Introduction

This chapter presents the state of knowledge on the endangered and threatened species of Thailand. With passage of the National Parks Act in 1962, Thailand abruptly changed its course of land use and is among the world’s leaders in the amount of land reserved for the conservation of vegetation and wildlife. Literature was sought using computer-based bibliographic services, by manual search for general publications, and by library work in Thailand. Like all countries, Thailand faces the realities of making available the limited resources of the earth to an ever-increasing number of people. Foremost among competing land uses are human economic enterprise and the non-monetary economies of plants and animals sharing our biological community. Research on animals of Southeast Asia has been dominated by foreigners who lack the confident knowledge brought by long-term experience in place.