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Published: December 20th 2006
It's not every day an ex-poacher demonstrates animal trapping techniques used to catch endangered species, but we were lucky enough to meet Kuman, a former poacher who now works with the WildAid Community Outreach Team near Khao Yai National Park.
Kuman is the village leader of a very poor village on the edge of the park where at one point most of the adults in the village (including the women) were poachers. They took from the forest what they needed to survive in addition to what they could find to make money. As you walk through the village, old men still sit on the stoops of their metal corrugated shacks and make bamboo traps. A variety of mangy and unfriendly mongrel dogs bark ominous warnings. This is still a village where people have very little in the way of material wealth.
Kuman showed us a few agricultural co-op projects they have to offer alternatives to poaching, including an organic produce plot and a series of organic oyster mushroom shacks. Since little was said of the poaching past of the village, someone asked if he'd show us some animal traps. He started off showing us a bamboo fish net. Next
he agreed to show us a simple snare made only with a few pieces of bamboo, a string and a couple of metal pins. Then I noticed a pile of bamboo contraptions hanging from a tree and he brought them down. They're what they call "thunder traps" because of the loud snap of the trap as an animal passes its head or leg through the trigger. They make them in a range of sizes depending on the animal being hunted. We thanked him for the rare demonstration, then we all went to a local school to explore the possibility of a "sister school" relationship with a US school
We met primarily with the English teachers, but they were quick to get their students involved. A group of high school English students visited with us (shyly), then they showed us their Christmas displays. Although most students are Buddhist, they will be having a Christmas party.
We've kind of missed the lead in to Christmas over here, so we offered to sing them all a Christmas carol. We decided on "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and put on a fine performance. Outside the library, dozens of kids peered in
Kuman demonstrates a "thunder" trap
Kuman is a former poacher who now rallies against poaching and is helping lead his village in finding new sources of income through agricultural projects.at us. They only see Western visitors a couple of times a year, so we were quite the novelty. The kids were very sweet and a lot of fun.
We then headed for lunch at a local place, then took off on another long venture through the park to another village where Sayan and Songkran, two more WildAid Community Outreach Team employees, work. Our Conservation Fund grant paid for Songkran's salary this past year, so we were eager to visit with her. When we arrived, we learned that we were in the wrong village! Sayan's village is 15 kilometers from Songkran's, so we didn't get to see her. We did meet with a few folks from Sayan's village, though. Since so many people in town had been to jail for poaching, most were eager to take on the agricultural projects offered in lieu of poaching. They also have about 15 factories nearby where they can get work, so by the accounts of local villagers, poaching has gone down quite a bit in this village.
By this point it was getting late and we had to head back to Bangkok. What a grueling journey! Once we made it into
town, it took nearly 2 hours to get to our hostel due to traffic. It makes LA look easy!
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