TigerTime News

Tiger Project news
Thailand
Anti-poaching, community outreach, education and u
The intern’s tale
Name: Elosia Constance Rhoda Wild
Hometown: London, UK.
Studying:
MSc Conservation & International Wildlife Trade
University: Durrell Institute of Conservation and
Ecology at University of Kent.
Internship: 3 Months.
Starting my internship at the TigerTime funded
Freeland Foundation, Thailand I had no idea what
to expect. As an MSc student focusing on wildlife
trade, it is a fantastic opportunity to be a part of
the work to protect tigers.
During my first few weeks, I found my feet in
a complex organisation that works in wildlife
conservation and counter-trafficking as an
intern within the Surviving Together programme
supported by TigerTime. Focused on protected
area conservation in Eastern Thailand, the
programme includes ranger training, monitoring of
tigers and other species and community outreach
projects. These projects are building a stronger
relationship between the parks, rangers and
local communities bringing everyone together to
protect tigers and their habitat in Thailand.
In my second week I joined a field visit to the
protected areas in Eastern Thailand where
Surviving Together works. It was a great
experience to see the amazing natural beauty
of Thailand and meet the field staff and patrol
rangers who work to protect it. I learnt about
camera-trapping and monitoring systems that
help document some of the last wild Indochinese
tigers. Cameras are set up throughout the
protected areas allowing the staff to see what
species are present. Sadly, these camera traps also
capture poaching activity which, over the past year,
has increased rapidly as more poachers enter the
forest in search of Siamese rosewood.
Part of my trip included helping with training
courses for rangers from across the region.
Improving enforcement skills is more important
than ever. Rosewood poaching has quickly
become one of the biggest challenges that these
parks face not only threatening this rare tree
species, but also tigers and other wildlife. Even
during my visit we saw armed poachers being
brought out of the forest by rangers on patrol.
I toured sites where majestic, century-old trees
had been felled, some ending up piled in planks
in massive storage facilities where rangers have
seized lumber being trafficked out of the forest.
It brought to life the problem at hand and made
me feel a whole new level of respect for the work
protected area rangers do every day. They are
working on the front line to conserve and protect
the biodiversity of these forests and risk their lives
to keep the armed poachers from wiping out
endangered species.
Conditions are often wet and arduous, the heavy
rains constantly transform the landscape, in some
cases washing out roads and turning small streams
into raging torrents. This made getting to some of
the cameras quite difficult.
As a budding conservationist working in the
field was amazing; I learnt how to identify wildlife
by scats and tracks, including tiger, dhole and
banteng - all part of Thailand’s amazing natural
heritage. Freeland and the rangers' knowledge
of these species within the parks is vast, but
more is learnt each day through the monitoring
programme too.
We documented prominent tiger tracks and
created plaster casts. Made with plaster-of-Paris
these casts are normally used by parks to create
a physical record of tiger presence. The one’s I
helped create however are for something rather
special that TigerTime is planning for next summer
- watch this space!
Back in the office in Bangkok data is analysed,
reports are compiled to inform supporters of
progress made, meetings are held with partners,
and, just when the hiking boots have dried, it is
time to lace them up again.
I’ve learnt so much about the diverse work that
Freeland does and how important it is to work
closely with protected area rangers; to build and
sustain their capacity to protect Thailand’s natural
heritage. Without Freeland and the work that
these frontline rangers do it would be a very
different story for tigers and other endangered
species here.
So a huge thank you to TigerTime and all its
generous supporters for helping to keep the
projects funded and the forests safer.