BANGKOK, May 22– A Thai academic has warned that climate change could gravely affect the country’s mountain ecosystem and watershed forests.
The Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP), together with the Forestry Faculty of Kasetsart University, held a seminar in Bangkok today to discuss preparations and handling of the impacts of climate change on Thailand’s ecosystem and environment.
The main goal of the seminar was to provide solutions to lessen the impact of climate change on the country’s mountain ecosystem and the environment, as well as set up national measures of protection from global warming.
Mahidol University academic Sura Pattankiat, who participated in the seminar, said the mountain ecosystem is quite important to the environment as a whole, and as climate change is directly affecting the ecological system of the mountains in the country, raising temperatures, which has in turn, decreased the number of natural species plant which require cooler temperatures.
The professor backed this claim up, by stating that some of the winter or cooler temperature plants are becoming harder to find and are at risk of becoming extinct due to the warmer climate, meaning plants such as orchids and different species of epiphytes on Doi Inthanon, Thailand’s highest mountain.
The professor stressed that stricter discipline must be carried out by humans in their activities, in order to avoid causing further effects on the mountain ecosystem, including consuming natural resources in moderation to keep the environment balanced and healthy.
