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EAZA Tiger Campaign 2002/4


Target projects: Project 4

Southeast Asia Wildlife Protection Training Centre, Khao Yai, Thailand
The illegal trade in wildlife has become one of the most profitable forms of crime in the world today. Profit margins are wide and the threat of being caught in Southeast Asia is particularly low. Rangers and forest guards put their lives on the line every day as they face poachers who are better equipped than they are, and are determined to get the profits even if it means assaulting a ranger in the process.












Ranger on forest patrol ©WildAid

Shockingly, guards in protected areas are nearly ten times more likely to be assaulted with deadly force than their urban counterparts. Some rangers experiment with ways to increase protection of tigers in their protected area, but don't get the chance to share their experiences with staff in other parks in other areas or other countries.














Training class © WildAid 		WildAid is collaborating with the governments of Thailand, the US and other countries, as well as NGOs and academic institutions, to create a regional wildlife protection training programme and centre.
The target audience is rangers and guards, law enforcement officers, conservationists and students from around Southeast Asia.
Training is delivered inside a protected area in Thailand where circumstances typify problems facing tigers and other wildlife, the habitat and all those protecting them.

There will be opportunities in future for zoos to sponsor individual rangers from other projects funded through the EAZA Tiger Campaign to participate in courses at the centre, through 21st Century Tiger Fellowships. In Sumatra, for example, there is a great need for such training and for the sense of being part of a larger global effort that rangers would gain from it. When course schedules for 2003 are known, 21st Century Tiger will circulate information to campaign participants.
Courses at the centre will include:
  • Strategic Planning Skills for    Patrolling Investigations
  • Forest Survival
  • Community Outreach
  • Safety & Self Defence
  • Use of Weapons
  • Navigation
  • Species Identification
  • Wildlife Monitoring
  • Interagency Communication    Skills
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    Hand-to-hand combat training © WildAid
    There will also be the benefits of shared experience, which will build a core of best practices to be analysed by participants and trainers. Destruction of wildlife and habitat threaten the watersheds and sustainable resources, thereby threatening the country itself. WildAid's developing training courses in many tiger range states and the protected area management programme in Khao Yai National Park have already produced positive results, and demonstrate the need for a training centre that can reach key staff.