The city might have to borrow officials from the Kung Krabaen Bay Royal Development Study Centre to help improve the coastal environment and operate the nature centre in Bang Khunthien.

His trip to the centre in Tha Mai district was aimed at learning how to stop the shoreline from retreating and how to rehabilitate mangrove forests.

Bang Khunthien is Bangkok's only seaside district and its five-kilometre-long muddy coastline is home to many mangrove forests and shrimp farms. It loses up to 10 metres of beach to erosion each year.

The proliferation of shrimp farms - together with wastewater from residences and some 1,600 factories - has accelerated and aggravated the damage.

Somchai Ditasorn, a Kung Krabaen fisheries official, said the situation in Bang Khunthien called for serious preservation.

"We can make it better by raising suitable trees - such as mangroves, xylocarpus and cork - on land to extend the shore and ease the damage made by shrimp farms and erosion," he said.

However the most important aspect is to promote public awareness of the problems, he added. The Kung Krabaen Bay Centre - whose outstanding policy is described as "nature interpretation", comprising understanding, appreciation and awareness - has been a success thanks to cooperation from various agencies, the private sector and the public, Somchai said.

The centre was established in 1981 according to His Majesty the King's instruction to study sustainable conservation and management of coastal resources.

Saichai Kirdmongkon

The Nation

CHANTHABURI