Kaeng Krachan to be nominated as Natural World Heritage site

[buksida]

Thailand is to put forward a nomination to Unesco's World Heritage Centre for the listing of Kaeng Krachan Forest Complex as a Natural World Heritage site, deputy government spokesman Chalitrat Chantarubeksa said on Tuesday.

The nomination, to be submitted to the centre's office in Paris by Friday, was decided at the Cabinet's weekly meeting yesterday.

The Cabinet also endorsed a proposal to change the name from Kaeng Krachan Forest Complex or KKFC to Thailand Western Forest Complex, as the site is connected with other national parks, he said. Deputy Prime Minister Plodprasob Surasawadi has been appointed as administration chief and has set up a panel comprising representatives of the ministries of interior, natural resources and environment, culture as well as tourism and sports, to oversee the work.

This forest complex meets the categories required by the Unesco, among them containing the most important and significant natural habitats for insitu conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation.

The park, the largest in Thailand, covers parts of the Phetchaburi's Nong Ya Plong, Kaeng Krachan and Tha Yang and Prachuap Khiri Khan's Hua Hin district. A jungle in the Tanaosri Ranges is the origin of many rivers, including Phetchaburi River and Pranburi River.

Source: The Nation

[barrys]

It might help their cause if they could first stop high-ranking officials in the national park from conniving in the killing of elephants on their territory for the ivory trade.

[Nereus]

It might help their cause if they could first stop high-ranking officials in the national park from conniving in the killing of elephants on their territory for the ivory trade.

Yes, exactly.
........................................
Park chief says police officer will be charged

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/3 ... ce-officer

The evidence is strong and has been verified and it is just a matter of time before a police officer protected by his colleagues will join eight other suspects facing charges of hunting protected animals inside Kaeng Krachan National Park, the park chief said on Tuesday.

Park chief Chaiwat Limlikhit-aksorn said the park would supply the evidence to state prosecutors needed to add Pol Lt Col Theerayuth Ketmangmee to the list of defendants on charges of illegally hunting protected wildlife inside the park.

"I am only waiting for the Office of the Attorney-General. All evidence is ready (for submission)," he said.

Mr Chaiwat was confident that the park had solid evidence to support the charges against the police officer, who has already been transferred from the position of chief investigator at a station in Pran Buri district in Prachuap Khiri Khan province to an inactive post at the Police Provincial Region 7 head office.

He said he had seen in pictures of Pol Lt Col Theerayuth in the company of eight other people, all civilians, in the park in Kaeng Krachan district, Phetchaburi province.

They were pictured with hunting weapons and grilling and eating a dead mouse deer and about 100 giant Asian river frogs in early November.

"If I didn't have solid evidence, he would sue me," he added.

The decision by Kaeng Krachan police on Jan 23 to indict only the eight civilians, and not Pol Lt Col Theerayuth, stirred public indignation.

Kaeng Krachan police claimed they did not have enough evidence to arraign him.

In the face of public anger, assistant national police chief Pol Lt Gen Jarumporn Suramanee was appointed by the police chief to head an inquiry into the matter.

He held talks with the park officials and checked all evidence the park had in its hands, and then announced that it would be sufficient to include Pol Lt Theerayuth on the list of defendants. The evidence he checked included the pictures of the suspects and the accused police officer.

"The evidence is very strong, very convincing that he took part in the hunt with the other eight suspects," Pol Lt Gen Jarumporn said on Monday.

Kaeng Krachan, which also covers part of Prachuap Khiri Khan, has long been poached by hunters due to its rich wildlife. Conservationists have called it one of the last forest frontiers in Southeast Asia. It is a popular tourist destination, sprawling along the border in Phetchaburi and Prachuap Khiri Khan provinces. It is the largest national park in Thailand, rich in fauna and flora.

Mr Chaiwat admitted that hunting in the area would not end with this particular prosecution. It job of park officials to protect it from unwanted, unauthorised intruders.

"If we find them (hunters of protected animals), we will not hesitate to arrest them," he added.

[Terry]

They might also enforce the law re netting of the fish in the dams - it's supposed to be illegal there

[buksida]

New evidence in park hunting case
Authorities have revealed evidence by a key witness that could ensure prosecution of a senior police officer who so far has been protected by colleagues from facing charges of hunting protected animals inside Kaeng Krachan National Park.

Thai Rath newspaper reported Wednesday that a witness identified as Banjerd Kladlum is under police protection and plans to testify against Pol Lt Col Thirayuth Ketmangmee, a former inspector at Pran Buri police station in Prachuap Khiri Khan, who was caught on Nov 11 with eight civlian suspects who have been charged.

Mr Banjerd was a younger brother of one of the eight civilians, all of whom have been indicted for the alleged illegal hunting. Thai Rath said it got the story from National Parks chief Chaiwat Limlikhit-aksorn.

During police questioning, Mr Banjerd allegedly admitted to taking Pol Lt Col Thirayuth and three others, including his brother, in his boat to the mouth of the 55-kilometre Mae Pradone River. They were later joined by other hunters in three other small boats, and ventured deeper into the park on the now-scandalous hunting expedition.

According to the witness, those accompanying the officer on the first boat were Banjerd’s brother, Saichon, Sanit Aumnuaylaeka, an officer at Phetchaburi’s Rural Roads Office, and Attawut Deeying, a Provincial Electricity Authority official.

Last week, Mr Chaiwat, who heads the investigation jointly with police, expressed confidence that the park had solid evidence to support charges against the police officer, who has been transferred to an inactive post at the Police Provincial Region 7 head office, but still has not been charged in the case.

The suspects were arrested with several weapons, a dead mouse deer and about 100 giant Asian river frogs. The photos and video footage seized from them clearly show the nine suspects together.

All of the alleged hunters have since been indicted except Pol Lt Thirayuth, with investigators saying there was not enough evidence to charge him in the first place.

A public outcry over the decision not to charge the senior officer has prompted assistant national police chief Pol Gen Jarumporn Suramanee to examine the way police handled the case.

Source: BK Post

[usual suspect]

I heard a rumour yesterday that 2 more elephants were found shot this week in KK Nat-Park!
Seems rather coincedental..being as the CITES conferrence in BKK is rocking the 'apple-cart' amongst poachers & shark-dealers (& many others no doubt).
Plus Yingluk's futile pledge to sweeten the conferrence candidates by stating she'll stop the ivory-trade in LOS..(555!)
Maybe what's needed is an ASEAN task-force to come in to do duties in the N.P.s..a bit like having NATO
forces doing tasks in other countries..& keep the Thai police & Rangers at bay..beyond the park entry-gates.