Thailand’s Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation plans to launch a major operation on Wednesday, about a month ahead of the dry season, in ten national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in the northern and western regions of the country, with the aim of reducing forest fires by 50% this year, compared to last year.

An estimated 480,000 hectares of forest in Thailand’s national parks and wildlife sanctuaries were destroyed in forest fires, mostly caused by humans, during the dry season from last December until early this year. These include 38,520 hectares of 101,401 hectares in Mae Ping National Park.

Narupon Thipmontha, chief of the Bureau for Forest Fire Prevention and Control’s office, told Thai PBS, during an aerial inspection of forests in the northern region, that the launch date of the operations was brought forward, as it is anticipated that the forest fire situation might worsen this year due to the impact of El Niño.

He disclosed that villagers will be hired this year to help park rangers to man checkpoints in buffer zones, to prevent local people from venturing into the forests to start fires to facilitate their hunt for wild species or to collect forest products.

About 580 checkpoints will be set up in the ten national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in northern provinces. Each villager hired as a guard will be paid 9,500 baht throughout the 3-month dry season.

Narupon explained that the department opted to hire villagers to do the job, rather than relying on volunteers who do not work regularly, because the job requires a full-time commitment.

According to the plan this year, he said that about 4,000km of fire breaks will be built, to prevent forest fires, and a new order will be imposed on villagers who want to collect forest products.

The 10 national parks and wildlife sanctuaries chosen for the premature launch of anti-forest fire operations include Sri Nan in Nan province, Srinagarind in Kanchanaburi, Salween in Mae Hong Son, the Pai River Basin Wildlife Sanctuary in Mae Hong Son, Mae Jarim Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttaradit, Salak Phra Wildlife National Park in Kanchanaburi and Mae Ping National Park.