2012 Volume 3 Issue 2 Pages 50-55
Conservation policy, plans and implementation require the integration and management of a multitude of disciplines including the natural, physical and social sciences, law, economics and government policy. This study describes several major steps to implement a conservation plan for degraded rivers in Thailand and provides new approaches to assist in repairing degraded freshwater fish communities. Conservation of aquatic animals requires an understanding of their environmental requirements, preferences and species associations to accompany existing tactics to improve physical and chemical conditions of rivers. At present this ecological information is dreadfully inadequate in Thailand. Some freshwater environments in Thailand are currently experiencing an alarming decline in biodiversity. As a result, scientists and managers should undertake immediate management techniques to protect what remains of these aquatic systems. First step in conservation is to recognize a need and this is not likely to be easy. Effective conservation projects are likely to be lead by a committee representing a wide range of expertise including ecology, policy, law, economics and sociology along with appropriate government representatives. Second step is to determine objectives and an implementation strategy. Each river is dynamic and unique. Conservation may be approached and applied in different ways depend-ing on human and financial resources, timeframe, information and severity of resource depletion, including recovery, rehabilitation, restoration and replacement. A third step might include restructuring the biotic community in a degraded river once the physical damage or source of contamination has been contained and the chemical and physical conditions repaired. Conservation planning is an activity in which social, economic and political imperatives may modify, sometimes drastically, scientific prescriptions. This interaction need not be all one way.
