Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 159 i ASIAN Geographic

When elephants enter her farm, Roengrom “Rom” Amsamarng runs away and spreads the news of elephant presence to neighbouring farms. To Rom, a Thai farmer, elephants threaten her safety and economic livelihood. In the village of Ruam Thai, where Rom lives, elephants leave protected areas and venture into pineapple farms, damaging crops that farmers depend on for a living. “If it’s too late at night, I won’t go out or even move,” Rom says. “If the elephant is really close to me, I won’t move, but if the elephants are far away, I will run as far as I can.” This is an example of human–elephant conflict, a problem in all 13 countries inhabited by Asian elephants, including Cambodia, Thailand and Sri Lanka. In Thailand, human–elephant conflict, or HEC, is…

• Living in Harmony: BTEH’s mission is to increase chances of survival for elephants and work towards a world in which people and elephants can live in harmony, benefiting from each other’s existence. • Community Engagement: BTEH’s conservation projects root in local communities. Equitable and sustainable Nature conservation respects their knowledge and values, and makes the benefits and income that elephants can bring accessible to all. • Sustainable, Long-Lasting Change: BTEH’s work is characterised by three overarching guidelines: local involvement, a healthy ecology, and benefits for people and elephants simultaneously. They lead to shared decisionmaking, ownership of local communities, sustainability, gender-and social equality, pride, and a peaceful coexistence of people and animals. For more information about BTEH’s projects, visit www.bring-the-elephant-home.org. You can purchase the products created through The Tom Yum…

Southeast Asia – which includes the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN): Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as Timor-Leste – is an important region for wildlife and contains some of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots. Countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines are regarded highly by divers and marine biologists for the wealth of marine life found in their waters. However, there’s a lesser-known and more disquieting aspect to this region’s natural heritage. Barring marine species, most taxonomic groups studied so far are more threatened in Southeast Asia than anywhere else in the world. For example, the vast majority of the world’s “Critically Endangered” tortoise and freshwater turtle species occur in Southeast and South Asia, with…

Everybody, it seems, wants to be frightened of something. We don’t have witches and devils anymore, but we have the great white shark.– Valerie Taylor It was the movie aggrieved crew members nicknamed “Flaws”, such were the difficulties with the shoot, from bad weather and seasickness to waterlogged cameras. Famously, its producers initially thought the film’s star – a great white shark – could be trained. When it became apparent that this was not the case, effects technicians constructed three pneumatically powered prop sharks, which would repeatedly malfunction. Its young director, Steven Spielberg, realised he needed some great footage of real sharks before he could begin shooting the main story. Without authentic shark sequences, his mechanical sharks wouldn’t carry the film. On the other side of the world, in Australia,…

The whale shark (Rhincodon typus) is both the world’s largest fish and one of the ocean’s greatest puzzles. A true enigma, these pelagic gentle giants have no real predators and seem to wander the world for no apparent reason. Where they go and why they go there is simply not known. What we do know is that while they are predominantly solitary creatures, they will gather in key locations at certain times of the year. They seem to do this primarily to feed on locally occurring phenomena, such as the “Afuera” spawning of little tunny at Mexico’s Yucatán, or the coral spawning at Ningaloo Reef in the northwest of Australia. But of the known aggregations, probably the most intriguing is the one that occurs in the remote Galápagos Islands from…

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We are told that the furthest reaches from civilisation are untouched and pristine. That days are spent under blue skies and swaying palm trees. That gentle waves lap the shore hypnotically. That birds sing to the rising sun and owls whoop to the rising moon. This is the idyllic tropical setting of our dreams. This is the last frontier. This is the Mergui Archipelago. By the time we reach the stilted villages along the coastline, we wonder what lies ahead with a sense of foreboding. The stench of decaying seafood is almost unbearable. It is the end of April and an unforgiving westerly monsoon has washed ashore. The only vessel available to take us across to the island is an old longtail boat. The tide is dry and the captain…

ASIAN ELEPHANT (Elephas maximus) Size: Up to 3.4m tall (males) or 2.9m tall (females) Life Span: Up to 70 years Location: India and 12 countries in Southeast Asia Notable Trait: Males typically grow tusks, while cows have small incisor teeth called tushes The Loss of Elephant Ecosystems in Asia • According to a recent study, over the past three centuries, the Asian elephant has lost more than three million square kilometres of its historic habitat range• Suitable habitats for Asian elephants have decreased by nearly two-thirds within the past 300 years due to human land-use practices such as farming and timber extraction• The study suggests that the remaining elephant populations today may not have adequate habitat areas• Less than half of the area within 100 kilometres of the current elephant…

A little further south of Prachuap Khiri Khan, off the western shore of the Gulf of Thailand in the Chumphon Archipelago, is Koh Tao, a 21-square-kilometre island known for worldclass scuba diving and snorkelling, picture-perfect white sandy beaches, and invigorating yoga and wellness retreats. But as tourism and development has burgeoned on Koh Tao over recent decades, the impacts on the environment have become a pressing issue. Dive tourism is affecting the health of coral reefs around the island, while the proper management of solid and liquid waste is a huge problem. There is an urgent need to conserve Koh Tao’s natural resources and develop understanding in the community to work towards sustainable tourism. Two local businesses, CoCo Tie Dye and Leaf Lab, are rising to that challenge. They are…

Plastic bags > Reusable bags/no bag Straws > No need Utensils > Use non-plastic To-go cups > Reusable mugs and cups Electronics > Repair or upgrade, recycle the old item when you need something new Bottled water > Reusable water bottle Packaging > Buy items with minimal packaging Clothing > Buy 68 natural materials; synthetic fibres pollute the ocean Every day around 8 million pieces of plastic make their way into our oceans Around 50% of our plastic waste is single use and only 9% has ever been recycled The world uses over 500 billion plastic bags a year – that’s 150 for each person on Earth Products containing plastic microbeads can release 100,000 tiny beads with More than 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine animals die from plastic pollution…

When a nominally civilian government was installed in Myanmar in 2011, and the ensuing years saw the country gradually opening up, there was cause for optimism. The Southeast Asian nation was hailed as the “last frontier” by foreign business leaders eager to secure a share of a promising emerging market. There was huge potential for investment in infrastructure and manufacturing, a youthful population of 60 million, poised to become consumers, and of course, vast untapped natural resources. A lucky few had already caught a glimpse of some of these rich natural resources as early as 1997, when the Mergui Archipelago, an immense region comprising hundreds of tropical islands stretched out along Myanmar’s Andaman Sea coast, opened to divers travelling in boats from Thailand. Dozens of world-class dive sites began to…

SUSTAINABILITY AND CONSERVATION THROUGH IMAGERY The photo competition for United Nations World Oceans Day celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2023. Over the last decade, through categories such as “Clean Our Ocean”, “Human Interaction: Making a Difference” and “No Time to Waste”, photographers have been invited to show how we are impacting our oceans, rivers and beaches. Taken together, these powerful images illustrate not just the destruction we’ve wrought on the oceans, but also the efforts we are making to undo the damage we have done. Pacific Ocean, Baja California, Mexico A humpback whale with a buoy entangled to its tail, already decomposed, dies slowly and agonisingly, a tragic consequence of the millions of tonnes of discarded and abandoned fishing gear in our oceans CATEGORY AND PLACING No Time to Waste,…

Increasing conflict between farmers and elephants 1 The community-run Tom Yum Tree Nursery creates alternative crop seedlings 2 Together, farmers plant, water and maintain alternative crops 3 Regenerative, pesticide-free farming benefits biodiversity 4 Farmers harvest yield and create elephant-friendly products in eco-friendly packaging 5 Consumers make a difference by purchasing products to create demand for this holistic solution 6 Proceeds are used to restore elephant habitat and support local farmers 7 Peaceful coexistence between people and elephants • Less dangerous, violent deterrents• New sktills and alternative income• Thriving, diverse ecosystems• Socio-environmental resilience…

Trapped in the North Pacific Ocean midway between the USA and Japan is one of the most extreme examples of marine pollution on Earth. A 2018 scientific report in the journal Nature estimated its size at 1.6 million square kilometres, about twice as big as Turkey. Some estimates suggest it may even be as large as 15 million square kilometres – almost the size of Russia. It is a problem to which we have all, wittingly or otherwise, contributed – and for which we all bear responsibility. Whether we even have the capacity to clean up the mess we have made, let alone the willingness to shoulder the financial cost, is a hotly debated topic. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also known as the Pacific Trash Vortex, lies approximately between…

The Philippine eagle has brown and white-coloured plumage; a shaggy crest; A LARGE, PROMINENT, HIGH-ARCHED, BLUISH-GREY BEAK; AND BLUE-GREY EYES. It weighs between 4–8KG and has an AVERAGE LENGTH OF 95CM for males and 105CM FOR FEMALES, making it the largest extant species of eagle. COMMON NAME Philippine eagle, also known as the monkey-eating eagle or great Philippine eagle SCIENTIFIC NAME Pithecophaga jefferyi scientific classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Accipitriformes Family: Accipitridae Subfamil: Perninae Genus: Pithecophaga Species: P. jefferyi CONSERVATION STATUS POPULATION 392 breeding pairs* *Latest estimate from Sutton, L.J. et al. (2023), Priority conservation areas and a global population estimate for the critically endangered Philippine eagle, Animal Conservation, 13 February DISTRIBUTION AND HABITAT The Philippine eagle can only be found on four major islands: eastern Luzon, Samar,…