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Title: Thailand - International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)_Guidance for Project proposal development
Date: 23-Apr-2006
Category: Peatland Management
Description: Thailand - International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)_Guidance for Project proposal development

Thailand has a comparatively small area of peatland.  Less than 0.15 % of the total land area of the country and is comprised of peatlands, to be found mainly in certain areas of the southern provinces.  Peatland has unique features and numerous benefits provided directly or indirectly to the country as a whole and to the people living around the peatlands in particular.  These environmentally invaluable areas have become the focus of endeavors among the private and the public sector in the conservation and management to obtain optimal benefits. This is reflected in the efforts made by successive governments in the designating peatlands with virgin forests and those deemed potentially restorable as reserve areas. 

As a consequence, an area of
20,000 hectares of Phru Toe Daeng, a peatswamp in Narathiwat province, has been declared a wildlife sanctuary area.  

Similarly, the peatlands in Thale Noi of Phatthalung province and in Khuan Khreng of Nakhon Si Thammarat province have also been designated as Non-hunting areas.  Operation units have been assigned to these areas and strict laws have been reinforced against encroachers.  Degraded peatlands have been converted to land settlement cooperatives, where plots of land were distributed to the landless villagers for engaging in the agriculture purposes, e.g. cultivation of oil palm. 

In addition, the government has also set up task forces for controlling and preventing the forest fires frequently occurring in the peatland and a major cause of its degradation.  A royal Initiated Project for research and development of peatlands was established to ensure that peatlands, or ‘Phru’ as it is known in Thai, are maintained and survived. 





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