Applying Gap Analysis and a Comparison Index to Evaluate Protected Areas in Thailand |
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Authors: | Yongyut Trisurat |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Forest Biology, Faculty of Forestry, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, 10900, Thailand |
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Abstract: | Protected areas in Thailand were first established 40 years ago. The total area of existing protected areas covers 18.2% of
the country’s land area and the Class 1 Watershed, another form of protection, encompasses 18.1%. The government of Thailand
intends to increase protected area systems to 25% of the country in 2006 and 30% in 2016. There are always questions arising
about how much is enough protected areas to effectively protect biodiversity. The objective of this article is to assess the
representation of ecosystems in the protected area network. This article also recommends which underrepresented ecosystems
should be added to fill the gaps in representativeness. The research applies a gap analysis and a comparison index to assess
the representation of ecosystems within the protected area network. The spatial analyses were applied to measure three aspects
of representativeness, namely forest type, altitude, and natural land system. The analyses indicate that the existing protected
area system covers 24.4% of the country’s land area, nearly meeting the 25% target proposed by the National Forest Policy;
and 83.8% of these areas are under forest cover. Most protected areas are situated in high altitudes, where biological diversity
is less than in lowlands. Mangrove forest and riparian floodplain are extremely underrepresented in the existing system. Peat
swamp forest, dry dipterocarp forest, and beach forest are relatively well represented. In addition, these five ecosystems
are threatened by human pressures and natural disasters; therefore, they should be targeted as high priorities for the selection
of new reserves. Future research should incorporate aquatic and marine ecosystems, as well as animal distributions, which
were not included in this research due to data unavailabilities. |
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Keywords: | Protected areas Representativeness Gap analysis Comparison index Thailand |
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