UAC will reportedly purify biogas from dung and wastewater from Mongkol and Sons pig farm in Chiang Mai. Plant construction is expected to commence in May, at a cost of THB 100 million (USD 3.34 million). Once commissioned the plant is expected to produce 6-8 tonnes per day, or 3,000 tonnes per year, reported to be enough to fill 500 compact cars or 40 transportation trucks. The biomethane could replace diesel imports of 2.2 million litres per year or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) imports of 1,600 tonnes, which would save the country Bt21 million (approx USD 700k) .

Kitti Jivacate, president and CEO of UAC, said talks were underway with two companies to cooperate in a similar new project in the South.

Copyright Acknowleged

Zoo director Tanapattara Pongpamorn said yesterday the project was worth the investment and strictly adheres to international animal welfare guidelines.

Under the project, the zoo will import a pair of polar bears and some king penguins from foreign zoos. The polar animals will be kept in a 71 million baht enclosure, which is now 30% complete. Work will continue on the 2,909-square metre enclosure over the next two years.

The zoo anticipates that the enclosure will boost visitor numbers by half.

Mr Tanapattara dismissed environmentalists’ concerns that conditions at the zoo will harm the polar animals.

“We have done everything to follow the Association of Zoo and Aquarium’s guidelines, especially on natural habitats,” said Mr Tanapattara.

“We have a life support system in case of emergencies, together with plans to reduce the animals’ stress in a new environment.”

The zoo has been negotiating with zoos in Russia and Canada as well as Safari World in Bangkok, where four polar bears are kept.

Mr Tanapattara said he would make sure the polar animals chosen for the zoo were born in captivity, as they would adapt to the new environment easily.

Environmentalists are also worried about the amount of electricity required to run the air-conditioned enclosure.

Mr Tanapattara said the electricity bill would be around 200,000 baht a month.

Veterinarian Kannikar Nimtragul, who will look after the polar bears, said the project is part of an attempt to save the species from extinction, as their natural habitat is threatened by climate change.

Meanwhile, a group of wildlife activists and members of the public gathered at Chiang Mai Zoo yesterday to protest the project.

They handed a petition to the zoo director, urging him to scrap the project, which they said violates animal rights.

Nikom Phutta, secretary-general of the Thai Wildlife Protection Network, said polar bears living in confined spaces are prone to suffer from depression.

The temperature of 18-22 degrees inside the enclosure would be too hot for the animals, which normally live in freezing conditions.

“Polar bears in a Singaporean zoo have reportedly developed heat stress,” he said.

Mr Nikom urged the zoo to abolish the polar animal project and invest the money in wildlife conservation.

Copyright Acknowleged

A joint operation between the Department of Special Investigation, Customs Department and Royal Forestry Department raided two sawmills owned by Suksawat Group Co yesterday and seized the logs.

The operation was carried out following a complaint from Justice Minister Pirapan Salirathavibhaga that a company had imported teak wood illegally from Burma through Mae Hong Son.

DSI deputy chief Narat Savetnant alleged Anton Co had falsely declared the confiscated logs to the Customs Office in Mae Hong Son as sawn timber using 57 documents that claimed the imports had been approved by Burmese officials.

The import documents were later found to be counterfeit, Mr Narat said.

The crackdown has raised questions over whether local officials responsible for approving the import of the confiscated wood were aware of the company’s activities.

No charges have been made against officials but they will face an inquiry to determine if they had anything to do with the illegal wood imports and whether they should take responsibility, Mr Narat said.

The DSI unit which investigates special criminal cases in the North has been looking into the case since February. It had learned by September that Anton Co had imported sawn teak from Burma under suspicious circumstances.

The company owner was charged by the DSI with violating regulations on the import of sawn timber.

Anton Co said last month it was considering suing the Forestry Department for refusing to renew its licence to transport teak logs from Burma through Salawin National Park in Mae Hong Son.

Phichet Lertlum-umphaiwong, the company’s deputy managing director, said its permission to transport teak expired a month ago and the department had refused to renew it, even though it had previously been renewed on a yearly basis.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti claimed at the time that the company did not have an export licence from Burma and no source-of-origin documents to prove where the logs came from. Anton Co insisted legal documents were issued by Myanmar Timber Enterprise, the government-owned corporation and sole extractor of timber in Burma.

Copyright Acknowleged

Original Story Here

Dr. Art-Ong Chumsa n’Ayudhya, a Thai who has worked with NASA, says that the northern cities will experience earthquakes of up to 6 on the Richter scale by the time Bangkok has become “uninhabitable” due to flooding and tsunamis.

A firm believer in global warming, Dr Art-Ong also claims that polar bears will become extinct in under 10 years as temperatures rise by 4 deg C, and that ocean levels will rise by 6 meters.

By contrast, an American expert on historic climate change, Rob Dunbar, predicts a 1-2 meter rise in ocean levels over the next 90 years.

Editor’s Note: the most severe earth tremor experienced in Chiang Mai since accurate records were kept was 4.5 on the Richter scale in 1995. Some multi storey hotels were evacuated and one lost exterior plaster and cladding from one corner, several storeys high, but there were no injuries or fatalities.

The rainy season should have begun already and 60 of the 76 provinces of Thailand now face the worst drought for 20 years, reports the ‘Northern Part’ Thai language newspaper.

Almost 7.5 million people are facing serious water shortages and 522,563 rai of crops have been spoiled. One essential rice harvest has been lost from 63,133 rai, and another postponed.

Government aid of 579m baht has been allocated to farmers as compensation, but is generally considered to be insufficient.
Over 1,000 water tankers have been used to distribute water at government expense and repairs are being made to 4,960 dams.  Chiang Mai is one of the northern provinces to which 713 pumps have been allocated by the Royal Irrigation Department.

The 17 northern provinces have a total of 7,729 villages – comprising 1.7 million people – suffering badly, but no help has reached them yet, the paper reported.

New dam plan for Ping River

A budget of 400 million baht has been allocated to build a new dam in the Ping River south of the Police Region 5 HQ. Negotiations on access and compensation are being held by the irrigation department with residents on both sides of the river.

The project will take over 2 years to complete, and include 8 sluice gates to feed up to 5 million cubic meters of stored water to surrounding areas, as and when required.

As tens of thousands of litres of water washed down the drains of the province, Kasemsan Chinnavaso said that Chiang Mai, like Lamphun, wasamong 33 provinces at medium risk, while our northerly neighbour Chiang Rai was at “high risk.”

The average rainfall for the past week had been only 8.8 millimetres nationally, he said, and the highest temperature of 43 deg had been registered in both Tak and Kanchanaburi. Forty-one degrees has been seen on some Chiang Mai thermometers.

Our main reservoirs of Mae Kuang and Mae Ngat are well above the levels seen immediately before the last major drought of 2005, when water was cut off to different parts of the city at different times of the day and night. That drought cost the government 7.5 billion baht, said Kasemsan, as it hit 71 of the nation’s 76 provinces.
Today is officially the final day of the “water war”, which originated as a gentle, ceremonial washing of hands of older people to show respect and to encourage the rains to come early.

Editor’s note: There have been renewed calls for the government to restrict water wastage to one or two days at most when drought threatens. This was most effective in Lamphun in 2005 when the then Mayor, Praphat Poocharoen, successfully appealed on behalf of farmers to restrict water throwing to two days.

Article contributed by David Hardcastle, Copyright David Hardcastle 2010

Referring to the controversial “slash and burn” technique of agriculture, he declared: “We don’t do that. We buy produce from the forest to make fertiliser without chemicals.”

Jacques was describing Natural Agriculture Co Ltd, the business of his wife Khun Uraiwan, which combines Swiss expertise with local ingredients with the aim of reducing Thailand’s reliance on chemical fertiliser.

“Thailand uses 4 million tons of chemical fertiliser each year. The soil is eroded and I believe the country is now going through what Europe did 20 years ago” said Jacques.

Khun Uraiwan and her team use produce from 16 square kilometers of forest and 7 rai of garden in Ban Thi.
“We obtained Board Of Investment status in less than one month, and everything is going very quickly because people know this is needed” added Jacques. “We give people the recipe for our fertiliser. Please feel free to copy us!”  he invited.

Jacques was speaking at the monthly dinner meeting of the SKAL international tourism club at the Holiday Inn.

For more information, e-mail: jcavin@bluewin.ch

This article is Copyright © MyChiangMai 2009, no reproduction without prior permission.