environment – Page 2

Asia’s coral gardener, in Eco-Business

June 27, 2022June 27, 2022tom

The world has lost half of its coral reefs in 30 years. Malaysian oceanographer Anuar Abdullah has developed a simple, yet effective way to restore coral. He tells Eco-Business that no reef is the same, and successful reef rehabilitation depends on cooperation with local communities. Over the past 30 years, more than 50 per cent of […]

Thailand has cannabis fever, in Eco-Business

May 20, 2022May 20, 2022tom

… but how green will the kingdom’s ganja trade be? In July, Thailand is set to remove cannabis and hemp from the country’s narcotics list. Eco-Business explores the likely environmental and social impacts of the cannabis trade in the first Southeast Asian country to legalise weed. Thailand’s high-end hotels serve cannabis cocktails, spas work with cannabis […]

Two decades on, ‘The Beach’ faces fresh problems, in Nikkei Asia

May 19, 2022May 20, 2022tom

My latest feature story in Nikkei Asia – on the troubled reopening of iconic Maya Bay on Koh Phi Phi in southern Thailand, made famous by Leonardo Di Caprio in the movie The Beach & subsequently destroyed by uncontrolled mass tourism. “Oh, it’s so f—ing beautiful,” exclaims Etienne, one of the characters in the Hollywood […]

Singapore startup seeks to preserve Papua New Guinea biodiversity – in Nikkei Asia

March 6, 2021June 13, 2021tomLeave a Comment

My latest story in Nikkei Asia is about Ecoshare, a company that uses a lease scheme to support local people and promote conservation in the face of rampant logging and destruction of biodiversity in one of the planet’s last great natural repositories. A Singapore-based startup is working with people in Papua New Guinea to help […]

Conservation activists urge post-pandemic tourism reset in Thailand in The Nikkei Asian Review

August 8, 2020tomLeave a Comment

My latest article with Laure Siegel on conservation initiatives in the Gulf of Thailand is out in The Nikkei Asian Review. “There are kids in Thailand who cannot identify a coconut. And if people don’t learn to appreciate what their country has, they will only think about how to make money out of our natural […]

Going ‘wild’ in Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains in The Nikkei Asian Review

November 3, 2019November 14, 2019tomLeave a Comment

“Camera traps have been smashed and stolen. We have caught hunting dogs. A logging gang started to build a road through the national park so our team watched them for three days, then stormed the camp and arrested 20 people. The following day, everyone was freed, but at least the road was not built.” Laure […]

Tourism woes in Laos in The Nikkei Asian Review

February 19, 2018March 2, 2019tomLeave a Comment

VIENTIANE — It is Saturday afternoon in tourist high season, and Vientiane is very quiet. Most shops are closed for the weekend. A couple of Asian tour groups ascend the Patuxai, the Laotian capital’s answer to the Arc de Triomphe. On every floor, stalls are packed with five-year-old photocopies of the Lonely Planet guide to […]

Is tourism in Thailand becoming unsustainable? – Interview in The Daily Telegraph

May 18, 2016tomLeave a Comment

Gavin Haines at The Daily Telegraph on whether mass tourism on Thailand‘s holiday islands is sustainable as visitor numbers continue to go up. I get to put in my five cents worth. Read the full story here.