Investigate the population situation of threatened Sundaic Galliformes species in biodiversity hotspot areas of Southern Thailand

The level of knowledge and understanding of the majority of Galliformes, especially in the tropical rain forest, is poorly known. While habitat degradation and loss are ongoing, come along with hunting pressure, decrease Galliformes population in several areas. The lowland forest habitat in the entire Sundaic regions is recently rare, particularly in Southern Thailand where the majority natural forest has been destroyed. These Sundaic forest losses are major threats to bird diversity including Sudaic Galliformes species.The goals of this project are to assess the distributions, habitats and population status of key species, primarily focusing on the highly-threatened Sundaic Galliformes inhabiting in the biodiversity hotspot areas of Southern Thailand. Those species are threatened by a very high habitat degradation and hunting pressure. The general lack of quantitative field information on these Sundaic Galliformes species urgently needs to be addressed to establish a new conservation and management action plan under the supervision of the Galliformes Specialist Group. The project will establish a systematic data collection on the presence-absence and abundance of these species at several sites in the South of Thailand. The output will be used first to assess the remaining suitable habitat for those species throughout their Sundaic range in Thailand. Second, the data will be used to develop a long-term monitoring plan and a suitable conservation and management action plan for Sundaic forest partridge in the area as well as in the region (Southeast Asia)