Rangers - forces on the front-line of conservation

Rangers dedicate themselves to protecting the planet’s most beautiful and vulnerable species.

Working under harsh conditions, rangers often face danger as they come into contact with poachers. Rangers are also the face of protected areas, and conduct outreach to build partnerships with local communities. Lastly, rangers help research and monitor the status of wildlife, thus building a scientific basis for park management. Find out more about life as a ranger in our slide show below...

World Ranger Day, 31 July, 2013

Just a four-hour drive from Bangkok, the largest city in mainland Southeast Asia, is one of the last strongholds of the Asian elephant. Established in 1999, Kuiburi National Park represents the gold standard in terms of habitat improvement for wild elephant, and is home to other endangered species, including tigers, gaur, banteng, and Malayan tapir.

U.S. Ambassador to Thailand, Kristie Kenney travelled here with WWF to learn about the challenges this protected area faces to protect its endangered species.

Kuiburi National Park is patrolled by a team of 18 rangers and they have a lot of ground to cover. Close to 1,200 square km - roughly the same area as Hong Kong - and home to about 230 wild elephants.

Rangers like Jaruwat Nuchsiri, at the lead of the line, have worked in Kuiburi for years. He spends an average of at least 10-15 days in the month in the forest.

Each ranger carries essentials in a rucksack, including rice, cooking oil, a water canteen and cooking mug. WWF helps support rangers with equipment, SMART patrol training and other reinforcements.

Ambassador Kenney learns to make a fire with twigs to cook food — a small pot of rice. While on patrol in the forest the rangers will eat 3 meals a day, largely made up of rice, dry noodles, and canned fish.

Cameras equipped with infrared triggers, called camera traps, are used to obtain critical data about wildlife and their habitats.

Getting accurate data is vital for conservationists. Ranger Sukvinai Khamglun shows Ambassador Kenney how to set up camera traps supplied by WWF to capture evidence of wildlife.

Kuiburi National Park has established artificial minerals licks (as seen here) to supplement the diets of elephants, gaur and other ungulates. The park and WWF monitors them to determine the frequency of wild animals using these sites, and here the Ambassador looks at footprints of gaur, muntjac, and jackal.

Just a few weeks after U.S. President Barack Obama made major pledges to stop wildlife trafficking, Ambassador Kenney distributed lapel pins as a token of her appreciation for the hard working rangers at Kuiburi National Park.

Since 2010 no elephants have been lost due illegal hunting and poaching in Kuiburi National Park. WWF thanks these conservation heroes. “It was inspiring to see the rangers, the community, and international partners come together to help preserve and protect such an important part of Thailand’s natural ecosystem.” Ambassador Kenney.

Ranger for a day

In recognition of the critical work of these unsung heroes, and to mark World Ranger Day on July 31, 2013, the US Ambassador to Thailand, Kristie Kenney, visited Kuiburi National Park in south-west Thailand to show her appreciation and experience life as a ranger for a day.

About Kuiburi National Park

Kuiburi National Park lies in the southern-most part of the Kaeng Krachan-Kuiburi Forest Complex in Thailand’s Tenasserim Mountains. The Park was established in 1999 and covers an area of close to 1100 square km. The forests contain dry evergreen and moist evergreen forests, and priority species include tigers, Asian elephants, gaur, banteng, and Malayan tapir.

In 2006, the area was identified as a priority Tiger Conservation Landscape, which means Kuiburi and its surrounding areas have a crucial role in maintaining a tiger population in the long-term, due to the quality of the remaining habitat as well as existing conservation measures. Kuiburi is also home to about 230 wild elephants.

WWF-Thailand works with the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation and related government agencies to protect wildlife in Kuiburi National Park, using a combination of wildlife habitat restoration, anti-poaching measures including patrolling and community outreach, and buffer zone management to reduce Human-Elephant conflict and provide watershed ecosystem value to peoples. The project is also working to secure critical wildlife habitat, and aims to extend the Park into surrounding forest areas.

Anti-poaching measures in the Park include promoting an intelligence network to strengthen law enforcement and protection, on-the-ground patrols and joint patrolling operations between homeland security agencies, the National Park and WWF-Thailand in remote and insecure areas, and community outreach to build partnerships with local people that promote zero poaching.