Increasing sources of revenue for safeguarding biodiversity and environmental management in Koh Tao sub-district

Snapshot Solution

by Gamze Akarsu, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Koh Tao Island Coral Reefs, Thailand

Francesco Ungaro

The island of Koh Tao, Thailand, attracts up to 500,000 tourists each year. This is important for the local economy but can also generates waste and pressure on the corals.The finance solution was introduced where tourists pay THB 20 visitation fee (US$0.6 per tourist), endorsed with an issuance of the amended municipal ordinance by Koh Tao sub-district Municipality Office with a hard-copy receipt being issued to each tourist at the pier upon arrival. It can generate up to $360,000 per year to protect island's biodiversity. This finance solution has aligned public finance (Koh Tao municipality fiscal budget) and private finance (tourists) to a nature-positive future. The issuance of municipal ordinance with specific pro-biodiversity finance provisions was introduced for the first time in a non-protected area of Thailand.The first-of-its-kind legal framework titled “Koh Tao Pier Fee Management and Collection Act 2021” was announced by the Koh Tao municipality office in late 2021.

Last update: 07 Dec 2022

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Context

Challenges addressed

Loss of Biodiversity

Conflicting uses / cumulative impacts

Erosion

Ecosystem loss

Poaching

Pollution (incl. eutrophication and litter)

Inefficient management of financial resources

Lack of access to long-term funding

Changes in socio-cultural context

Lack of public and decision maker’s awareness

Scale of implementation

Local

Subnational

Ecosystems

Coastal forest

Coral reef

Beach

Theme

Habitat fragmentation and degradation

Ecosystem services

Sustainable financing

Gender mainstreaming

Legal & policy frameworks

Sustainable livelihoods

Islands

Local actors

Coastal and marine spatial management

Outreach & communications

Fisheries and aquaculture

Tourism

Pollution

Waste management

Location

Koh Tao, Ko Pha-ngan, Surat Thani 84360, Thailand

Southeast Asia

Impacts

With an acknowledgement by the Governor of Surat Thani province, the first-of-its-kind legal framework titled “Koh Tao Pier Fee Management and Collection Act 2021” was announced by the Koh Tao municipality office.
The collection of THB20 (US$ 0.06) per tourist has been endorsed with an issuance of the amended municipal ordinance by Koh Tao sub-district Municipality Office.
The commencement of tourist user charges collection officially started in April 2022. Estimated that the revenue generated from the user charges collection for the post-COVID situation is approximately $180,000 - 360,000 USD per year.
The mayor of Koh Tao sub-district municipality office and its council members have confirmed that the revenue generation from user charges will be earmarked for nature and biodiversity conservation and community-based environmental management activities at Koh Tao through the supervision of the Koh Tao Sub-district Environmental Plan Development Working Group.
5 community-based organizations (CBOs) were trained on project proposal development to access the UNDP small grant programme(SGP) including Koh Tao Small-scale Fisherfolk group, Mae Haad Taxi boat operators, Sairee Taxi boat operators, Koh Tao Women group, and Youth group of Tao Noi Channel have been assisted by the project to develop and submit the proposal to UNDP Thailand as low value grant to receive additional funds from Krungthai Bank.