THAILAND
The Bangkok Post-Mar 26
The government should immediately get behind, approve and regulate a plan unveiled last week to protect marine parks and life. The plan, produced by an environmental strategy group, requires an enforced ceiling on visitors to the country’s 22 marine national parks. Not only is this project a chance to protect and preserve coral, beaches, fish and islands, but it’s a prime opportunity across several departments and ministries to promote new technology and help move along the Thailand 4.0 effort.
The recommendation for a visitor cap came out of discussion at the national strategy drafting committee. It is encouraging that environment even got a fair look during these sessions. National strategy lately has seemed to focus entirely on “development” and it is often controversial. It includes an energy policy encouraging more dependence on coal and other fossil fuels, and an industrial policy based on filling the entire eastern seaboard with factories, ports and exports. Apart from lip service to limits on pollution, the environment and conservation often are buried.
As conservationists and regular readers know, Thon Thamrongnawasawat is one of the nation’s leading experts on marine life. He has studied not only the textbooks, but has “got his hands dirty”, as the saying goes. For several years, the deputy dean of Kasetsart University’s faculty of fisheries has been concerned about heavy traffic on the beaches and waterways in and around the country’s marine national parks.
There are 127 national parks in Thailand, under the Department of National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation. The department has been on front pages a lot lately, because of the effective policing of the Thung Yai-Naresuan sanctuary. But there are two divisions at the department. One looks after parks on the land, while the Marine National Park Division, established in 1993, attends to marine parks.
This is no easy task. Marine parks are widely spread, in three main areas. These are the east coast of the southern peninsula, the west coast on the Andaman Sea, and along the eastern seaboard on the northern stretch of the Gulf. In recent years, Thai and foreign visitors have become so numerous that they threaten the habitats. Several areas have been put completely off limits for short periods to allow beaches, reefs and underwater growth to recover.
Mr Thon brought this to public attention two years ago with an arresting Facebook post about Maya Bay. His photos showed that just that single beach, used as the location for the eponymous 2000 movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio, had become a visitors’ madhouse. Daily visitors to the beach brought crowds who literally stood shoulder-to-shoulder to enjoy the beach, part of popular Koh Phi Phi Don.
The new plan carved out by Mr Thon and associates at the national strategy meetings calls for a sustainable plan to replace the current ad hoc nature of trying to protect marine nature. It proposes an annual cap of 6 million visitors to all marine parks a year. Once the limit is reached, all parks would be closed for the rest of the year.
This is an outline, not a plan. It requires a lot of detailed work. It would fit government policy perfectly if the prime minister and cabinet would use technology. Tour companies who control visitor traffic could set up online reservation apps to ensure the number of visitors would last the year. This could be a perfect example of Thailand 4.0 meshing with a much-needed conservation and environment policy.
The government’s job is to adopt and encourage this strategy. After that the department, the civilian sector and local residents near marine parks can set it in motion and properly enforce it. The parks and marine life belong to everyone and must never be overrun.
(first published in Bangkok Post – https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1435090/support-the-marine-plan)
