Part of Khao Sam Roi Yot national park is now ready for listing as a wetland of international importance, after a four-year delay.

Park chief Sakon Anukul said local villagers had agreed to go along with plans to declare 11,250 of the 23,000 rai in Sam Roi Yot marsh a Ramsar site.

The marsh, in the northwest of the national park, is home to 300 bird species, and is one of the country's last or (arundo) fields.

``Most villagers realise they can't make much use of the marsh, which is flooded most of the year, so they have stopped resisting,'' Mr Sakon said.

About 200 prawn farmers around the marsh continued to oppose the plan, he said. They feared rules under the Ramsar Convention would threaten their livelihood.

Their opposition delayed attempts to make Khao Sam Roi Yot the first Ramsar site in Thailand after Bangkok signed the convention in 1998.

Thailand now has 10 Ramsar sites of international importance, including Phru Kwuan Khi Sian in the Thalae Noi no-hunting zone in Phatthalung province.

More than 450 million rai of land around the world have become Ramsar sites since the treaty was signed in the Iranian town of Ramsar in 1971.

Hannarong Yaowalert, a member of the National Wetland Committee, said there would be no additional laws attached to the treaty for villagers to follow, but communities and authorities looking after the site should have plans for wise use of the park's ecology.

The National Park Act would remain the key law to govern the park in the case of Sam Roi Yot marsh.

It would be better if the rest of the park, which was less pristine than the marsh, was also made a Ramsar site because the park would be entitled to1,000,000 baht from Ramsar Small Grants Fund for Wetland Conservation and Wise Use to improve its condition.

The Sam Roi Yot marsh would need preliminary endorsement from the national wetland committee, then from the National Environment Board, and the Ramsar Bureau in Switzerland.