Phang Nga Bay on the south eastern coast of Thailand has been too successful for its own good.
A famous international tourist destination, its assets includes mangrove forests, seaweed beds, coral reefs and shorelines rich with a wide variety of fish. Its seaweed beds serve as habitats for endangered species like dugongs, dolphins and turtles.
So it attracted an increasing number of tourists and people from various other places came to settle and compete in the exploitation of the bay's resources. The original population kept growing. They all produced a huge amount of waste. They also brought innovations that were not friendly to its ecology: the use of banned fishing gears and trawling vessels, motorization by small and large scale fishermen, shrimp farming on elevated areas causing salt water intrusion into freshwater-based farming in lower areas. This had been going on since the 1970s.
The bay was beginning to die until the Government of Thailand, making full use of assistance provided by ASEAN Dialogue Partners such as Australia, Canada, the European Union and the United States, stepped in to save the bay from further degradation.
The Government did not stop development activities in the area, but it adopted environmental concerns as a natural regulator of economic activities. Using resources provided by ASEAN Dialogue Partners, it conducted intensive studies that strengthened its capacity for integrated economic and environmental management. The studies also led to more efficient transmission of information from data storage agencies to the resource managers for decision making, including the development of SIMCOAST, an intelligent soft computing system designed for integrated coastal zone planning and decision-making.
One study showed that a government plan to construct a seaport in the area would have a great adverse impact on the marine life in the area.
Equipped with a large body of valuable information, the Government has carried out mangrove reforestation programmes since 1989. Coral reef protection and rehabilitation programmes and zoning of coral reefs have been implemented since 1991.
Public information campaigns were pursued to get the people, especially those engaged in the bay's exploitation, to support and take part in the rehabilitation and protection of the bay.
An increase in the mangrove area has been observed since 1989.
There are now more frequent sightings of endangered animal species in the bay.
In general, Phang Nga Bay is recovering its original vigour and wealth of resources and the people who depend on these resources for a living are benefitting more.
Other ASEAN countries participating in the series of coastal zone management projects of ASEAN have their own Phang Nga Bays and similar stories to tell of environmental degradation, the adoption of an integrated environmental and economic management approach to reverse that degradation, and speedy recovery.