Thai fishers step up to clear seas strangled by deadly ghost nets.

A Samut Prakan fisherman organising his nets after a night at sea. 

Photo: Ewen Mcleish/Coconuts

It was really wonderful to get to write this story for Coconuts. To research the piece, I visited the Ko Tor fishing community (less than an hour from Bangkok) and met the inspirational and hard working Khun Pen. 

Her story intertwines with that of the sea, an ever-diminishing bounty blamed not only on climate change but also practices closer to home – industrial pollution, poorly designed nets, harmful abandoned gear – and innovative attempts to address them.

Originally, the aim of my trip was to find out about the 'Net Free Seas' fishing net recycling project, but Khun Pen told me how things had changed dramatically in her 3 decades at sea.  She's witnessed dolphins, crab, mackerel and others fall in numbers since she first went fishing. This seemed like a greater story.

I decided to document Khun Pen's view of the decline and how it effected her, and by implication similar artisanal fisher folk throughout Thailand. At the same time, her recognition that abandoned fishing nets floating aimlessly at sea are a problem she can do something about is a source of hope. 

I'm grateful to Rahul Mehrotra, a post-doctoral researcher at Chulalongkorn University and program director at the gulf-based Aow Thai Marine Ecology Center who explained the problems caused by discarded fishing gear and how researchers have little idea about the extent of the damage. 

This black tipped-reef shark died trapped in an abandoned net at Shark Bay on Koh Tao 

Photo: Kirsty Magson

"The Environmental Justice Foundation's Net Free Seas Project aims to connect small-scale fishing communities with recyclers, creating a supply chain that turns discarded fishing nets into homeware products for sale to consumers,” project coordinator Salisa Traipipitsiriwat told me. 

Khun Pen is heavily involved in the project purchasing the used and damaged nets from fellow fishers and selling them on to Cirplas Tech, the recycling company. After cleaning and processing, the resulting pellets are turned into lifestyle and homeware items by Qualy Design. 

Duanpen Jaengpracham, aka Khun Pen, stands with used fishing nets ready for recycling. 

Photo: Ewen Mcleish / Coconuts

I was pleased to be able to interview and include Thosaphol Suppametheekulwat who owns both Qualy Design and Cirplas Tech.  This ensured the article painted a picture of the whole project. 

Carver table lamps made from recycled fishing nets by Qualy Design

Photo: Qualy Design

Thanks go to Salisa Traipipitsiriwat for arranging my trip to the fishing community, introducing me to Khun Pen and helping with translation for the article. 

Please click here to read the full story. 

COP26: How to use event to reduce pupil climate anxiety

Being a close follower of environmental news, I was keen to see how Glasgow's COP26 climate conference would pan out. As a teacher, I also wondered how the event and the hope that came with it could be highlighted to my young students. 

Children will be aware, albeit to varying degrees, of the wide range of extreme weather stories linked to climate change to hit the news agenda, and maybe that human actions in the form of burning fossil fuels are to blame. 

It's scary stuff and it's hard to teach. However, educators have a responsibility to help children understand what's happening. How can we present the facts without instilling climate anxiety amongst pupils? 

This is a very real issue, as an international study into the phenomenon, led by the University of Bath and funded by online campaign group Avaaz, outlines.

10,000 young people across 10 countries were asked about their thoughts and feelings on the issue. It found that 59 per cent of 16- to 25-year-olds were worried or extremely worried about climate change. 

But school aged children are also effected. 

Research conducted by the BBC's Newsround, which polled 2,000 8 to 16-year-olds in the UK, revealed how nearly three-quarters worried about the state of the planet. One in five admitted to having a bad dream about it.  

It strikes me that children need a more empowering, hopeful story around climate change in order to reduce feelings of despair. We need to acknowledge their worries, provide scientific explanations and then show how the adult world can take - and is taking - meaningful action. 

COP 26 was a chance to highlight to children that the climate emergency is not being ignored and that solutions are being sought. 

I planned, alongside my fellow sustainability coordinator at school, a trio of lessons to make the point.  The lessons were taught by other teachers in the school with slide shows we designed, using the freely available resources from Twinkl as a start point. 

The first lesson focussed on basic climate science and what COP26 was. The children learned how the conference aimed to bring countries together to report on their progress cutting emissions and hopefully come to agreement about further cuts. 

But we wanted to go further and help children understand that they can make their voices heard and demand more from politicians. 

This in mind, the second lesson invited pupils to enter an international competition run by UK-based Trust for Sustainable Living in partnership with Conservation Without Borders.  

The challenge was to create a video message to world leaders and governments on "the need for climate action and driving a green revolution". We ran the challenge as a "house competition" and received a decent number of entries, which were used as a basis for the third lesson sharing and celebrating the children's work.  

The winning entries were selected for entry into the international contest, and one of our pupils received special commendation from the judges. 

Overall, we hope we've helped children see COP26 as a chance for adults to work together to solve our climate problems - and that young people can and should demand that adults rise to the occasion. 

If any children in our care have feelings of climate anxiety, then this knowledge - and the opportunity to speak out - may foster a sense of hope within them for the future.  

I was delighted to see my article summarising the project published by Tes Magazine.

Rescuers struggle to save unemployed Thai elephants from worse than exploitation.

Elephants enjoying Napier grass grown to reduce overheads at the Phuket Elephant Sanctuary.
Photo: Phuket Elephant Sanctuary

This was a sad, yet absorbing topic to investigate.  

Having travelled around Thailand intermittently during the lockdowns of 2020/2021 and seeing the effects of 'zero tourists' on so many places, I got to wondering about the country's elephant camps and what had happened to them. 

I'd picked up a few hints of the problems involved during conversations with the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation in Chiang Rai and read an excellent article in National Geographic about the problems faced by Thailand's elephant sanctuaries and businesses as they attempted to look after (or failed to look after) their elephants - with essentially no tourist dollars coming in. 

The Phuket sandbox travel scheme was about to start and it seemed prudent to focus on a sanctuary there, find out how they coped and their hopes as the holiday island opened up. This would give me a starting point for finding out how elephants across the country had fared. 

It was great to interview Vincent Gerards from the Phuket Elephant Sanctuary and learn about the innovative initiatives that helped get them through. Turning to its tens of thousands of social media followers for help, the Phuket sanctuary didn’t just want to ask for money but instead “designed initiatives people could join from afar,” Gerards said. 

For example, they produced “two short films, telling the story of two elephants’ daily routines and a mahout’s (elephant keeper’s) role in rescuing another elephant. Supporters can purchase exclusive access; all proceeds feed our herd,” said Gerards.

Gerards thought the sandbox would provide a ray of hope, but dark clouds are continuing to hang over Thailand's tourist industry. 

Sangdeaun “Lek” Chailert of the Save Elephant Foundation
Photo: Save Elephant Foundation

I was lucky enough to be granted a phone interview with Sangdeaun “Lek” Chailert of the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai. She has received international recognition for her years improving the lives of Thailand’s working elephants. 

Chailert told me that elephants left unemployed during the pandemic were often sold because the elephant camps could not afford to keep them. 

During my research, I unearthed a pair of videos posted on TikTok and Instagram, which show two separate elephants struggling to pull large timber trucks up muddy mountain roads in the jungle. 

While it’s difficult to draw a direct link between unemployed elephants and the clips of them doing possibly illegal logging work, it is known that industry which once depended on their labor is one the owners have turned to when tourists stopped coming. 

"Elephants are definitely doing this work during the pandemic. I’ve visited them myself,” Chailert said.

But some owners have sought better fates for their elephants. Some have contacted Chailert to offer their lucky elephants for sale – and the chance of a better life.

Tang Mo and Sang Mueng once entertained tourists under the threat of the bull-hook at Phuket Zoo.  Photo: Moving Animals

Before tourism collapsed, elephants Tang Mo and Sang Mueng performed three times daily for tourists at Phuket Zoo. Closed and looking to cut costs, the zoo turned to Chailert. At Elephant Nature Park’s expense, the pair were moved to its 250-acre jungle reserve in Chiang Mai where they are now free, no longer hustling for tourist amusement.

Tang Mo and Sang Mueng enjoying their new lives at Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai.
Photo: Save Elephant Foundation

Another positive outcome of the great crunch has been dialogue between the Chailert's Save Elephant Foundation and owners about improving conditions for captive elephants. 

“Before the pandemic, I was talking to a brick wall. Elephant people thought I was their enemy. But now, many are interested in my views. They’ve seen my ethical model where elephants can be themselves out in the open and are asking how they can do the same,” Chailert concluded.

These hopes aside, it’s clear Thailand’s working elephants and the people that rely on them face real hardships until the tourists return. It is time for the government to meaningfully step in. 

Please read the FULL ARTICLE HERE.