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Community of the Budo Mountain Range
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Story : Vanchai Tan
Photos : Bansit Bunyaratavej, Panot Krairojananon |
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By 1983, the politically sensitive
secessionist situation in Thailand had calmed down. Separatist groups in
the southernmost Muslim provinces of Thailand gave themselves up to the
authorities, and turned to non-political, "orderly" professions,
many volunteering to offer their protective services to the local
communities. At the same time, the Budo Mountain range in Baa Jau County
was designated part of the Budo-Sungai Padi National Park. Many years
later, a group of hornbill researchers realized that the Budo Mountains,
formerly inhabited by separatist terrorists, offered a plush abode for a
variety of hornbills, and discovered such hard to find (some of which are
endangered) hornbills as the White-crowned Hornbill, the Rhinoceros
Hornbill, the Great Hornbill and the Helmeted Hornbill. Soon after, the
Hornbill Ecology Research Project, under the Faculty of Science, Mahidol
University, headed by Dr. Pilai Poonswad quickly entered the field with an
overarching objective - to motivate local efforts to preserve the Budo
mountain hornbill population. |
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Initially, motivating the local
communities to value the preservation of their hornbill population was
difficult, particularly against the lucrative local practice of selling
the baby hornbills. In nearby Pattani province, the baby Rhinoceros
Hornbill sold for 1,500 baht, and the baby Great Hornbill for 500 baht. In
Bangkok, White-crowned baby hornbills sold for as must as 30,000 baht. |
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Yet the dedication with which Dr. Pilai
and other conservationists persisted, in convincing the local communities
of the greater, longer-lasting, and even commercial value of the Budo
hornbill population, not to mention their importance to the balance of
their tropical ecosystem, has paid off. The creation of the Hornbill
Family Adoption Project, among other efforts, which allows people to adopt
hornbill families and pay for operating expenses, which go directly to
hiring locals to look after the hornbills, has generated income for the
local communities in Budo. And long after that avenue is exhausted, the
local communities are sure to continue to reap both material and
environmental benefits from other profitable opportunities... |
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