heritage to UNESCO for the two wildlife sanctuaries Thung Yai Naresuan and Huai Kha Khaeng lists over 120 species of mammals , 400 birds , 96 reptiles , 43 amphibians and 113 fish species . So far, however, there have hardly been any systematic scientific studies on species diversity in Thung Yai, which is why the number of animal and plant species actually occurring is likely to be significantly higher.

The exceptional universal value of the area, which is the prerequisite for the declaration of world natural heritage , was justified with the following points:

  • The size and privacy of the two protected areas, which is unique for mainland Southeast Asia, as a prerequisite for the long-term conservation of endangered habitats and species .
  • The largely undisturbed and best protected occurrence of one of the most endangered dry deciduous forest ecosystems in Southeast Asia as well as the rare case of two intact river systems, whose catchment areas are in the protected area itself.
  • The extraordinarily high biodiversity due to the unique position of the protected area at the interface of the four biogeographical zones of mainland Southeast Asia and the large number of endemic species .
  • The occurrence of 28 internationally endangered and numerous nationally and regionally threatened species.
  • The high value of the protected area for research on ecological issues due to the extraordinary location and the undisturbed nature of the area.

History and settlement

prehistory

An archaeological evaluation of prehistoric traces of human settlement in Thung Yai and in the neighboring Huai Kha Khaeng wildlife sanctuary , which can be dated back up to 500,000 years, has hardly taken place. In the valleys of the Khwae Yai River and Mae Nam Kwai were Paleolithic , Mesolithic and Neolithic stone tools found. More recent archaeologically interesting tombs have been located in both Thung Yai and Huai Kha Khaeng , but have not yet been scientifically investigated.

The name of the reserve - Thung Yai Naresuan - refers on the one hand to the large, savannah-like plain in the reserve, which is known in Thai as thung yai ('large field'), and on the other to King Naresuan , who ruled Ayutthaya from 1590 to 1605 and is said to have camped with his army in Thung Yai on a campaign against Burma. The Karen living in Thung Yai refer to the large plain in the center of the area as pia aethala aethae , which translates as 'place of the knowing sages'. The term refers to the savannah as a place of meditation for the aethae , who as saints and cultural heroes have a special meaning for the history and identity of the Karen in Thung Yai and are worshiped by them in a cult .

Historical sources and local lore suggest that Thung Yai was not settled by Karen on a larger scale until the second half of the 18th century, primarily by Pwo-Karen from the hinterland of Moulmein and Tavoy in Burma . As a result of religious and political persecution in Burma, they had come to the area northeast of the Three Pagoda Pass, where they had formally received settlement rights. When the area, which is important for securing the border in Siam , was upgraded to a principality ( Mueang ) by the Siamese ruler Rama III around 1830, the Karen leader residing there received the Siamese title of nobility Phra Si Suwannakhiri . In the second half of the 19th century this Karen principality was of considerable importance for the Siamese kings in their negotiations with the British colonial power in Burma over the course of the western state border. In the course of the modernization of the administrative structure of the territorial nation- state that emerged at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century , the Karen in Thung Yai fell into the sidelines of state attention, where they only reappeared as " Hill Tribes " in the 1960s .

As early as the mid-1960s, there were plans to put the area on the upper Mae Nam Khwae Yai and Mae Nam Khwae Noi under nature protection, but these were difficult to enforce due to strong interests in the wood and ore deposits in the area. In 1972 the Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary was first established. The plans for Thung Yai met with even greater resistance until a 1973 'hunting accident' attracted national attention, which contributed significantly to Thung Yai being declared a wildlife sanctuary on April 24, 1974.

Senior military officers including families, business people and a movie star had used military helicopters and heavy weapons for an illegal hunting expedition to Thung Yai. The crash of one of the helicopters, in which several people died, was documented by students and, in the context of widespread dissatisfaction with military rule, sparked the October 14, 1973 uprising and the overthrow of the Thanom - Prapas dictatorship. After the military took power again in October 1976, many of the student leaders fleeing to the border regions found shelter with the Karen in Thung Yai.

Since the establishment of the reserve

Since the 1960s, various dam projects have also been planned to use the hydropower resources of the Mae Klong River system and in particular the two main tributaries Mae Nam Khwae Yai and Mae Nam Khwae Noi. In 1980 the Si-Nakharin Dam and in 1981 the Tha Thung Na Dam on the lower reaches of the Mae Nam Khwae Yai were put into operation, in 1984 the Khao Laem Dam (today Vajiralongkorn Reservoir) on Mae Nam Khwae Noi in southern Thung Yai.

The also planned Nam Choan Dam was to flood an area of ​​approx. 223 km² in the wildlife sanctuary on the upper reaches of the Mae Nam Khwae Yai, in the north of Thung Yai. However, the project met with increasing resistance and was stopped in 1988 due to widespread public protests. In the disputes over the Nam Choan Dam, the high value of the area for nature conservation and its possible nomination as a World Heritage Site played an important role. After the Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991, together with the adjoining Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary , a resumption of the dam project, which has only been formally suspended, seems hardly feasible.

The area was the site of shootings in 2013 between rangers and a heavily armed gang of poachers hunting tigers here. Two park rangers and a suspect were killed. In February 2018, the head of the construction company Italthai was caught poaching a black leopard; he was sentenced to 16 months in prison in March 2019.

Settlement

Although the nomination application explicitly emphasizes the undisturbed nature of the world heritage and the scientific studies carried out to date confirm the traditional settlement rights of the Karen living there and their adapted and sustainable use of their habitat, the state authorities are trying to remove them from the protected area.

The first resettlements of members of the Karen took place in connection with the establishment of the Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary in 1972. There, the remaining Karen had to leave the area due to the construction of the Si-Nakharin Dam and the flooding of their settlement areas in the late 1970s.

The liquidation of the remaining Karen settlements in Thung Yai was planned for 1992 and announced in the nomination application. Due to public protests, the plans had to be postponed for the time being, but were not abandoned. Since then, the authorities have tried to persuade the Karen to give up their settlement areas 'voluntarily' through pressure, intimidation and restrictions on the traditional land use system.

Hmong settlements that immigrated to the area in the 1960s were evicted from Huai Kha Khaeng in 1986 and from Thung Yai from 1987 to 1993, and their residents were relocated.

literature

  • Kulvadee Boonpinon: Institutional arrangements in communal resource management: A case study of a Karen village in a protected area. M.Sc. Thesis, Faculty of Graduate Studies, Mahidol University, Bangkok 1997.
  • Reiner Buergin: Local change and cultural identity in the field of tension between national modernization and global environmental discourses. The Karen in the Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary, a World Heritage Site in western Thailand. Dissertation, Albert-Ludwigs-University, Freiburg 2002.
  • Reiner Buergin: Environmental conditions beyond tradition and modernity. Ibidem-Verlag, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-89821-392-7 .
  • Alongkot Chukaew: Study on botanical knowledge of Karen communities in Thungyai Sanctuary. Wildlife Fund Thailand, Bangkok 1998.
  • Claudio O. Delang, Theresa Wong: The livelihood-based forest classification system of the Pwo Karen in Western Thailand. In: Mountain Research and Development. Volume 26, No. 2, 2006, pp. 138-145.
  • Seub Nakhasathien, Belinda Stewart-Cox: Nomination of the Thung Yai - Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Royal Forest Department, Bangkok 1990.
  • Robert Steinmetz: Landscape ecology and wildlife habitats: An indigenous Karen perspective in Thung Yai Wildlife Sanctuary of western Thailand. Wildlife Fund Thailand, Bangkok 1996.
  • Robert Steinmetz: The ecological science of the Karen in Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary, Western Thailand. In: M. Colchester, C. Erni (Ed.): From principles to practice: Indigenous peoples and protected areas in South and Southeast Asia. IWGIA, Copenhagen 1999, ISBN 87-90730-18-6 , pp. 84-107.
  • Robert Steinmetz, Robert Mather: Impact of Karen villages on the fauna of Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary: A participatory research project. In: Natural History Bulletin of the Siam Society. 44, 1996, pp. 23-40.
  • Chan-ek Tangsubutra, Kulvadee Boonpinon, Mario Ambrosino: The traditional farming system of the Karen of Sanehpong village, Thung-Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary, Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand. In H. Wood, M. McDaniel, K. Warner: Community development and conservation of forest biodiversity through community forestry. RECOFTC, Bangkok 1995, ISBN 974-7315-90-4 , pp. 193-199.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Thungyai-Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuaries , UNESCO World Heritage List, accessed March 29, 2015.
  2. ↑ See World Database on Protected Areas - Thungyai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary (English)
  3. ↑ See Western Forest Complex (Project for the Promotion of Ecotourism), accessed March 29, 2015.
  4. ↑ Seub / Stewart-Cox 1990: 4.
  5. ↑ Seub / Stewart-Cox 1990: 5.
  6. ↑ Seub / Stewart-Cox 1990: 4f.
  7. ↑ Seub / Stewart-Cox 1990: 5-11.
  8. ↑ Seub / Stewart-Cox 1990: 11f; Stonemason 1996.
  9. ↑ Seub / Stewart-Cox 1990: 16-23.
  10. ↑ Seub / Stewart-Cox 1990: 24-26.
  11. ↑ Seub / Stewart-Cox 1990
  12. ↑ Seub / Stewart-Cox 1990: 47-49; Buergin 2004: 166-168.
  13. ↑ Seub / Stewart-Cox 1990: 32f; Buergin 2004: 83.
  14. ↑ Seub / Stewart-Cox 1990: 3f; Buergin 2004: 159.
  15. ↑ Buergin 2004: 196f, 226-229.
  16. ↑ Buergin 2004: 83-100.
  17. ↑ Buergin 2004: 159-161.
  18. ↑ Buergin 2004: 161-168.
  19. ↑ Manhunt snares alleged killer poacher. In: Bangkok Post , September 14, 2013lgh.
  20. ↑ ala / dpa: Thailand: millionaire has to be arrested for poaching. In: Spiegel Online . March 19, 2019, accessed April 13, 2020 .
  21. ↑ Seub / Stewart-Cox 1990: 47-49.
  22. ↑ Chan-ek et al. 1995; Steinmetz / Mather 1996; Kulvadee 1997; Alongkot 1998; Steinmetz 1999; Buergin 2002, 2004; Delang / Wong 2006.
  23. ↑ Buergin 2004: 168-200, see also Buergin: Local change and cultural identity in the field of tension between national modernization and global environmental discourses ( short version online , accessed on March 29, 2015)

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