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MPA monitoring workshop held

28 May 2008.  Marianas Variety

A community-based Marine Protected Area (MPA) monitoring capacity building workshop was held recently.

The Palau International Coral Reef Center (PICRC) hosted the event where at least 12 participants attended the five -day workshop. The workshop which was held from May 19 to 23, focused on the capacity assessment and the need for monitoring. PICRC said that since 1990 there are over 20 MPAs throughout Palau.

Since Palau has some of the most diverse coral reef system in the world, there are threats, PICRC said. Since Palau’s bread and butter is its environment, Palau is trying to conserve marine resources which are the source of pride for Palauans and source of income for the country. PICRC said that Palau has been practicing conservation know as “bul” or traditional way of prohibition from collecting certain species at certain location or by season. PICRC said that Palau continues to protect in environment for example in 2003, a legislation known as the Protected Areas Network Act was enacted to establish a framework for establish a system of protected areas (terrestrial and marine) throughout Palau.

In 2005, the political leaders of Miconesian islands, including Palau issues a Micronesian Challenge, which basically aims at protecting 30 percent of marine and 20 percent of terrestrial areas in each jurisdiction under effective management. PICRC said that to ensure that these efforts of both local and regional government continue to satisfy the needs of the community, conservation require scientific and unbiased data to show that their MPAs have been working.

PICRC said the purpose of this project is to collect biological data on four MPA (Ngelukes, Bkulangril, Ngermasch, and Airai) to assess whether the closure has had an effect on fish abundance, size, and biomass. PICRC added that the study also proposed to involve community members in the monitoring of their MPA so that they can have a first hand look at what their MPA is like.

“ All these MPA are strictly no take no entry zone, and many community members have not had the chance to see the reefs following their closure and so this will give them that opportunity to see and hopefully spread the word in the community,” the center said. The workshop also discussed field survey methodology such as seagrass taxonomy, fish taxonomy and setting up of seagrass monitoring site, in Ngelukes and deploy sediment traps.

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Ao Phuket hearing changed to Thursday

27 May 2008, Phuket Gazette - Phuket,Thailand

PHUKET CITY: The Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration (DASTA) and Phuket Province will hold a public hearing on Thursday, May 29 to gauge local response to the plan to move forward with the Ao Phuket megaproject, a 100-million-baht marina and convention center on 3,000 rai of reclaimed land in Phuket Bay.

The meeting has been moved up one day from its previously scheduled date of May 30. The general public is welcome. At the meeting DASTA representatives will explain and discuss the details of the project, including its advantages and disadvantages.

When asked about the project by the Gazette, biologist Kanjana Adulyanukosol of the Phuket Marine Biological Center (PMBC) said she was not aware of the upcoming hearing, but thought that some of her colleagues at the PMBC would attend to discuss the potential environmental impacts of the scheme. K. Kanjana, Thailand’s leading researcher on the endangered dugong population in Phang Nga Bay, said there had been recent but sporadic sightings of dugong in Phuket Bay, which is part of the dugong’s normal migration route along the island’s west coast. The marine mammals feed almost exclusively on seagrass. According to her own surveys, dugong still migrate from Pa Khlok to as far south as Koh Taphao Yai at the south end of Phuket Bay – and sometimes further south into Chalong Bay.

“In the past Phuket Bay had seagrass beds. I am not sure not sure how good they were, but much better than they are now. Silt and clay from sea tin mining caused the sea bottom to harden and many species of seagrasses in the area died out as a result,” she said.

“Nowadays there are only small patches of one or two seagrass species in Phuket Bay, at the south end off the coast near the Ao Num Bor School in Wichit municipality,” she said.

K. Kanjana last surveyed the area about 10 years ago with seagrass expert and PMBC colleague Sombat Poovachiranon, who said at the time that these few remaining seagrass beds might not survive with an increase in sedimentation in Phuket Bay.

Although unfamiliar with the exact details of the project, K. Kanjana doubted that the high-ranking politicians pushing for it had a true understanding of “environmentally sustainable” tourism – or what the project’s real environmental ramifications would be. They are probably more focused on short-term economic benefits, she said.

The hearing will be held in the Jamjuree Room at the Phuket Merlin Hotel, starting at 1:30 pm.

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