Animal Welfare Thailand Project #50715

Marine and Coastal Conservation in Thailand

by GVI Charitable Programs

Project Report | Jun 9, 2023
Rehabilitation and release success

By Eve Pilmore | Project Leader

Research

As we approach the end of the second quarter in 2023, we would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all our donors for their unwavering support. We are immensely proud of the significant milestones we have achieved as a team and the positive impact we have had on both our local environment and community, all thanks to your invaluable contributions.

Thus far this year, we have played a vital role in the rehabilitation and release of eight adult Green Sea Turtles—an endangered keystone species crucial for maintaining the delicate balance of our deteriorating marine ecosystems. Additionally, we have successfully released over 800 juveniles, providing them with the head start they need to enhance their chances of survival and secure the long-term survival of the species. Head-starting is a critical component of sea turtle conservation, particularly until we collectively address other complex conservation threats to our oceans, such as climate change and plastic pollution.

In our ongoing efforts to safeguard the marine ecosystem that serves as the home for sea turtles, we have actively participated in 11 beach cleanups, collaborating with our community and partners to remove an astounding 1,676 kilograms of trash from our beaches. Thanks to your support, we were able to acquire new gloves and reusable trash bags, ensuring that our beach cleans have minimal environmental impact while fostering greater community engagement.

As we near the end of the dry season in Thailand, we have dedicated over 40 hours to conducting fish identification and coral reef monitoring surveys. Through these surveys, we have meticulously catalogued the complex diversity of our local coral reef, identifying over 80 fish species.

Initial reports indicate a concerning negative trend in the health of the local reef, primarily due to the detrimental impact our species continues to have on our planet. With your continued support, we aim to utilise this data to protect our reef ecosystem from the adverse effects of the tourism industry, empowering our local community to assume stewardship and advocate for sustainable tourism practices.

Looking ahead to the remainder of the year, we humbly request your ongoing support, particularly in light of recent news regarding potential unsustainable coastal developments that pose a threat to our local biodiversity and community. With your assistance, we can continue to monitor, protect, and advocate for our unique, diverse, and biologically significant ecosystems.

Once again, we extend our deepest gratitude to the entire project team in Phang Nga for making a tangible difference. Your unwavering support has allowed us to achieve remarkable milestones and create a positive impact on our environment and community. Together, we can continue to make a lasting difference. Thank you!

sorting litter collected

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Feb 8, 2023
Your support leads to inspirational outcomes

By Eve Pilmore | Project Leader

Introduction

We have reflected on our huge impact over the last 12 months, all of which has been made possible thanks to the ongoing support of our donors. Now we begin to look forward by continuing and expanding our programmes in the year to come, with lots of project development in the pipeline. We are keen to see our impact soar as we ensure Thailand’s local wildlife is not exploited as borders reopen and tourism begins to take off once again.

Project Outcomes

Our work at the Sea Turtle Conservation Centre has continued as the number of tourists in Thailand has dramatically increased coming into ‘high’ season. This has meant that our educational output from the centre has tripled in the last quarter. Over 600 tourists have been educated, encouraging them to help protect endangered sea turtles and become advocates for a planet where sea turtles and humans can all live together.

Our Environmental Enrichment Programme at the Sea Turtle Conservation Centre has also resulted in an inspirational success story. An adult turtle, fondly known as ‘Bumpy,’ has finally been trained to dive by our team. Biweekly additions of bottom feeding enrichment devices has seen the adult turtle's muscles strengthen and she has consequently regained her ability to dive and rest on the bottom of the tank. This means that this turtle is now on the right path to be released back to the wild; a huge achievement from the team. This turtle will hopefully soon join the other 15 adult turtles and over 2000 hatchlings released in 2022.

This year has seen over 60 hours of environmental education delivered through our Conservation Club programme at a partner school. Interactive classes have encouraged the local students to respect nature and care for their local environment. Classes have included planting organic chilli plants, bird surveys, unique ways to protect our oceans, arts and crafts sessions creating water cycle models and much more.

This quarter our Coral Reef Monitoring and Biodiversity surveys have restarted with the onset of the dry season. Our initial findings show that there is a perceived increase in biodiversity and improvement in coral health on our local reefs. The team looks to continue data collection on this project and compare to previous years to make some conclusive reports on the local reef ecosystem and its implications for the local community.

Our local beaches have continued to be kept trash-free during this important time of the year through regular beach cleans. Not only are the beaches clear for tourists but also to support the sea turtle nesting season in the region. We have developed our partnership with a local organisation, aiming to further develop the impact we can have through repurposing our beach clean trash on a local scale rather than transporting many miles to Bangkok; with significant benefits to the local community, economy and environment.

Challenges and Solutions for 2023

With the continued support of our partners and donors there are several challenges we would like to address as we move into the start of 2023.

The mystery of where juvenile Sea Turtles migrate to after hatching/release and the ability to accurately quantify the impact of our sea turtle releases is yet to be resolved. These challenges could be overcome with the addition of satellite transmitters fitted to juvenile turtles using a novel technology developed in the United States in the last 6 months. This ground breaking development in technology has the potential to drastically improve conservation efforts to protect turtles not only in Thailand but around the globe. We would like to fundraise to fit satellite transmitters to turtles released from our headstart programme, furthering the conservation impact of this project. From this data we could improve our knowledge of sea turtle populations on the Andaman coast and consequently focus mitigation efforts and environmental protection to high value coastal regions.

The Sea Turtle conservation centre would also benefit greatly from the addition of increased funding for resources such as more environmental enrichment, nets to protect the adult turtle tank from pollution from nearby pine trees and also an increased variety in their diet by improving their feeding schedule. Our educational output from the centre could also be dramatically improved through the addition of educational resources and posters.

Investment into our coral reef programme would see the validity and power of our data collection improved. This could be achieved through the addition of underwater camera equipment and quadrats to heighten the quality of data collected.

Summary

Finally we would like to say a massive thank you to all the donors that have made our successes so far possible. With your ongoing support we will have the opportunity to create positive change for the future of coastal ecosystems and wildlife on the Andaman Coast. Together we can make a difference.

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Oct 12, 2022
Tackling conservation in a range of ways

By Eve Pilmore | Conservation Coordinator

Introduction

As the world begins to recover from the COVID-19 crisis, there needs to be a global, unified switch in focus to practically tackle the climate crisis - an issue with the potential to cause destruction and chaos magnitudes greater than the pandemic we just experienced.

Phang Nga’s coastal conservation programme continues to work towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (13, 14, 15), as we work together with our local community to conserve this unique coastal ecosystem; tackling important conservation challenges on local and global scales.

Projects:Sea Turtle Conservation, Biodiversity Surveys (Bird Surveys, Butterfly Surveys, Frog Surveys, Camera Trapping, Kayak Surveys), Beach Cleans, Beach Profiling, Conservation Club

This quarter saw the continuation and development of our strong partnership with the Royal Thai Navy Sea Turtle Conservation Centre, facilitating the healthy release of hundreds of Green Sea Turtle Hatchlings back into the wild. A monumental milestone was reached in this project, as 14 adult Green Sea Turtles were released back to The Similan Island Marine National Park, where they have next to no natural predators and abundant sources of food. The conservation value of releasing sexually mature adults back into the breeding population is incredibly high, offering the declining endangered Green Sea Turtle population a real chance of recovery. The continued support of our donors will enable us to continue this positive action and facilitate the successful release of the remaining 14 adult Green Sea Turtles at the centre, the impact of which would be incredible.

After the significant increase in the number of hatchlings at the centre over the pandemic, this quarter we have enabled an increase in the release of hatchlings from the centre, bringing tank numbers down and improving welfare conditions at the centre. The cause of the sudden increase in hatchlings at the centre is something that the conservation team intends to research in depth in the following quarter thanks to the support of our donors.

An enrichment project this quarter displayed the potential for the release of an otherwise ‘non-releasable’ adult turtle. This turtle has a genetic developmental disorder causing a severe case of buoyancy syndrome, meaning that the turtle would not be able to dive to feed itself and therefore unable to survive in the wild. We have video footage of this turtle showing an increased ability to dive, a huge development for the rehabilitation of this animal. With the continuation of an intense and long term enrichment programme, this turtle may be able to be trained how to dive and consequently be released into the wild population. This is something that the team intends to complete with the right funding and support for our enrichment programme.

Our beach profiling project has expanded this quarter, following the development of a new partnership with an environmental engineer contracted by the DMCR (Department for Marine and Coastal Resources) to find a tangible solution to Khao Lak’s beach erosion issue. Not only does this issue threaten the region's ecosystem and wildlife, it also poses a real threat to the community as 80% of the Phang Nga provinces population rely solely on tourism as their main source of income. Without a beach ecosystem this rapidly expanding beach resort town would not be able to sustain its growth nor support its inhabitants basic needs.

With multiple site visits from the partner, alongside attendance to conferences with stakeholders, the team developed a data collection schedule to sample the region's beaches in 9 sections every 8 weeks. The data collected over 25km of surveys has been integral to the generation of a report that will influence the long term action plan and the future of the entire region. As our team has been the eyes on the ground, we have seen first hand the catastrophic effect that this season's monsoon has had on the beaches here and the desperate and isolated attempts of the local community to save their beach, business and livelihood. From this we can see that a unified effort to protect our coastal ecosystem is imperative to this community's survival; something that can only be achieved using the report produced from our team's data collection and the work of our partner.

Another consequence of this year's monsoon season is the devastating amount of marine litter washing up on our region's beaches. The team continues to tirelessly and relentlessly remove this trash from our beaches at any opportunity to reduce the effect on marine life and the adverse effect on the tourism industry. This effort has been supported by collaboration with local environmental organisations, forming a united front in the battle against plastic pollution.

Our biodiversity surveys continue across the Phang Nga region, offering regular and important submissions to global citizen science databases ensuring the protection and future of these species. This quarter we have been approached by different parties to utilise our bird survey data to oppose a local project imposed on the community by the government, that threatens to destroy a community that only just recovered from the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. As we move into the next quarter we will investigate whether our bird survey data can realistically be used to protect the interests of this resilient community, as well as safeguarding these fragile ecosystems. Linked to this, the presence of the critically endangered pangolin species on a nearby island, that is also threatened by the proposed project, is a crucial finding that is being reviewed by the team to see how we can best utilise this discovery to protect our local community and environment.

Another project this quarter saw the development of a new project under the umbrella of our biodiversity programme. A pilot Frog Survey project was launched, looking into the species distribution and diversity of amphibians in the local area. This data is being uploaded to the Global Amphibian BioBlitz network, working to protect and expand the knowledge of amphibian species in the region. This programme will be developed in the following quarter, expanding its scope and impact.

Due to our donors' support this quarter we were able to rent 1 new kayak to conduct biodiversity surveys within our local river and mangrove ecosystem. This will open a window of opportunity into one of the most crucial and vulnerable ecosystems in this region. The protection and investment into the deeper understanding of these ecosystems is imperative to the communities food security and natural tsunami defences.

The impact of our environmental education programme has significantly increased this quarter following the development of a curriculum for our conservation club programme. The classes now follow the United Nations YUNGA badge framework, offering the students a fun but focused learning experience. The programme allows the students to improve their knowledge and understanding of pressing environmental issues, whilst also improving their english and having fun!

This quarter we have been approached by several large hotel resorts and chains in the area looking to partner with our teams to improve the sustainability of their businesses, as they become increasingly aware of their corporate responsibility to take stewardship for their local environment. Conversations with these potential new partners have begun and we hope to develop a hotel network/programme in the region that encourages and engages local businesses to tackle environmental issues together moving forward.

Summary

The conservation team has made positive steps forward this quarter thanks to the ongoing support of our donors. We have made progress across all project areas, approaching these pressing environmental challenges from a holistic and varied approach to conserving our coastal environment and ensuring the future of our local community. With your continued support we continue to take strides towards meeting the United Nations SDG’s 13, 14 and 15, and ensuring the successful future of this unique coastal ecosystem and community.

Many thanks for your ongoing support.

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