WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY. Green awareness improving but long struggle lies ahead.

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WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY
Green awareness improving but long struggle lies ahead
By Pongphon Sarnsamak
The Nation 2011-06-03

Thailand's environmental awareness has improved over the past few years. The bad news is that the Kingdom still suffers from a lack of coordination between government and nongovernmental organisations in gathering data, raising public awareness and coping with nationalscale issues.

Hannarong Yaowalert, president of the Foundation for Integrated Water Management, said the environmental movement today wasn't very powerful due to a lack of government support.

Some environmentalists and activists have joined government bodies such as the National Human Rights Commission and the Office of the Ombudsman, he said.

Ten years ago, many environmental nongovernmentorganisations (NGOs) had teamed up to set up a national environmental network and try to force the government to tackle environmental problems. They were unpopular then, due to their criticism of the government, he said.

Today, this united force is gone. Many former members are working separately on issues proposed by themselves or financiers. They no longer work together in raising public awareness, he said.

A coordinator for the Public Network in the East, Suthi Atchasai, said environmental issues such as the health impact from industrial development did not concern many people because over the past few years the country had focused on economic development rather than qualityoflife development.

Moreover, the law on environmental violation and natural resources exploitation has not been enforced, he said.

To date, Thailand has no national data bank on environmental issues and natural resources to evaluate the health impact of industrial development or environmental change.

On the other hand, Prof Thongchai Panswad, former president of the Environmental Engineering Association and the Thailand Environment Institute, said people's behaviour towards the environment had improved over the past 30 years.

"Most of the young generation look for a rubbish bin before they throw trash away," he said.

Thirty years ago people were likely to throw it on the street, he said.

"People are well informed about how throwing trash on the road damages the environment," he said.

However, on some environmental issues, people were incorrectly and unscientifically informed about how to protect the environment, such as about reducing energy consumption.

"People are always told they should turn their air conditioner to over 25 degrees Celsius to save energy. In fact, they can simply use electric fans instead of turning on air conditioners," said Thongchai, who chairs a cycling club.

Many environmental campaigners do not build understanding among the public about the lifecycle of energy consumption, he said. They just use incomplete information to unscientifically inform the public and make mistakes that mislead the public about reducing energy consumption.

"We'll never reduce energy consumption if we still turn on air conditioners," he said.

Thongchai conducts cycling campaigns to raise public awareness about energy saving, especially in urban areas.

He said that to encourage cycling in urban areas it wasn't necessary to build facilities such as bicycle lanes on main roads. Small lanes over short distances are all that is needed. People are also advised to use bicycles in rural areas, he said.

All activists agree that public awareness is crucial because Thailand is facing grave problems, like the other nations marking World Environment Day.

According to the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONREPP)'s 2010 Environmental Report, about 30 million rai are affected by soil degradation, while forested land has increased only 0.1 per cent. The amount of waste the country produces has increased to more than 15 million tonnes annually, of which only 5 million tonnes can be destroyed.

The report details how Thailand is suffering from degradation of soil resources and inequitable distribution of land. The ownership of land for agricultural purposes has drastically decreased.

Wetlands and peat swamp forests are being severely damaged, it said. Coralreef bleaching has been found in many areas, while many rare aquatic animals such as dolphins, sea turtles, whales and dugong were killed.