Hyerin

Ms. Stefanie

Grade 10 English L&L

12 December 2019

Position paper

Topic Background

Ecotourism is a trip to a responsible natural area to protect the environment, maintain the

health of local people, and interpret and educate them (The International Ecotourism Society,

2019). As a dive company owner, diving is part of ecotourism. It is also important to show

respect to natural and local people to experience ecotourism. To show respect the dive company

will provide activities, which create an economic benefit to local people and personal industries

(The International Ecotourism Society, 2019). Example as a dive company owner is providing

dive experiences to tourists, having benefits on personal industries which is for every single dive

company owners earning money by tourists. And both employing people at personal industries or

shops which local people is working will get benefit by tourists. Through this process, personal

industries and local people are both having benefits.

the place where the dive company is located at is Koh Lipe. Koh Lipe is part of National

Marine Park in Thailand. As everyone knows, Koh Lipe is famous as beatiful beach place.

However, in the late 1930s, the island was used to isolate political prisoners (Thai National

Parks, 2019). According to Google Maps, there are at least 7 dive companies in Koh Lipe.

Diving is one of the most famous activities in Koh Lipe. Often, diving is a main purpose for
tourists who come to visit Koh Lipe. According to PADI Travel, “there are at least 20 different

dive sites that are regularly visited by the islands dive operators,” which shows there are tourists

who are visiting Koh Lipe to experience dive (PADI Travel, 2019). In the process of diving, dive

companies use long-tail boats or electric boats to go outside of the island to dive.

Furthermore, there is a group of people called sea gypsies who are living on the coast and

islands of the Andaman Sea, on the west coast of Thailand. Koh Lipe is the home of the sea

minority "sea gypsy," which is thought to have lived for one thousand years, along the East

Andaman coast (John Everingham, 2016). Sea gypsies are part of a group who are involved in

the problem. In the perspective of ecotourism, sea gypsy is a local people in Koh Lipe. ​So as a

dive company owner, when we are planning dive activities, it needs to respect the sea gypsies as

well.

Impact & Past Action

An impact by the dive company owner to environment is coral bleaching. As stated in the

background information about diving in Koh Lipe, dive companies use long-tail boats and

electric boats to go out of the island to dive. However, in the process of using either long-tail

boat and electric boat, CNN Travel proved that dive sites have bleached corals too much, so

Thailand closed some of them since corals are in crisis. According to the CNN article, “At its

worst in over six years, coral bleach has spread widely between 40% to 80% of the reefs along

both the east coast (Gulf of Thailand) and the west coast (Andaman Sea), according to Nattapol

Rattanaphan, Director of the Marine National Park Division (MNPD)” (Olarn.K & Yu.E, 2016).

This CNN article clearly shows that by dive companies using boats to get out and come into
island, corals inside of the beach get affected a lot. As a dive company owner, this is one of the

things to consider while creating solution.

Furthermore, there’s trash issues in Koh Lipe. It’s being serious issue by tourists.

However, there is one more reason which caused environmental issues which is construction

work. According to PACK THAILAND, “Next to this is a large construction site where a new

hotel resort is being built. Needless to say, the mess and noise caused by this is quite

unpleasant” (PACK THAILAND, 2019). By understanding this, in the process of thinking of a

solution, it needs to be addressed as a serious issue.

As an example of past action to solve the problem is rules on Boracay which were created

after six months of closing the island due to environmental issues.

● “Maximum 6,405 tourists are allowed to enter given specific day.

● Smoking and drinking is banned near the white beach.

● There’s no fire work allowed.

● Tourists, shops and hawkers are not allowed to either sell or buy around beach.

● Water sports such as diving, snorkeling will be banned for a particular time.

● Fire dancers are not allowed to use oil (kerosene).

● There will be a limit to build up sand castle.

● No electricity in front of beaches and absolutely no gambling.

● Ha-bal habal and motorbike is not allowed because of air pollution.

● Agriculture is not allowed including local people.” (Venus G. Villanueva, October 24

2018).
 Also, another example is Trash Hero in Koh Lipe. Trash Hero is a sustainable project

which picks up trash around the beach. According to Koh Lipe Thailand, “We pick up trash.

Whether a cigarette butt on the road, or 20,000 kilos from island beaches.” It is one of the

solutions for environmental issues caused by trash.

Possible Solution

The dive company’s first solution is to create an activity or challenge which can pique

tourists’ or people’s interest and still experience diving at the same time. There’s one intention

that can help with this solution which is Trash Hero. As mentioned in the impact & past action

section, Trash Hero collects trash around beaches. However, the purpose of this solution is to

collect trash inside of the beach. So it’s going to be people who go diving who will have the

opportunity to volunteer to collect trash inside of the beach. Moreover, if it’s only a volunteer

project, there will not be many people who will be willing to do it. So there are two more options

to make tourists willing to volunteer to participate in it. First, whoever volunteers to participate

will have special treatment,such as getting a discount for a hotel or diving, or making a special

souvenir for them. Second, the dive comapny can make it as a challenge (e.g Ice Bucket

Challenge). Today, by technology development, social media like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter,

etc are popular. So after people volunteer for this project, they will be able to post a picture with

a tag like #... activity which can cause people to pay attention around the world. Furthermore, to

make this project more sustainable, all the plastic trash picked up by this project will go to

Plastic Recycling Company in Thailand. Therefore, it can be recycled into other things.

Second, dive companies can either limit the amount of people who can dive per day or

the Thai Ministry of Tourism and Sport can reduce some dive company offices in Koh Lipe. Koh
Lipe is a small island. However, there are many tourists who come to visit and experience

diving, so there are too much dive company offices. Therefore, if the amount of dive company

offices is reduced, it will not completely solve the problem. But it will still be better than now.

Third, the Thai Ministry of Tourism and Sports can reduce some resorts and hotels. As

the impact & past action mentioned, construction work is giving effect on the environment in

Koh Lipe. If it’s hard to reduce some resorts and hotels, the hotel owners can build up

eco-friendly hotels. Because of more and more tourists in Koh Lipe, there are more hotels and

resorts building up. So building eco-friendly hotels or resorts will be better for the environment

in Koh Lipe.

Lastly, the dive companies can use kayaka instead of long-tail boat or electric boats.

Using a kayak doesn’t mean that there won’t be any environmental issues caused by this.

However, it will still bring less effect on corals inside of the ocean.
 Reference List

1) Koh Lipe Thailand. (n.d.). Trash Hero. Retrieved from

http://kohlipethailand.com/koh-lipe/Trash-Hero/

2) Olarn, K., & Yu, E. (2016, May 27). Thailand dive sites shut over coral bleaching.

Retrieved from

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/thailand-dive-sites-coral-bleaching/index.html

3) PADI Travel. (2019, March 14). Diving in Koh Lipe. Retrieved from

https://travel.padi.com/d/koh-lipe/

4) Sea gypsies of Koh Lipe, Thailand; carefree oceanic wanders or sadly exploited

minority? (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://true-beachfront.com/guide/sea-gypsies-moken-koh-lipe-thailand

5) Theungsang, T. (n.d.). Tarutao National Marine Park. Retrieved from

https://www.thainationalparks.com/tarutao-national-marine-park

6) Villanueva, V. G. (2018, October 27). The Do's and Don'ts when in Boracay. Retrieved

from ​https://pia.gov.ph/news/articles/1014226

7) What Is Ecotourism. (n.d.). Retrieved from ​https://ecotourism.org/what-is-ecotourism/

8) Wildschut, K. (2016, November 29). Koh Lipe Rubbish Problem: Trash, Building Sites

& Beach Fires. Retrieved from

http://packthailand.com/koh-lipe-rubbish-problem-trash-half-finished-buildings-fires-bea

ch/