MAP Support Enhances Village Livelihood
of Thailand since 2008. The island has diverse and abundant marine
resources, including mangrove and seagrass. MAP has promoted their
protection through sustainable management and the development of
alternative livelihoods for local people. To that end, MAP has
supported handicraft development, specifically the production of tie-dye
cloth using natural dyes, and a home-stay program that earns income for
village families from tourism.
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| Counting animals along a transect across a seagrass meadow at low tide. (photo by Tiina Salmi) |
very concerned about conserving them for future use. Two villages
on the island have declared protected areas in their seagrass meadows,
where removing organisms of any kind is prohibited. The meadows are
an important habitat for fish, molluscs and crustaceans, as well as the
endangered dugong. Villagers usually collect a variety of snails,
clams, crabs and shrimp from the meadows at low tide, but the most
important animals collected are the dog conch, Strombus canarium, and
the sea cucumber, Holothuria scabra.
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| A collection of conch collected by villagers |
(MFF) for a small grant to manage and promote the protected areas and to
monitor and evaluate outcomes of local management. Phra Thong will
be an important model for local, small-scale conservation initiatives
elsewhere.
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| A large sea cucumber. (photo by Marjut Valtonen) |
large invertebrates in the meadows have been monitored using line
transects. Animals have been counted along 1 m bands either side of
50 m transects. The results show increased numbers of conch in one
protected area, but no change in the other. Large, commercially
valuable sea cucumbers are now appearing in one protected area, although
the numbers remain low. Understanding why the results have differed
between areas may provide important lessons for the successful protection
of small conservation areas by other communities.