( WFT )
|
( WFT ) |
Wildlife Fund Thailand (WFT) was established on. Oct. 13th 1983, under The Royal Patronage of H.M. the Queen of Thailand. WFT is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of natural resources and the maintenance of biological diversity and to a balanced environment to ensure long term success in national development.
Established with the objective of balancing our natural system. WFT's main belief is to conserve our natural resources from the peak of the mountain to the bottom of the sea as one functioning living system.
One main WFT objective is to invite and encourage people, to help manage and be aware of environmental issues developed or developing in Thailand today, through our studies conducted from various WFT projects.
WFT Address:
Wildlife Fund Thailand
Under Royal Patronage of H.M. the Queen
251/88-90 Phaholyothin Road, Anusawaree, Bangkhaen,
Bangkok, Thailand
10220
Tel: (662) 521-3435, 552-2111, 552-2790
Fax: (662) 552-6083
General-Secretary
Mr. Pisit Na
Patalung
( He was honored in 1988 with the "Global 500" award by the
UN. )
WFT
Biographies DR BOONSONG
LEKAGUL |
DR BOONSONG
LEKAGUL ( 1907 - 1992 )
National park
system is shining legacy of ‘Mr. Conservation’
A friend of nature
Almost
everyone in Thailand knows Dr. Boonsong Lekagul as "Mr. Conservation" and
as the author of books on animals and nature, but very few other than
environmentalists and conservationists realize how hard he worked and the
loneliness he experienced in carrying out his work.
Thailand ’s first national park, Khao Yai, established in 1962, was his greatest achievement. It had taken all his efforts over a period of a decade to push through the legislation establishing national parks and wildlife sanctuaries.
Internationally, he gained a reputation for his lonely and uphill battle to preserve Thailand’s natural environment. In 1979, he was awarded the J. Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Prize from the World Wildlife Fund as the originator of nature activities in Thailand. The prize was contested by 500 nominated conservationists worldwide.
Dr.Boonsong was born in 1907 and grew up close to nature in Songkhla where virgin forests covered most of the countryside. After gaining his medical degree from Chulalongkorn University in 1932, he set up Thailand’s first polyclinic, called "Sahakarnpaed" on Charoen Krung Road in Bang Rak staffed by physicians who were all specialists in their respective fields. But still he found time to go with his friends into jungles to explore and hunt.
Some people questioned Dr. Boonsong’s stand as a hunter-turned-conservationist, but Wildlife Fund Thailand secretary-general Pisit na Patthalung, who followed in Dr.Boonsong’s footsteps, believes he was a sensitive hunter who did not just kill for fun.
As an older-generation conservationists, Dr.Boonsong went into jungles and hunted for wildlife because he wanted to watch animals closely and learn their ways.
Nevertheless, Dr.Boonsong’s approach began to change just after World War II when a new breed of hunters, armed with powerful new weapons including machine guns, started decimating the animal population. The number of tigers and crocodiles dropped sharply as people killed for profit.
"It all began with an eager, youthful big-game hunter yearning for excitement and sport, while also filled with a love of wilderness," the late Dr.Boonsong once said.
"I wished to know more about my prey, perhaps at first only for selfish reason, to know its habits and its ways.
"Gradually, however, I fell in love with the animals seen through my sights, and I slowly realised that, unless permitted the necessities for life, these wonderful creations would vanish forever."
At the time, lumber merchants were cutting down huge numbers of teaks in northern jungles without replanting and new settlers were encroaching on forested areas. Numerous animals were losing their natural habitat and succumbing to starvation, disease and hunters.Concerned at the depletion of the wildlife, Dr. Boonsong and other conservationists founded the Association for the Conservation of Wildlife (ACW) in 1950.
He campaigned for 10 years for a game law and a system of national parks by writing hundreds of letters and newspaper and magazine articles, by translating scientific journals and by running a regular radio and television program.
However, no government paid any attention to his initiatives until he was allowed to present his ideas to then prime minister Sarit Thanarat in 1959.
At first, Field Marshal Sarit did not believe that so many forests were being destroyed. However, he finally agreed to push for laws to protect the forests and wildlife after Dr.Boonsong took him by helicopter to see the destroyed Dong Phaya Yen forest.
As a result, Thailand enacted its first comprehensive game law in 1960 and the National Park Act in 1962. Since Khao Yai was declared the first national park, another 62 national parks covering 22.82 million rai and 38 wildlife sanctuaries over 18.24 million rai have been established.
In the mid-1950s, Dr. Boonsong and the ACW fought for a bird sanctuary on the banks of the Chao Phraya River to protect the only nesting place of the open-bill stork, or nok pak hang, in Thailand at Wat Phai Lom in Pathum Thani.
By the mid-1960s, Dr. Boonsong had become "Mr. Conservation" to the public and a force to be reckoned with. He was once banned from Khao Yai Park after he opposed influential senior military officers and bureaucrats making the park a resort for their own profit.
Without fear, he took the fight to the press and finally managed to make them back down. "Conservation is sometimes a life and death issue in Thailand. We cannot be afraid to take some risks," he said.
Another remarkable success for Dr. Boonsong was his campaign to scrap the Nam Chone dam project proposed by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand in 1979.
Hand in hand with a group of environmentalists, students and local people, Dr. Boonsong fought for the suspension of the project on the grounds it would destroy the virgin Huay Kha Khaeng and Thung Yai Narasuan forests in Kanchanaburi if approved by the cabinet of Gen Prem Tinsulanonda.
Dr. Boonsong lobbied politicians and bureaucrats such as former agriculture minister Chuan Leekpai and former National Economic and Social Development Board chairman Suthorn Hongladarom.
He wrote and published with his own money a book entitled Stop! Nam Chone Dam with the aim of making readers realise the value of Kanchanaburi’s forests.
According to the Wildlife Fund Thailand’s Pisit, a House committee was set up to consider the project, but most of the members ignored Dr. Boonsong’s protests and tried in vain to make him give up his efforts.
However, after the groundswell of public opinion opposing the dam continued to grow, the Prem government decided in 1987 to scrap the project.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) later declared the Huay Kha Khaeng and Thung Yai Naresuan wildlife sanctuaries world heritage sites.
Although Dr. Boonsong was not a biologist, his interest in animals of all kinds encouraged him to learn more and more about them.
To broaden the Thai people’s interest in wildlife, he wrote more than 30 books and textbooks including the first guides to Thailand’s birds, butterflies and mammals, as well as newspaper articles. He also produced several television documentaries on wildlife and many films for schools.
Dr. Boonsong spent much of his life lecturing and teaching school children, university students and the public. He was also associated with Chulalongkorn University in developing a natural history museum.
In addition, Dr. Boonsong established a magazine for conservationists entitled Conservation News. One article, "A Survey of the Valley Huai Kha Khaeng (Thailand’s largest remaining Wilderness)" made Huay Kha Khaeng forest well known as the world’s last shelter for wild buffaloes.
Dr. Boonsong had to stop his lifetime work when he became paralyzed in 1985. He passed away peacefully on February 9, 1992, but his dream of conserving Thailand’s forests and wildlife lives on, as does his work through the efforts of Thailand’s many more conservationists and nature lovers.
Name: Dr. Boonsong
Lekagul
Born: December 15, 1907, Songkhla
Education:
Pre-medical School, Chulalongkorn University, 1927
Siriraj Medical
School, 1929
Family: Married to Supap Lekagul, five children
Awards:
Publications: More than 30 books and textbooks wildlife including the first guidebooks to Thailand’s birds, butterflies and mammals
Died: February 9, 1992, Bangkok
(from WFT)