Doi
Ang Kang is a frequently visited area of Northern Thailand
that due to its very beautiful scenery attracts an ever-increasing
number of visitors, most of them Thai, during the cool season
when views are at their clearest and flowers are usually blooming.
Doi Ang Kang is a part of Doi Pha Hom National Park but the
area's value as a wildlife refuge is somewhat compromised
by the communities living within it, the farming that they
work at using huge amounts of pesticides that often kill birds
that feed on treated fruits and now the enormous numbers visitors
to the area.
Despite large numbers of visitors it is usually easy to get
away from them by heading down a trail or by finding some
corner that the crowds drive straight past and the patches
of forest along with open shrubland still provide a home to
a wide variety of colourful and rare species.
However, on a recent visit I was quite shocked to find how
a certain area had been completely ignorantly "developed"
by the national park services and destroyed the nest site
of an endangered species: Giant Nuthatch.
Years ago there was a small orchard at the location at which
there is now a small army camp which has a superb view over
the farmland of Northern Thailand. This orchard was chopped
down to make a clearing which is often used for camping. A
few years later the national park people created a campsite
in the area of pines close by and over the years there has
been a gradual trend towards building of toilets, accommodation
blocks etc.
However, this was all fairly low key, at least for ten months
of the year when there were very few visitors to the area
and birding this area still turned up regular sightings of
Scarlet-faced Liocichla, Spot-breasted Parrotbill, Grey-headed
Parrotbill, Grey-crowned Warbler, Chestnut Bunting and earlier
this year I found a pair of Giant Nuthatches nesting in a
large pine tree in the middle of the area.
Giant Nuthatch at Doi Ang Kang
This Endangered species has a very small world
range and given the amount of deforestation taking place in
neighbouring Myanmar, the few sites in Thailand where it occurs
could represent a large proportion of the population. Species
like this are exactly why so many birders visit Thailand and
why Thai national parks are globally important for wildlife,
so imagine my disgust when I returned to the site in early December
this year (2016) to find the following.
Visitor Centre
at Doi Ang Kang
Both
of the above photographs were taken at exactly the same spot,
needless to say that the first one is unlikely to ever be repeated
now that the area has a liberal covering of concrete and the
large, decaying tree the nuthatches were nesting in has been
felled.
One of the most basic things in managing wildlife habitats
is surveying the area to know exactly what it is you are managing.
Unfortunately, these people involved in the Thai national
parks system would not know a Giant Nuthatch if it smacked
them in the face and certainly did not engage in any environmental
impact assessment before they concreted over the habitat of
an endangered species. Too often foreigners visiting countries
like Thailand look down upon them, comparing them unfavourably
to their home countries but, I am afraid, that it is very
hard for them not to see Thailand in a very negative light
when the authorities supposedly responsible for running the
national parks are not only diverting funds away from conservation
to build obtrusive constructions but are actively involved
in increasing the pressure on endangered species, seemingly
too stupid to understand how to balance conservation with
visitor access.
I guess the only bright side to this is that the authorities
at Doi Ang Kang are not extorting 300 baht per person from
visiting foreigners to fund this habitat destruction and elimination
of endangered wildlife; at least not yet.
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