Thailand wins UN nature gongs

Thai guardians of the environment bagged three major awards from the 2018 Asia Environmental Awards yesterday for their work combating trans-boundary wildlife poaching.

Dubbing themselves the “Thailand Team”, the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, Customs and the Royal Thai Police collected the gong under the category of “Impact” after the high-profile arrest of wildlife poaching kingpin Boonchai Bach.

Mr Bach headed a huge criminal network responsible for the trafficking of ivory and rhino horns from Africa to Asia.

The arrest required years of collaborative investigative efforts with advocacy groups and officials overseas to track down the poaching kingpin’s network. It also required patience to follow smuggling rings in two continents, which led to the arrest, officials said.

The Royal Thai Customs’ Investigation and Suppression Division III team won an award in the “Innovation” category due to their advanced profiling technique to identify wildlife smugglers travelling to Thailand and Southeast Asia.

But the highly coveted “Special Commendation” went to Wichien Chinnawong, chief of Thungyai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary in Kanchanaburi province who uncovered the poaching and death of a black leopard earlier this year. Construction tycoon Premchai Karnasuta is a chief suspect.

In February 2018, a small team of rangers led by Mr Wichien encountered a group of hunters camping at the famous wildlife sanctuary and eating highly endangered animals. When it became clear Mr Premchai, a wealthy and influential businessman in Thailand, was among the group, the rangers did not hesitate to carry out their duties as enforcers of the law, officials said.

The awards organiser said they chose Mr Wichien because of his outstanding performance in protecting wild animals from those who would seek to keep them for fun or financial gain.

The awards are presented by UN Environment, UN Development Programme, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, USAID, Interpol, the Freeland Foundation and the Swedish government.

Other winners have come from China, India, South Korea, Malaysia, Nepal and Vietnam.

“Humanity is the guardian of the natural world, and these winners are at the tip of the spear. Without their commitment to justice, our environmental laws and safeguards are a paper tiger,” said Dechen Tsering, regional director for Asia and the Pacific for UN Environment. “It is their qualities of courage, dedication and integrity we need.”