Activities in Khao Sok

Khao Sok National Park

THREATENING KHAO SOK?

*Logging
Thailand lost almost 75 % of its forest during the 20th century.

*Illegal logging
1989 saw the creation of a law that totally banded logging in Thai rainforest. Even so, illegal logging with the help of elephants is still practiced in the Khao Sok area. The elephant is often preferred over modern technology, because the elephant can move through the forest very quietly.

*Plantations
Let us use the rubber plantations as an example: Rubber trees stop producing latex after 35 years, so they need to be cut down and replaced by new trees. During this replanting, it can be tempting to illegally expand the plantations ever so slightly.

*Poaching
The illegal trade of wild animals, both living and dead, is a big and profitable business. Animals of all kinds are taken out of their natural habitat, to be used in medicine, in the restaurant business, as pets, as tourist attractions and decorations.

*Uncontrolled tourism
A huge number of visitors enter Khao Sok every year and not everybody cares about preservation of nature.

If the number of visitors increases too much, there is a danger that the wildlife will be driven away by too many people trekking the trails criss-crossing the park.

Khao Sok consists of thick native rainforest, waterfalls, majestic limestone cliffs and an island stubbed lake. It is the 22nd National Park in Thailand.

*Size
The National Park covers an area of 739 km2

Thanks to two other protected areas (Klong Saers and Khlong Nakha) next to Khao Sok the actual protected area measures almost 4000 km2.

*Location
Khao Sok is situated in the southern part of Thailand. It belongs to the Surratani province, about 70 km south-west from Surratani Town.

*Climate
Khao Sok is the wettest area in all of Thailand, because it is situated at the mountain ridge separating the west coast from the east coast. Winds from both Thailand’s gulf in the east and from the Andaman Sea in the west blow monsoon rain into the area. It can rain as much as 3500 mm (3,5 m) in one year.

Late December to early February is the driest period with just a little or no rainfall. 

*Geography
The dominant forest is lowland rainforest. The rainforest in Southeast Asia is 160 million years old, which makes it the oldest rainforest on earth.

Khao Sok is well known for its limestone mountains.The highest limestone peak is 960 m high, but the normal height is 400-600m.

*The National Park consist of:

• 40 % foothill rainforest
• 27 % rainforest plants
• 15 % limestone crag vegetation
• 15 % lowland scrub
• 3 % rainforest at 600-1000 m

The nature has more in common with the Malaysian forest than the forest in the north of Thailand. The forest in Khao Sok is taller, darker, more humid and evergreen.

There are approximately 200 different floral spices per hectare.

*Wildlife

• Mammals: 48 spices
• Birds: 188 spices
• Bats: 38 spices
• Reptiles: Not known

*Insects: Not known