#Indonesia - Mount Prau to be closed to hikers for three months starting Jan. 6

The hiking trail on Mount Prau in Central Java is to be closed for three months between Jan. 6 and April 5.

The closure will include all hiking base camps on the mountain, as decided during a meeting conducted by the Indonesia Mount Prau Coordinating Forum in Kalilembu, Wonosobo, on Nov. 26.

Among the reasons for the closure are the needs to repair the trail, clean up trash, conduct reforestation and collect and evaluate ecosystem data. 

Hikers, tour guides, travel agents and base camps that do not comply with the closure would be fined, kompas.com reported on Dec. 3. 

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 However, climbers are still allowed to visit the mountain on Jan. 9 to participate in reforestation. To join in, they can simply go to the Dieng base camp on Jan. 8 or early morning on Jan. 9. 

The reforestation is to be conducted around the Telaga Wurung area with at least 1,000 plant seeds. The seeds will be provided for free by the event committee; hikers are only requested to bring their personal supplies and small shovels if possible.

Source TheJakartaPost

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#Thailand - Ko Samui goes green to protect island ecosystem

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The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is working together with local stakeholders and tourists on Ko Samui to eliminate the use of single-use plastics and encourage all to reduce waste, reuse and recycle to help protect the island’s ecosystem.

The local authorities on Ko Samui are proactively campaigning for recycling and waste management, urging residents and business operators to separate their waste for recycling to reduce the amount of garbage produce on the island.

Mr. Yuthasak Supasorn, TAT Governor, said, “Education and awareness are the keys to success for this initiative. TAT proactively encourages both tourists and tourism businesses to help reduce tourism waste on the paradise island of Samui.

“Changing behaviour doesn’t happen overnight. We are seeing an increase in reusable cloth bags when shopping, and both visitors and residents are pitching in to do their part and help keep the island clean.”

Waste reduction thinking is quickly gaining traction amongst environmentally concerned Thai businesses and globetrotters on Ko Samui.

With some of the most stunning landscapes in Thailand, it is little wonder that visitors to Ko Samui continue to increase at an astonishing pace. With this influx comes a need to find a balance between high levels of service and environmental impacts. Fortunately, as attention has turned to exploring ways to preserve the island’s delicate ecosystem, travellers can give back to the local Thai community by creating less waste and leaving a minimal holiday footprint.

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 Local stores and shops on the island are campaigning against single-use plastics. Hotels and resorts as well as tourism-related businesses on Ko Samui are also helping to lead the way on responsible waste management by following the three ‘R’ principle: reduction, reuse and recycle. Luxury resorts on Ko Samui were among the first to introduce the plant-based straw revolution that is sweeping across Thailand and are endeavoring to make their tourism operations more sustainable.

One spearhead organisation is the ‘Trash Hero Ko Samui’ initiative, whose volunteers meet every Saturday at 10 a.m. to clean Samui’s beaches.
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Under the TAT’s on-going responsible tourism strategy, a new ‘Travel Thailand in Style, Reduce Plastic Waste’ collaboration initiative with various stakeholders was launched in August this year. It has an ambitious target to cut tourism-related waste by up to 50 percent by 2020.

Targeting both tourists and businesses to address waste problems in key travel destinations, the TAT also encourages use of reusable or sustainable items; such as, plant-based drinking straws instead of plastic straws, cotton bags instead of plastic bags, water tumblers instead of plastic bottles, and reusable food utensils instead of single-use plastic or foam items.

Back in March 2017, TAT partnered with PTT Global Chemical and the Ecoalf Foundation to launch an ‘Upcycling the Oceans, Thailand’ initiative. It made Thailand the first country in Asia to join the global ocean clean-up effort to reduce debris along the country’s coastal regions, especially in popular tourist areas on the east coast, in the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea.

Source - TheNation

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#Thailand - Illegal fishing key threat to reefs

THOUGH EXCESSIVE tourism has garnered recent headlines over threats to the health of Thailand’s diverse saltwater seas, illegal fishing presents another big challenge to preserving their rich natural resources.

Remote off-shore islands and underwater rocks are at the greatest risk of damage from illegal fishing activities, say marine ecosystems experts. 

Meanwhile the National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department (DNP) and the Fisheries Department are working together to solve the problem of illegal fishing inside national park areas.

Shortly after Mu Ko Surin National Park in Phang Nga was opened for tourism last week, a group of scuba divers found a large fishing net covering a large area of coral reef at Mu Ko Surin’s prominent scuba-diving spot, Richelieu Rock.

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 It took four days to remove the fishing net from the reef, and this was not the first time that Richelieu Rock’s sensitive reef ecosystem had been threatened by fishing impacts.

Tongkan Worapanya, one of the scuba divers to discover the fishing net debris at Richelieu Rock last Thursday, quickly contacted Mu Ko Surin National Park and fellow scuba divers to help raise it from the reef. 

“Though the damage to the corals caused by the net appears to be minor, I noticed that the fish population at Richelieu u Rock had greatly decreased when the net covered the coral reef,” said Tongkan, who is also an open water instructor at British Sub Aqua Club.

“We have been working tirelessly with national park officers to clear out the net and have just finished removing all of the fishing net debris.”

He suspects the net may have come from a fishing trawler too close to the rock, which accidentally entangled its net on the coral reef. Another possibility is the net was marine debris and had been washed over the reef by strong waves during the recent monsoon season.

Richelieu Rock is a submerged shoal within the Mu Ko Surin National Park, around 14 kilometres from Mu Ko Surin Islands, so any fishing activities at the reef or anywhere inside the national park are illegal.

The coral reef at Richelieu Rock is famous for its pristine deepwater corals and the high diversity of colourful marine animal, and so has become a prime destination for scuba divers to observe the scenic underwater world, and for illegal fishermen who come to catch abundant fish at the reef.

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 Dynamite fishing

Tongkan further noted that this was not the first time that evidence of illegal fishing activities had been discovered at Richelieu Rock. Divers occasionally find fishing-net debris at the reef, and last year part of the vulnerable ecosystem was damaged by a blast from dynamite fishing.

Prominent marine biologist and member of the National Strategy Committee on Environmental Development, Thon Thamrongnawasawat, said illegal fishing presented a big problem to the efforts to preserve marine ecosystems. 

Not only are many rare marine animals caught and killed by illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, he said, but the beautiful coral reefs are also destroyed, causing huge damage to both the ecosystem and the tourism sector.

“Despite the authorities’ best efforts, many remote islands and underwater shoals are still out of patrol range for officers to regularly check and prevent illegal fishing, so these areas are our main blind spots,” Thon said.

To mitigate the problem, DNP is now working with the Fisheries Department on a proposal for trans-agency data sharing from vessel monitoring systems tracking. 

That would alert them to encroachment in national park areas by any fishing vessels.

But data sharing agreements take time to hammer out. “There are still a lot of negotiations ahead until an agreement will be reached,” said Thon.

Source -The Nation 

 

#Thailand - Marine protections ordered for #Samui to preserve ecosystem

THE DEPARTMENT of Marine and Coastal Resources has decreed protective measures for tourist destinations Samui, Pha-ngan and Tao islands in Surat Thani province that will halt several routine practices and popular activities.

Department director Jatuporn Burutpat signed the order in mid-August but it will not come into effect for 90 days after being published in the Royal Gazette. That puts it in effect at the end of next month.

The department said certain activities taking place on and around the islands had caused serious harm to marine and coastal resources, to the point that, if they are allowed to continue, the damage to the ecosystem could be irreparable.

“The protective measures are issued to cover areas of Tao, Pha-ngan and Samui islands in order to limit or suspend some activities that have had serious impacts on the resources there,” the decree says. “This is to mitigate the impacts while preserving the natural resources there.”

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 The order aims to curtail four primary activities.

Boats will not be allowed to drop anchor on coral and must instead lash their anchors to the stationary buoys that are available.

No one will be allowed to feed marine creatures for any purpose, including tourism. 

“Sea walking” – an increasingly popular experience in which tourists don weights and air-fed helmets to walk around on the sea floor admiring the fish and coral – will be prohibited. 

Also banned is the dumping of wastewater and rubbish into the sea.

The anchoring and fish-feeding rules do not apply to authorities on duty or who are specially authorised by the department for work purposes.

The order will take effect at the end of November and remain in effect for two years.

Source - TheNation

 

#Thailand - Governor denies bid to stop protest on Mekong blasting

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CHIANG RAI’S governor has denied that the authorities attempted to block a protest against a Chinese team that is surveying the Mekong River as part of the Navigation Route Improvement project, although local residents say the order has been issued.

A local environmental group confirmed that members had heard of a verbal order to that effect, adding that people had the right to stage peaceful protests against the project. The group maintained that the project would have a tremendous effect on people’s livelihoods and the river ecosystem.
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Jirasak Inthayot, coordinator of local environmental group Rak Chiang Khong (Love Chiang Khong), said yesterday there was an urgent order from the Chiang Rai governor to provincial district chiefs telling local administrators to deter people from participating in protests against the Chinese operation to |survey the Mekong River channel.
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 “I have heard from local community leaders that there was a verbal order from the governor to stop people from protesting against the survey operation on the Mekong River, and I see this as a serious and unjust order. People have the right to peacefully protest and protect local resources,” Jirasak said.
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Huai Luek village head Thongsuk Inthawong also said he had heard of the order, adding that people had the right to demonstrate against the project that will affect them.
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“The people in my village disagree with the plan to blast the rapids in the Mekong River, because their livelihoods, which are heavily dependent on the river, will change. They insist that they can demonstrate their disagreement to those who are responsible for this project,” Thongsuk said.
However, Chiang Rai provincial governor Narongsak Osottanakorn said there no such order existed and insisted that the province did not have a policy to prohibit peaceful protests.
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“I confirm that there is not an order from the province like that, and it is fine for the people to peacefully demonstrate unless there is a violation of laws,” Narongsak said.
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He said that the project was overseen by the Marine Department, which is under the control of the Transport Ministry, and the provincial government was just the local authority that did not have power over the operation.
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“We assure that people’s rights to demonstrate is respected, but we also have to keep our promise to the Chinese firm, as our government gave them permission to survey the Mekong River already, so we have to let them do their work,” he said.
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The survey operation on the Mekong River is being carried out by China’s CCCC Second Habor Consultant Co Ltd to study the river channel for the Navigation Route Improvement project, which will deepen the channel in some sections to allow cargo ships to travel the river’s length.
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The Chinese team arrived in Thailand last week and plans to survey 15 locations along a 96-kilometre stretch of the Mekong River between Thailand and Laos, from the Golden Triangle to the Kaeng Pha Dai rapids for the duration of 55 days.

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