Basic conservation approaches and the fate of hornbills in Thailand: a prototype for future bird–people relationships

Abstract

Hornbills, the largest birds of Asian tropical forests, are ideal flagship species. Budo Mountain supports six sympatric hornbill species, of which Rhinoceros Hornbill Buceros rhinoceros and Helmeted Hornbill Rhinoplax vigil are locally endangered. Because hornbills rely on a cavity in a large tree for nesting, the combination of forest encroachment and poaching could extirpate them from Budo. To increase and sustain hornbill populations, we set two phases of approach, immediate and long-term. Since 1994, 50 ex-poachers and/or illegal loggers from 13 villages around Budo were persuaded to participate in research and conservation programs together with urban people. These were based on hornbill nest adoption, with 1,774 nest-years of adoption now accrued that provide an essential data base and major source of funding. Within 90 km² of Budo rainforest, villagers have located 189 nest trees, among which an average of 38 nests were used annually. Despite difficulties within the area, including natural problems and situations of social unrest, a cumulative total of 1,170 nest-cavity-years have been recorded by the villagers, and at least 490 chicks have fledged. The program is considered successful in terms of poaching eradication and has led to the establishment of the Budo Hornbill Conservation & Education Center in 2004 on a piece of land donated by a villager’s family. The Center provides educational and conservation lessons to schoolteachers, children, teenagers and villagers in the surrounding area for approximately 400 individuals per year, and could be a model for conservation programs of other large but critically endangered bird species.