WEBVTT - Asia’s Great Climate Frontiers: How ecotourism is saving Thailand’s rainforest 0:00:00.000 --> 0:00:02.310 This is a C. N. A podcast. 0:00:03.900 --> 0:00:09.080 Rainforests are a defining feature of many parts of Southeast Asia. 0:00:09.090 --> 0:00:14.000 From the great green expanses of Borneo to cambodia's misty 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:20.090 cardamom mountains. These ancient landscapes support so much life over 0:00:20.090 --> 0:00:23.810 the past few decades, much of this region's rain forests 0:00:23.810 --> 0:00:27.440 have been lost. But as we start to better appreciate 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:31.450 what they do for the planet, those trends have reversed. 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:35.860 Southeast. Asia is now leading global efforts to protect rainforests 0:00:35.870 --> 0:00:39.159 which are critical as a tool to fight climate change. 0:00:39.170 --> 0:00:43.080 Welcome back to the climate conversations, I'm Jack Board and 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:47.470 in this special series, Asia's Great Climate Frontiers, I bring 0:00:47.470 --> 0:00:51.650 you stories of ecosystems at risk if you haven't already 0:00:51.659 --> 0:00:54.930 do find the first four episodes of the series wherever 0:00:54.930 --> 0:00:59.210 you get your podcasts. This week, I'm in southern Thailand 0:00:59.500 --> 0:01:03.330 in a country where deforestation was once rife. I see 0:01:03.330 --> 0:01:08.580 firsthand the benefits communities can discover and nature is preserved 0:01:08.590 --> 0:01:13.470 rather than destroyed. This is AsIA's Great Climate Frontiers. 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:19.699 I'm on patrol with a group of rangers from the 0:01:19.700 --> 0:01:24.970 Forest Protection unit of Khao Sok National Park from afar 0:01:24.980 --> 0:01:28.910 you could certainly mistake them for a military unit. The men, 0:01:28.910 --> 0:01:34.200 some experienced some as young as 19 where camouflage fatigues, 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:36.869 they carry rifles and mean business, 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:41.130 but their successes over recent years means they're more likely 0:01:41.130 --> 0:01:45.209 to be looking for elephants to monitor than poachers to catch. 0:01:45.420 --> 0:01:49.920 Today's patrol is shorter and the discoveries a bit more mundane, 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:54.280 a plastic bottle here and there. Even these small things 0:01:54.290 --> 0:01:58.750 indicate human activity that will need to be recorded. The 0:01:58.750 --> 0:02:00.240 rangers leader is pancetta. 0:02:01.340 --> 0:02:04.900 He's been doing this for 20 years but his family 0:02:04.900 --> 0:02:08.180 has a much longer history in this rainforest. 0:02:09.270 --> 0:02:16.090 My name is, I am a forest protection official and 0:02:16.090 --> 0:02:21.060 central patrolling official for national park. I started working when 0:02:21.060 --> 0:02:24.350 I was 20 years old. I followed my father from 0:02:24.350 --> 0:02:27.280 when I was a child. We looked for things here 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:30.550 and there. So I learned which spots had a lot 0:02:30.550 --> 0:02:34.639 of animals, which spots had resources such as fruit trees 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:36.770 or seasonal plants that we can eat. 0:02:37.130 --> 0:02:42.370 It was knowledge passed from generation to generation. Originally every 0:02:42.370 --> 0:02:46.680 family here had fathers who were working like poachers. They 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:50.870 weren't actual poachers but rather would search for food. We 0:02:50.870 --> 0:02:54.110 didn't have laws. So a national park at the time, 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:57.290 they naturally had to feed themselves by foraging from the 0:02:57.290 --> 0:03:01.960 forest such as finding bamboo shoots wildlife for an area 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:05.010 where they wanted to grow crops for the family. This 0:03:05.010 --> 0:03:05.990 is my home. 0:03:06.310 --> 0:03:08.960 If we don't take care of our home, then we 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:11.450 can't hope for other people to take care of it. 0:03:11.460 --> 0:03:14.650 To write the rangers cover a huge area of the 0:03:14.650 --> 0:03:19.090 national park here in Surat Thani Province. Their patrols can 0:03:19.090 --> 0:03:22.770 last as long as 14 days as they venture deep 0:03:22.770 --> 0:03:27.770 into the wilderness. Most of Kawasaki consists of virgin rainforest, 0:03:27.930 --> 0:03:32.370 its dense and humid part of an ancient rainforest system 0:03:32.380 --> 0:03:35.700 that's older than the amazon and it's loud. 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:40.870 But over the years has changed in the 1980s, the 0:03:40.870 --> 0:03:48.970 construction of a hydroelectric dam project flooded 165of forest reservoir 0:03:48.970 --> 0:03:52.510 that was created is enormous. Nearly a quarter the size 0:03:52.510 --> 0:03:53.350 of Singapore. 0:03:53.990 --> 0:03:56.880 Just two years earlier, the area had been decreed a 0:03:56.880 --> 0:04:01.250 national park meaning no logging or mining was permitted, but 0:04:01.250 --> 0:04:05.910 Thailand needed electricity and the dam project was made a priority. 0:04:06.410 --> 0:04:11.750 The flooding that resulted caused massive upheaval. Many animals drowned 0:04:11.950 --> 0:04:16.469 and everyone living in villages in the area was forced out. Sharon, 0:04:16.470 --> 0:04:20.360 ping john, now 78 years old, resides on the outskirts 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:21.650 of the national Park. 0:04:21.940 --> 0:04:28.730 He remembers that time with sadness. One day the subdistrict 0:04:28.730 --> 0:04:32.080 chief said there would be a survey and a dam 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:35.120 will be built. We needed to be prepared. We might 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:37.510 not be able to live here in our old place. 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:41.160 The villages were wondering where we could go and we 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:43.830 were told that the houses would be moved and we 0:04:43.830 --> 0:04:45.760 would be given cropland as well. 0:04:46.270 --> 0:04:49.650 We lived there until the rumors turned into real life. 0:04:49.660 --> 0:04:52.920 Once they started drilling the tunnel, we were certain that 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:57.260 this was serious. I say that we lost everything. Whoever 0:04:57.260 --> 0:05:00.300 has to leave the place, they used to live the bed, 0:05:00.300 --> 0:05:03.179 they used to sleep, the house they used to stay in. 0:05:03.190 --> 0:05:06.409 What would they feel? We cannot find the words that 0:05:06.410 --> 0:05:07.570 describe it all. 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:13.270 Despite the lingering memories of life before the dam today, 0:05:13.270 --> 0:05:17.589 cal is a beacon for eco tourism in southern Thailand. 0:05:18.230 --> 0:05:22.660 International visitors are drawn to forest trekking and exploring the 0:05:22.670 --> 0:05:27.650 aqua marine waters and dramatic limestone peaks. The place has 0:05:27.650 --> 0:05:31.260 been labeled the Gui lin of Thailand for its similarities 0:05:31.260 --> 0:05:36.130 to china's famous cast landscape. The influx of money to 0:05:36.130 --> 0:05:39.650 the area has been a catalyst for local behaviors to 0:05:39.650 --> 0:05:44.490 change as well. This is Ter Taekwondo, the chief of 0:05:44.490 --> 0:05:46.010 CAl national Park. 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:51.540 The direct benefit is that villagers now work as tour 0:05:51.540 --> 0:05:55.870 guides and lead tourists to different spots in the National Park. 80% 0:05:55.870 --> 0:05:58.790 of the tour guides are from the local area. When 0:05:58.790 --> 0:06:01.909 former poachers so that there were a lot of tourists coming, 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:05.050 they switch from wildlife hunting to become tour guides and 0:06:05.050 --> 0:06:09.230 boat operators. They also open restaurants or shops. This means 0:06:09.230 --> 0:06:12.589 they can earn a direct income and it isn't illegal. 0:06:12.910 --> 0:06:17.980 This makes people help with conservation of nature. Life here 0:06:17.990 --> 0:06:20.850 is a lot different than in the past. They've joined 0:06:20.850 --> 0:06:23.910 us and cooperate in taking care of the forests and 0:06:23.910 --> 0:06:28.200 wildlife and this is why incidents of encroaching destruction of 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:33.630 resources and poaching of wildlife is now zero. After listening 0:06:33.630 --> 0:06:37.130 to to tie, I'm wondering how important eco tourism can 0:06:37.130 --> 0:06:41.200 be as a tool to promote forest protection in Thailand. 0:06:41.720 --> 0:06:46.920 Eco tourism is one of a bundle or a portfolio 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:52.560 of potential strategies that we can use to reward, to compensate, 0:06:52.570 --> 0:06:57.980 to incentivize local communities to in a lot of cases 0:06:57.980 --> 0:07:00.710 continue doing the good work that they've already been doing 0:07:00.710 --> 0:07:03.360 in terms of taking care of their force and their 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:04.799 natural resources. 0:07:04.810 --> 0:07:10.130 That's Regan Pyro Ma Hackett, a senior program officer at rico, 0:07:10.710 --> 0:07:15.190 an international not for profit assisting local communities to actively 0:07:15.190 --> 0:07:20.340 manage forests in Asia and the pacific. She says ecotourism 0:07:20.350 --> 0:07:22.450 is just one of the tools in the kit. 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:29.700 People are confronted with difficult choices and tradeoffs and when 0:07:29.700 --> 0:07:32.350 you want to send grandma to the hospital and your 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:34.520 kids to school, it takes money. 0:07:34.530 --> 0:07:38.270 And a lot of indigenous people and local communities that 0:07:38.270 --> 0:07:42.350 live in and around forests have long relied on subsistence 0:07:42.350 --> 0:07:45.640 type of economies that are not cash based. So this 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:49.260 puts them in a difficult position to try and acquire 0:07:49.270 --> 0:07:53.520 hard currency and the forest has become 0:07:53.780 --> 0:07:56.960 the go to place for that. If we can offer 0:07:56.960 --> 0:08:02.240 them alternative benefits, including direct payments or direct financing, I 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:07.120 think it's essential in allowing them the same basic rights 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:09.360 that anybody else would expect to be able to take 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:09.700 care of the 0:08:09.715 --> 0:08:12.905 families and improve their own livelihoods. This can be through 0:08:12.905 --> 0:08:17.085 equal tourism. This can be through supporting local supply chains. 0:08:17.085 --> 0:08:20.885 For example, either timber, non timber forest products, it can 0:08:20.885 --> 0:08:25.555 also be through new and emerging markets, both for carbon 0:08:25.945 --> 0:08:29.265 as well as for biodiversity. I see personally 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:34.910 great promise and something really transformative as we start to 0:08:34.910 --> 0:08:42.969 see markets offering incentives and recognizing these really marginalized historically, 0:08:42.980 --> 0:08:45.760 impoverished groups for the ad 0:08:45.780 --> 0:08:49.790 absolutely vital role that they play in protecting the remaining 0:08:49.790 --> 0:08:53.829 shreds of ecosystems that we rely on as a global 0:08:53.830 --> 0:08:55.400 community for our survival 0:08:55.500 --> 0:08:59.240 Thailand's forests are on a more hopeful path. Just like 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:03.510 several of its Asean counterparts, the country recently joined an 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:08.440 international coalition pledging support for a global goal to protect 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:13.140 or conserve at least 30% of the planet's land and ocean. 0:09:13.150 --> 0:09:14.550 By the end of the decade, 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:18.140 Regan says it's a viable goal and a good one 0:09:18.140 --> 0:09:22.390 to target given the critical role of rainforests in combating 0:09:22.390 --> 0:09:23.439 climate change. 0:09:24.929 --> 0:09:30.400 So climate change is obviously a massive global threat and 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:34.660 it's particularly a threat in Southeast Asia, where population densities 0:09:34.660 --> 0:09:39.660 are very high, high percentages of the most vulnerable countries 0:09:39.660 --> 0:09:41.870 to climate change are within this region. 0:09:42.059 --> 0:09:46.990 We're seeing a series of different climatic threats involving typhoons, 0:09:47.000 --> 0:09:54.020 Storm surges, drought, heavy rainfall, flooding wildfires as major phenomena 0:09:54.020 --> 0:09:59.069 throughout the entire region. The relationship with tropical and subtropical 0:09:59.070 --> 0:10:03.770 forests is obviously, it will be affected by climate change, 0:10:04.110 --> 0:10:09.130 but also their vital role as carbon sinks. So they're 0:10:09.130 --> 0:10:13.780 one of the most high carbon sequestering forest types that 0:10:13.780 --> 0:10:18.790 exists there relatively more resilient in the face of climate change. 0:10:18.790 --> 0:10:22.490 As opposed to say, the dry deciduous forests in northern 0:10:22.500 --> 0:10:25.490 parts of these countries which are much more subject to drought, 0:10:25.490 --> 0:10:28.189 as well as wildfires, but I think they are no 0:10:28.190 --> 0:10:31.670 less essential as critical when it comes to climate change. 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:32.459 Tropical 0:10:32.470 --> 0:10:38.040 forests are oftentimes the traditional ancestral domains and territories of 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:41.250 a lot of indigenous people and local communities who are 0:10:41.250 --> 0:10:45.179 also some of the most vulnerable and marginalized communities. Therefore 0:10:45.179 --> 0:10:49.330 the intersection between tropical rain forests and indigenous people. Local 0:10:49.330 --> 0:10:55.380 communities makes them an absolutely essential geography for policymakers and 0:10:55.380 --> 0:10:59.230 for the global community to consider with regards to climate 0:10:59.230 --> 0:11:00.640 change and land use planning, 0:11:08.950 --> 0:11:11.610 are you looking for ways to make your money work 0:11:11.620 --> 0:11:15.630 harder for you or need tips on saving, investing and 0:11:15.630 --> 0:11:19.790 making financial decisions? Join me. Andrea hang on. Money talks. 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:22.870 Ciena's top personal finance podcast 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:27.020 from investment basics to the fire movement and legacy Planning. 0:11:27.040 --> 0:11:30.780 Money talks. Looks at financial trends and stories that matter 0:11:30.790 --> 0:11:34.720 to you. Check out our complete playlist on the CNN app. 0:11:34.730 --> 0:11:39.620 Apple podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts, follow 0:11:39.620 --> 0:11:42.890 us or subscribe for new episodes every Tuesday 0:11:53.850 --> 0:11:56.320 back in the south after a long day in the 0:11:56.320 --> 0:11:59.510 forest with the rangers, I'm happy to see the site 0:11:59.510 --> 0:12:03.459 of my accommodation and Iraq community lodge is on the 0:12:03.460 --> 0:12:07.349 edge of the national park. It's surrounded by jungle, but 0:12:07.350 --> 0:12:11.300 most of its grounds are quite different. It's full of 0:12:11.300 --> 0:12:15.460 palm oil trees. This land used to be a plantation, 0:12:15.610 --> 0:12:18.589 which is actually a pretty common sight in the area. 0:12:19.120 --> 0:12:23.150 It's an example of economic land use changes here as 0:12:23.150 --> 0:12:25.360 locals sought ways to make a living 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:29.679 in years gone by forest was turned into various types 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:34.230 of concessions. Palm oil rubber, coffee, pineapples 0:12:34.780 --> 0:12:38.540 At Anorak things are turning back to nature though. The 0:12:38.540 --> 0:12:41.069 man who used to own this land is 48 year 0:12:41.070 --> 0:12:44.980 old Natalie Wood. He sold it to the current owners 0:12:45.250 --> 0:12:48.370 but now works at the lodge. He takes visitors on 0:12:48.370 --> 0:12:51.880 hikes and is in charge of one of anoraks programs 0:12:51.890 --> 0:12:56.270 to reforest this land. Slowly. The palm trees are being 0:12:56.270 --> 0:13:01.600 replaced by indigenous trees. We took care of this land 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:05.680 for around 70 or 80 years after migrating here. Since 0:13:05.690 --> 0:13:10.230 the generation of our ancestors, they grew ram batons and coffees, 0:13:10.230 --> 0:13:14.690 but it wasn't fruitful. So they planted palm oil trees instead. 0:13:15.059 --> 0:13:19.940 There's still palm oil's now. Reforestation has started in the 0:13:19.940 --> 0:13:22.569 next 10 years, it will definitely look like the forest 0:13:22.580 --> 0:13:25.100 in the old days, a lot of trees have been 0:13:25.100 --> 0:13:25.760 planted 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:29.160 in the future. I think that nature will be so 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:33.270 abundant like in the past and everybody will understand about 0:13:33.270 --> 0:13:36.790 conserving nature for the next generations. And if we can 0:13:36.790 --> 0:13:40.080 conserve more nature tourism will be sustainable too. 0:13:41.380 --> 0:13:44.610 It's not everywhere that you can find a healthy mix 0:13:44.610 --> 0:13:50.069 of rainforest protection and a lively local economy around though 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:53.400 things seem to be on track. I can't help but 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:57.469 worry about how mass tourism here could end up spoiling 0:13:57.470 --> 0:14:01.349 well made plans, especially outside protected areas 0:14:01.910 --> 0:14:05.459 if more locals, the ones who truly treasure this landscape 0:14:05.470 --> 0:14:09.300 are empowered to shape the future of cal so hopefully 0:14:09.300 --> 0:14:12.420 that can be avoided and everyone can still enjoy what 0:14:12.420 --> 0:14:13.949 is a special place. 0:14:16.030 --> 0:14:18.420 This has been Jack board, thank you for listening to 0:14:18.420 --> 0:14:22.620 this special episode of the climate conversations. The team behind 0:14:22.620 --> 0:14:27.820 this podcast are Christina, robert, Jacqueline chan, C Win, Joanne 0:14:27.820 --> 0:14:29.190 chan and Tiffany.