Capacity building on sustainable use of microbial resources in Thailand

Positioned centrally in Southeast Asia, Thailand has nice prehistoric time attracted diverse people to its fertile plains and lush, tropical forest. Sukothai was the heart of the first Thai Kingdom, which flourished 700 years ago. The words of the 13th century, King Ramkhamhaeng are often invoked to illustrate the fruitfulness of the land: in the water there is fish, in the fields there is rice. Nowadays, Thailand encounters with the problems of environmental degradation, deforestation and increasing a list of endangered species. Presently, the country covers with less than 25% of forest compared to 80% fifty years ago. National parks and reserve forests are essential not only for protecting watersheds and prevention of national disasters like floods. They are also storehouses of a vast of biodiversity in plants, animals and microorganisms. Currently, there are 178 protected areas [65 national parks, 18 marine national parks, 44 wildlife sanctuaries and 51 non-hunting area] in Thailand [Kaeokamnerd, 1998]. Due to its geographical position in the tropics and the climatic variations between north and south, Thailand is a country of high biological diversity reflected by the number of species. The data from World Bank [1992] indicated that there are approximately 35,000 species of vascular plants in China, 26,000 in Indonesia, 19,000 in India and 14,000 species in Thailand. The number of Thai plants is approximately the same as Malaysia. However, only 20% of the Thai plants have been deposited and well documented in "Flora of Thailand". The high species richness of fungi in the tropics is without dispute (Hawksworth, 1993, Rossman, 1997). Hawksworth [1991] presented estimates of global fungal biodiversity of 1.5 million species. Given that Thailand usually host 7-10% of the world total of biodiversity then we may assume 100,000-150,000 fungi in Thailand [Hywel-Jones. N.L., personal communication]. Barely 1% of this presumed total has been described from Thailand too date. Watling [1998] said that the Thai macrofungi may ultimately prove more diverse than that of its southern neighbors. The total mycota of Thailand is therefore potentially very large with the country being at the junction of several natural highways linking south and north and thereon westwards. This paper describes how Thailand has developed her biodiversity inventory and sustainable use with emphasis on fungal resources