Yonok Wetlands Project
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Current Projects

Harrier Roost , we have been counting and studying Harriers at roost in the Chiang Saen area for five years. It is hoped to publish this report in the near future.

Grass Owl , is a new breeding species in Thailand, we discovered a pair with young recently and a small number of new sites, it is important that we can identify the prime breeding habitat for this species, it seems to prefer areas of wet floating bog, this habitat is fast disappearing as these bog tend to be dug out and dammed in order to store water for rice paddies. It is very time consuming to track down these Owls, they emerge from there roost at dusk almost dark. The first pair took us about 8 weeks to find the nesting area. We currently have 3 sites where Grass Owls have been seen crossing a 2 klm stretch of road, but we have been unable to find these roosts / breeding areas.

Observations: We are currently covering the following areas, Chiang Saen Lake , Yonok Wetland, Little England and a number of small wetland bogs and forested areas, as well as The Mekong Sandbars from Sop Ruak Chiang Klong, collecting information on migration, breeding and wintering populations.

Yonok Wetlands: Projects and aims concerned with Yonok

In order to achieve an end to hunting, we propose.

1a: Hunting: I have modified my views somewhat in regard to the Buffalo camps. I hope any hunting will disappear now we have the influence of the Temples . I will now adopt a wait and see approach, hopefully there we can avoid pushing people and they will just stop as a result of public awareness and my constant visits.

1b: We have now gained more ready support from the NHA, they have said they will act immediately on any problem I find. A few days ago I watched a guy checking a half kilometer length of fishing net, I said to the NHA that I could not see the point as there was nothing of any size in it, they said that they run the whistling duck in during the night.

1c: I need to survey the whole wetland area. It is most important to identify areas that need special protection. The wetland as a whole needs protecting from hunting, but as it's a large area there will be other interest which may conflict. There are a few sites that are fairy pristine and I hope to be able to keep such places safe from slash and burn.

1d: During the winter months often large concentrations of waders are to be found in the wetlands, it was here that I found 60 mist strung up, It take a great deal of time to find and deal with this problem. That line of 60 we could see with the aid of a telescope, so remotely placed were these nets that after a week we had to give up our attempt to find them.

1e: There is one other worrying problem and will take some thought and time. It is what I term as Blitzing. Blitzing is when you get a large group of people, that turn in a couple of pickups and take everything, mostly all the fish, I've seen mist nets up and traps. They blitz the whole area for maybe 3 days and then clear off somewhere else.

There is a need for some sort of common policy to protect fish stocks and local people, surely it makes sense to leave a percentage so fish stocks can increase.

When these people have gone there is little remaining for anyone else. Seems selfish to me and of no benefit to local people and nothing for the birds to feed on.

1f: We Intend camping out in the more remote and interesting areas a good way to find out whets going on so in the dry season or dry periods and we would do this about one time a week.

 There are I'm sure a lot ideas that need thinking about. However we need to make a start:

Extra Notes:

There are a number of objectives to cover, so I will try and set them out here.

A complete halt to netting and shooting of birds in the wetland area.

Local People. Here have made a positive start as I have explained.

What they require are tourists.

Maybe with Nick's web site we can generate some interest, also I feel the Anantara and other tourist hotels will benefit if we give them something worth seeing, like a lot of birds. We have advised the village boss that it will take maybe 3 years to see an improvement in bird populations and in 5 should start seeing a real improvement.

So with there continued supports for non hunting we can hold some level of control.

Investment in items such as viewing platforms would be held back at least until we were fairly sure of there commitment, that all hunting has stopped.

Buffalo camps

I believe these camps, have hunters, trappers and fisherman, permanently dwelling in these camps, these hunters are actively hunting on a daily basis they must be causing a lot of damage to birds and animals, it is my hope that with Dowroong's skill in dealing with people, that she can persuade village bosses to exert some pressure on these people. I Have no wish to stop people living there, the buffalo is an asset.

I also saw yesterday that vast lengths of fishing net exist in this wetland nearly a kilometer long, I don't know if this is legal, but I feel it is a problem for diving birds. Needs some time to look into that.

It's unlikely we can stop everything, however we may be able to get a wetland sanctuary established and a good level of protection, also may be a good way of highlighting the destruction of wildlife in Thailand .

It is possible that Jim may be able to write some stuff, he has a lot of knowledge and has awful stories of what in the past was sold in the markets here. I won't be seeing him for a couple of months.

The villagers seemed to be mostly interested in home stay and learning English.

We hope we have given them some imaginative ideas.

Using the buffalo for ploughing a few paddies will give an old world charm to the village, also oxcart tours of the wetland could be a plus. The wetland is quite remote and a lot of it is impenetrable. It is a very peaceful place almost a wilderness, I would hope to keep this aspect, and it would be a disaster for me if some awful tourist route was put through it. So this is a low key project of gentle persuasion and a bit of Thai pushing.

The villagers also have a silk farm so I think they may well get them selves on the tourist circuit.

Out of interest I got a 150 meter length of fishing net removed two days ago, stung out in the NHA.

Maybe some Tern nesting platforms could be placed in suitable areas, also 2 or 3 large raised viewing platforms could be erected, similar in design to those in Finland these can be placed at strategic spots overlooking the harrier roost and other areas affording panoramic views over the wetland. This will help to attract foreign birders.