SNAPPING UP THE BAD GUYS
New camera traps installed at Thap Lan National Park are helping forest rangers stay one step ahead of illegal loggers
In deep jungle, a forest ranger in his black uniform slowly climbed up a tree. With trained, quick hands, he strapped a camouflage case to a high branch that could oversee an area underneath it at a wide angle. Inside the case was a camera trap that can monitor the movement of animals, and especially humans who may enter the forest illegally.
These camera traps, called the Network Centric Anti-Poaching System (NCAPS) by the Thai forest rangers, are now installed throughout Thap Lan National Park — the second largest national park in the country with an area of 1.4 million rai that spans Nakhon Ratchasima and Prachin Buri provinces.
The main purpose of these camera traps is to discourage any illegal activities within the forest — or to catch the bad guys before they commit the actual crime, as the rangers put it. In Thap Lan, 71% of intruders enter the forest to fell phayung (Siamese rosewood), a highly prized hardwood much coveted by superstitious Chinese millionaires who believe the wood can bring them fortune.
The market price for a 2m-long piece of phayung timber in good condition is 1 million baht.
Due to strong demand, phayung is now marked as a threatened tree that could face extinction in a decade. It is now a punishable offence to cut this wood in Thailand. But despite the law, there have been several cases of illegal logging in recent years, with encounters between rangers and armed groups that have resulted in casualties on both sides.
“There could be 50-100 intruders coming in at a time, especially from Cambodia. They cut our trees, deliver the wood, and even set up camps with people sending in food. Their operations are guarded by armed men,” said Pakpoom Aramsirirujiwet, assistant to the superintendent at Thap Lan National Park.
In 2014 alone, there were 438 cases of illegal logging found in Thap Lan. So far this year, there have been at least 30 cases of the same crime.
“These woods are wiped out in Isan. Even Cambodia ran out of them, too, so now people are flocking to our forest for them,” Pakpoom added.
With just over 200 rangers to watch over the large area, the introduction of the camera traps has done its job in increasing the efficiency of the rangers, he said.
For the NCAPS, the team now utilises automatic, real-time camera traps with infrared sensors to monitor the loggers. In other countries, this same camera model is used to track the population of wild animals during hunting season. The images captured are then sent via email to the staff at the patrol centre, which operates day and night.
“We always relocate the cameras so the illegal loggers can’t hide or take a detour to avoid having their images captured. Constant relocation also lessens the risk of the cameras being destroyed,” said Pakpoom.
Last year, Thap Lan National Park was the first to utilise this technology in Thailand. The success rate of their operations lies at 65%. The information on the amount of camera traps and their locations within the forest is classified.
Aside from the cameras, the team also make use of a GPS tracker — aptly called the Wandering Rabbit — that they can plant into felled timber found in the forest, to track the movements of the loggers’ operations, most of the time all the way to the Thai-Cambodian border.
“Before, when we found any felled timber waiting to be delivered in the forest, we would have to seize it right away. But with the onset of new technology, we can take a step back and let the equipment do the work while we develop a strategy and delegate our force,” added Pakpoom,who also showed us an area where the team keeps their evidence. Piles of 1 million baht wooden planks lay out in the sunlight behind barbed wire next to the office of the rangers.
Pakpoom stated that operating in the forest these days involves a constant battle over information between the rangers and loggers.
“They know what happens on our side. They know we have these cameras, and even our staff roster. We’ve found some loggers posing as tourists, coming in to snoop around our office. So, we have to be one step ahead. We are learning, and they are learning too. The key is to stay ahead of the game in order to protect our resources,” he said. Aside from being one sustainable option to protect the forest, camera traps can also reduce the chance of injury as a result of attacks or encounters with armed intruders.
Prawatsart Chanteap, chief of Thap Lan National Park, said the technology alone won’t help without good planning, agile staff members and strict law enforcement.
“Technology is still not the best method to handle this situation. Humans, actually, are best. But technology can do wonders to increase our efficiency. At the same time, however, it can also make people lazy,” said the chief. “For everything to work smoothly, man has to evolve with technology.”
To aid the operation of Thai forest rangers, Biopharm Chemicals recently donated 100 fully-stocked medicine cabinets to the Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai Forest Complex, which covers four national parks and one wildlife sanctuary in the Eastern Forest, including Thap Lan National Park. This area was named on the Unesco World Heritage list in 2005.
Last year, the company also donated another set of medicine cabinets to national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in the Western Forest.
Superstitious Chinese millionaires believe the wood can bring them fortune