The project is part of an Environmental Education Tour launched by the WWF on World Environment Day on June 5 in Bangkok which has travelled the country raising awareness of the importance of sustainability in preserving the natural enviornment.
Friday’s meeting, entitled ‘Phuket Ocean Hero’, took place at 2pm Provincial Hall and was chaired by Phuket Vice Governor Amnuay Pinsuwan who was joined by fellow government officials and selected land and business owners operating in the tourism sector.
A key takeway from the event was the responsibility and role local business owners have in relaying the message of respecting and safeguarding the local environment and natural resources to tourists in order to ensure ensure preservation and sustainability.
As we are now well into the high season, where a high volume of overseas tourists are expected to visit Phuket, it is important that everyone is aligned to safeguard the natural environment around us, the seminar explained.
Presentations including ‘How to enjoy your responsible ocean holiday in Thailand’ were delivered to the meeting’s attendees to help raise awareness and stress the importance of imparting the correct message to tourists so as to protect the local environment and thus help drive sustainability.
Similar messaging was delivered on raising awareness for tourists to conserve water as best as possible, to dispose of sanitary waste in a correct and responsible manner, to stay on designated trails and public footpaths, to not remove plants or feed animals and to never litter.
In a related incident Friday, a total of 20 people undertook a beach clean-up exercise in Mai Khao which collected over 226 kilograms of marine waste that had washed up onto the beach.
The Coastal Marine Department had been alerted to high volumes of rubbish being washed up via a Facebook group named ‘Monsoon Garbage’ and sent a team out to investigate.
The team were then joined by local fishermen, village residents and volunteers who helped collect the haul, which mainly consisted of plastic waste such as bottles and bottle caps, scraps of fishing equipment, scraps of rope, glass bottles and general waste.
The clean-up was part of an ongoing project being managed by the Coastal Marine Department to conserve and restore marine and coastal resources and was reported on the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources Facebook page.