Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts has launched a Sustainable Seafood Policy. The new policy, which includes the commitment to cease serving shark fin in all of its operated restaurants, as well as accepting new orders for shark fin products in banqueting, is with immediate effect.

Shangri-La also has plans to phase out blue fin tuna and Chilean sea bass in all its operated restaurants within the year.

In December 2010 the company initiated the process with the removal of shark fin products from its restaurant menus.

An 18kg Cantor's Soft Shell Turtle ready for release into the Mekong River in Kratie Province, Cambodia

The goal of the Mekong Turtle Conservation Centre (MTCC) is the long-term sustainable conservation of the wild population of one of the world’s rarest and largest fresh water turtles — the Cantor’s soft shell turtle, (Pelochelys cantorii) of which the largest known wild population survives in the nearby Mekong River.

Read the full story from Conservation International.

Since June of this year, the Mekong Turtle Conservation Centre has been open to visitors daily, for a small entrance fee. Another good reason to visit Kratie and Cambodia’s north east region.

Support the Shark Sanctuary in Moalboal, the first in the Visayan area of the Philippines.

Sign the petition to the local government of Moalboal by clicking the link below. The target is to get 5000 people to sign this petition to save the sharks of Moalboal, Cebu – an environmental issue of the highest degree.

Support the Shark Sanctuary in Moalboal, the first in the Visayan area of the Philippines.

Please share this post with friends, family and colleagues. Click “Like”.

Dr Gregor Hodgson, founder of the Reef Check Foundation will be escorting a 10 night safari in the Southern Visayas, aboard the SY Philippine Siren. Dr Hodgson spent many years in the Philippines and was the first to campaign for the establishment of Marine Protected Areas. Many MPAs now exist thanks to his initiatives and our specialised itinerary will take you to a number of them.

During the course of the trip, Philippine Siren will be sponsoring all guests to take the Reef Check ECO DIVER certification, the course is optional however this is a fantastic opportunity for divers to learn more about reef monitoring and marine conservation. Already Reef Check certified – Great! Why not put your skills in to action and assist with the monitoring for our adopt a reef program?

Trip dates: 23rd July- 2nd August 2012
Special Discount Price: EUR 2,000 per person
Spaces are limited so early booking is advised.

Adding to yesterday’s great news that the Titanium mine, planned for Chi Phat, has been shelved, the Cambodian government is now drafting a sub-decree to increase the size of Koh Kong Province’s Protected Forest. Someone up there must have started fretting about his karma and the afterlife!

For Family: 2 full paying adults traveling with up to 2 children (less than 12 years), children will be accommodated in separate room free of charge
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For Couples: 1 full paying adult with the second person receives 50% discount from the current rate (for new booking with specified date only)

Programmes and Availability

Lisu Lodge

Lisu and Lanna Trekking 4 Days / 3 Nights:
16-19 Apr, 21-24 Apr, 23-26 Apr, 26-29 Apr
7-10 May, 17-20 May,
Lisu Trekking 3 Days / 2 Nights:
17-19 Apr, 19-21 Apr, 21-23 Apr, 22-24 Apr, 28-30 Apr
19-21 May, 21-23 May, 25-27 May
2-4 Jun, 29 Jun-1Jul
Lisu and Lanna Soft Adventure 3 Days / 2 Nights:
13-15 Apr, 14-16 Apr, 17-19 Apr,
21-23 Apr, 24-26 Apr, 25-27 Apr
2-4 May
Lisu Lodge Soft Adventure 2 Days / 1 Night:
13-14 Apr
2-3 May, 15-16 May
2-3 Jun, 9-10 Jun, 18-19 Jun, 26-27 Jun, 30 Jun-1 Jul
Lisu Lodge Experience 2 Days / 1 Night, afternoon arrival:
14-15 Apr, 17-18 Apr, 25-26 Apr, 30 Apr-1 May
8-9 Jun, 19-20 Jun
Lisu Lodge Experience 2 Days / 1 Night, morning arrival:
13-14 Apr
8-9 May, 13-14 May

Khum Lanna

Khum Lanna Thai Country Living 2 Days / 1 Night, afternoon arrival:
1-2 May
Khum Lanna Thai Country Living 2 Days / 1 Night, morning arrival:
12-13 Apr, 15-16 Apr, 29-30 Apr
4-5 May

Lanjia Lodge

Lanjia Lodge Adventure Trekking 3 Days / 2 Nights:
11-13 May
Lanjia Lodge Half-day Trekking 2 Days / 1 Night:
22-23 Apr
Hmong Experience 2 Days / 1 Night, afternoon arrival:
13-14 Apr, 15-16 Apr, 24-25 Apr

A late minute intervention by Prime minister, Hun Sen, has saved a thriving community-based tourism project in Cambodia’s Koh Kong Province from a planned, highly destructive, Titanium mine.

The mine project, by the United Khmer Group, was rumoured to have been just a cover to gain access to the rich forests in the Cardamom mountains… UKG has other logging operations around Cambodia.

See the full story in the Phnom Penh Post today.

Nice appraisal from this French family from Japan who undertook a Mekong River Explorer trip, finishing this week:

From: Marie-Cécile Conilh de Beysac
Subject: thank you
Date: 6 March 2011 20:02:48 GMT+07:00
To: Christopher Gow
We have only have one word : wonderful ! One of our best trip.
Thank you for having allowed us to make this trip. You really deserve your ad : off the beaten tracks !!!
It was exactly corresponding to our expectations!
Our kid did every thing without any problem. He learned so much !!!
Your organization is excellent and very reliable, we will recommend it to our friends…
We are back in Tokyo with more than 1500 photos and the head full of images, emotions, flavors…
Thank you

Bernard, Cecile and Jean

And…. no!… I did not write this myself! However I am not surprised as that part of the Mekong River from Southern Laos into northern Cambodia is exceptional for anyone looking for a real, off the beaten track adventure. Time has left this part of Indochina behind. The bird life is fantastic, and village life is much as it has been since before the Khmer Rouge destroyed so much of the rest of the country. However development is threatening, with new roads being built between Stung Treng and T’beng Meanchey to the west, and the road from the Laos border to Phnom Penh is already complete. News today talks about rubber plantations encroaching into the biodiversely important Virachey National Park on the Cambodia/Lao border.

This New York Times story highlights some interesting eco-tourism developments in Cambodia.

See some of my pics from Chi Phat here on the Symbiosis Facebook page

Posted 3 Jan 2011 on Ethical Traveler by Katia Savchuk
Performing short-term volunteer work abroad is “potentially exploitative” of vulnerable populations, according to a recent study of “voluntourism” in African orphanages. Authored by researchers from South Africa’s Human Sciences Research Council and Queen Mary, University of London, the report found that foreign volunteers who came, bonded and left harmed the emotional and social development of children.

Read the full story on ethicaltraveler.org

International Cleanup Day is 25 September. This massive volunteer event is the largest of its kind, when underwater teams of volunteer divers in more than 100 countries tackle marine debris issues head on.

For info on how you can participate, go to Project Aware website here.

Malaysia is renowned for its wonderful marine world and nearly half a million divers come here every year to admire some of the world’s most popular diving sites. The attention is fantastic as it helps raise awareness of some of the problems associated with global warming, yet on the other hand, such an amount of divers continuously returning to a few spots has a very negative impact. Due to the rising sea temperature (from 27°C to 29°C), the corals have started to develop a condition known as bleaching. Between 60 – 90% are already affected and without a ‘rest’ they will surely die.

The Department of Marine Parks has been very clear about necessary actions to be taken in order to give the corals a chance to recover; twelve most frequented and most threatened sites around the islands of Tioman, Redang and Perhentian have been ‘closed’ until the end of October 2010. That way, no divers will come anywhere near them and the stress will be at least limited. Even though the increased temperature is the main cause of coral bleaching, divers often accidentally touch or brush over the corals, raise sand from the sea bed and generally damage the corals. One or two would not make a difference, however, half a million divers undoubtedly does.

The Department of Marine Parks as well as environmentalists hope that the corals will have time to regenerate naturally and with a bit of luck will survive. Fortunately, they are prepared to fight uncontrolled tourism and protect their marine world as fiercely as possible in order to preserve its fragile beauty.

I recently visited a community deep in the Cardomom Mountains, western Cambodia that, until recently existed to plunder the rainforest of trees and wildlife.  

Approaching Chi Phat

Chi Phat is a former logging community a 2 hour boat trip up river from the newly refurbished road linking Koh Kong to the rest of Cambodia and the largest settlement within what is now the Cardomom Mountains protected area, and it is here that the Wildlife Alliance (formerly known as Wildaid) have been driving a community based eco-tourism initiative to ween the local people off hunting endangered wildlife and chopping down the rich rainforests.

Already the commune of 4 villages and 520 families has 4 guest houses established and almost daily arrivals of Western tourists, thanks to a mention in Nick Ray’s recently published, latest edition of the Lonely Planet Cambodia. 

Guest House in Chi Phat

According to the Wildlife Alliance, 94% of the families have now thumb printed an agreement to participate in the eco tourism project, and to desist from illegal wildlife and timber trading.  Expectations must be pretty high for a quick economic result.  But I wonder if they really understand the changes that tourism will bring to their community, and I also wonder how they will moderate tourism arrivals such that the tourism itself does not drive tourism away again.

The big dilemma – how do you stop tourism from loving what it loves to death?  Most backpackers heading to a place like Chi Phat will be doing so to try to get a closer look at an authentic rural community, unadulterated by modern development or by tourism. Many will also be going there for the kudos of having gone to a place that few outsiders know about.  So what will be their response when they find that there are already dozens of foreigners wandering around the village, bathing in the waterfalls and generally “intruding” on their uniquely personal experience?

For the moment the visitors are coming in their ones and twos.  The community needs to be aware of the risks of over selling and compromising the charm of their product.  Meanwhile, they need to keep the income growing so that there is not the temptation to revert to illegal wildlife collecting.

Trekking around Chi Phat

Chi Phat’s attraction: While I was there I went for a 2 day trek into the rainforest, sleeping overnight in hammocks under a jungle shelter.  Most of the walk was through secondary forest, sometimes following former logging tracks, now heavily overgrown.  The group was too big and noisy for any real chance to see wildlife, though we did see and hear fly-overs by 2 different hornbill species – pairs of Greater Hornbill and several large flocks of Pied Hornbill.  In a natural clearing near the campsite we disturbed a large group of wild pig.

Greater Hornbills

To start the trek we too a very scenic, early morning boat ride along mist-shrowded, winding rivers through dense forests.  Such expanses of seemingly undamaged, natural growth is a wondrous thing to see and heart warming to find that Cambodia still has large expanses of unspoiled wilderness.

Upriver in Chi Phat

The second day we used mountain bikes to explore sandy tracks and trails, and to visit dramatic waterfalls.  That was great and, for people who enjoy exploring on 2 wheels, worth a two or three day visit.

Mountain Biking, Chi Phat

There is talk of building a hide near to one or both of the natural clearings where there are watering holes for the wildlife.  If this happens, then I think that Chi Phat could become a magnet to wildlife watchers… although it will be years of rebuilding trust between the nature and humans before you are likely to see very much here.  

River, Chi Phat

Prime Minister Hun Sen and Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat met in Bejing on Friday, at the Asia-Europe Summint, to discuss the recent conflict at Preah Vihear.

The two Prime Ministers made an agreement to avoide anyt further fighting on the border. They also agreed to set up a committee and negotiate bilaterally the disputed border. However, there was no agreement made in relation to removal of troops along the disputed territory.

The situation on at the border between Thailand and Cambodia, near the temple of Preah Vihear has remained unchanged, since violent clashes last week ended in a cease fire agreement.

Prime Minister Hun Sen, (the Prime Minister of Cambodia) and Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat of Thailand have confirmed that there will be a meeting in Bejing later this week to discuss border issues. 

The travel situation in Cambodia has remained unafected by the tensions. All major airports are still operating as usual and bus systems are unaffected. Travel to Preah Vihear however, is not possible.