Mr Banjong is delighted to find that the planted seagrass has produced seeds
30 years ago, Mr Banjong Naruepornmatee left his hometown in the deep south of Thailand. A fisher by trade, he now runs a farm stay overlooking mangrove forests he helped replant in the coastal subdistrict of Bo Hin.
"When I first moved here, there were mangrove forests along the coastline and seagrass everywhere,"
he said.
"A lot has changed since then."
Trang province is home to the largest seagrass bed along the Andaman coast in Thailand. Recent die-offs have caused concern, especially as the dugong population – a marine mammal that rely solely on seagrass for their diet – has dropped by a third. Fish stocks have also depleted and so has the incentive among the younger population to pick up the once-thriving fishing trade.
The decline in fishing has forced families to find new ways to make ends meet. Women across many communities have banded together to find alternative livelihoods to sustain their families, including collecting shellfish at low tide for food and as an additional source of income.
A close up of the flowering seagrass
Huddled in a group on the floor, one community of women weave baskets that can be found in stores across Thailand. In another village, women proudly present their "OTOP" (One Tambon One Product) items – a government-led initiative for each sub-district to develop unique, high-value products.
The same group of women can be found at Mr Banjong’s farm stay, pressing their thumbs into paper cups that hold the grey cement-like soil used to pot seagrass sapling. By inviting locals to take part in conservation activities, he helped turn restoration into a new livelihood.
Through years of trial and error, Mr Banjong has worked with the community to try different planting techniques.
"Eventually, we got 100 out of 1000 saplings to survive,"
he estimates.
"The next step was to get the saplings to survive once planted in the sea."
His efforts fit into a broader movement across Thailand's coast. The Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) is working to scale Locally Managed Marine Areas (LMMAs) – community-led conservation zones where the protection of coastal areas is managed by locals instead of the government. The district office supports leaders, like Mr Banjong, by providing resources to address local needs. A port built off the farm stay provides a dock for boats that offer ecotourism tours for birders interested in exploring surrounding islands.
"The unique thing about the LMMA in Bo Hin is that there's collaboration with IUCN,"
said Mr Suwan Nanthasarut, Pollution and Environment Expert, DMCR. Through its Bay of Bengal Large Marine Ecosystem Phase II (BOBLME II) project, IUCN works with FAO, SEAFDEC, BOBP-IGO and national partners to support the sustainable management of fisheries, marine living resources and their habitats in the Bay of Bengal region. In Thailand, this includes supporting community-led marine management and improving management effectiveness at the selected site in Trang Province.
Mr Suwan noted that Bo Hin serves as a learning centre for other sites looking to strengthen marine resource management and community stewardship across the Bay of Bengal. What sets the subdistrict apart is the community's holistic approach to conservation. With a well-established understanding of conservation needs and strong community motivation to adopt sustainable livelihood opportunities, Bo Hin's residents see conservation as preserving what already exists rather than extracting additional resources to survive. When fish stocks declined, they shifted their livelihoods while stepping up efforts to restore the habitat through mangrove and seagrass planting.
As the tide receded from the beach, Mr Banjong took his regular evening walk to see how the planted seagrass was doing – some of which was planted up to five years ago. On this particular evening, he was delighted to see that some of the flowers had produced seeds, a crucial sign that the seagrass wasn't only surviving, but thriving. It was the first time in three years of monitoring that he had seen the planted seagrass reach this mature flowering stage.
"I've waited a long time, hoping for this moment,"
he beamed into the setting sun.
“I'll sleep well tonight."
Words by Ariela Mcdonald
Photos: thumbnail photo by Benjamin L. Jones on Unsplash
About the project
BOBLME II, a five-year project (2023-2028) with funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) - International Waters and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), is jointly implemented with FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (FAORAP), Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC) and Bay of Bengal Programme Inter-Governmental Organisation (BOBPIGO). The collaborative project aims to tackle urgent challenges and promote sustainability in seven countries – Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
Learn more about the project here.