HELP! Southeast Asia

What Can You Do?

Have you ever thought about what would happen if you were involved with a natural disaster? What would you do? How would you feel? Now think about a natural disaster in Southeast Asia. As we have discussed in previous posts in regards to Southeast Asia, there's numerous factors that effect this country. Whether that be the economy, ecotourism, fair trade or even the culture.

As we all know natural disasters can widely include flooding, earthquakes, tornadoes, typhoons, tsunami's, volcanoes, cyclones and more. All of these can be deadly. And none of which we can prevent. According to AsianScientist, just in 2012 alone, natural disasters such as these caused the United States roughly $15 billion in damage to the Asian countries. Most of this damage was caused by floods.

Some ways we can all get involved to aid in decreasing the damage outcomes and decreasing the chances of those losing their lives to these natural disasters include:

• Early warning systems for famines
• Technology to transpire news
• Use our natural resources
• Build our homes and businesses to withstand such disasters as much as possible
• Have sufficient food and water storage
• Give

With natural disasters, there's not adequate ways we can do to prevent such disasters because we're dealing with nature. With nature, we never know what it beholds. Millions have been affected by natural disasters not only in Southeast Asia but around the world. But what we can do is act now. Selfless companies such as the Red Cross is a great way to volunteer and give back to those that suffer from natural disasters. If you would like to volunteer or donate, click HERE.

Now I ask you the question, what are you going to do to change your lifestyle as much as you can to prevent natural disasters?

http://www.asianscientist.com/features/disasters-asias-2012-figures-trends/
 

Cite: http://www.asianscientist.com/features/disasters-asias-2012-figures-trends/

In Danger or Not In Danger?

The Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra is located in Indonesia and consists of three National Parks, Gunung Leuser National Park, Kerinci Sablat National Park, and Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park. This rainforst consists of 10,000 plant species, 200+ mammal species and 580+ bird species. And is also known among the largest tropical rainforest in Southeast Asia. Being listed on the UNESCO World Heritage in Danger list in 2011, there's facts to believe that this historic rainforest could ultimately be in danger.

The five principles within cultural heritage tourism programs include:

• Collaborate
• Find the fit between the community and tourism
• Make sites and programs come alive
• Focus on authenticity and quality
• Preserve and protect resources

In researching these five principles in relation to The Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra, the lack of preserving and protecting resources and finding the fit between the community and tourism have not yet been properly managed. Some ways in protecting this site from further threats would be to reduce the chances of these animals being in danger whether that's from the environment or individuals visiting the rainforest. The rainforest has a significant animal diversity as mentioned above, also with a high level of endemism. It also suffers from agricultural encroachment. Because of these, it's important to preserve and protect these resources and animals. In relation to finding the fit between the community and tourism, the rainforest suffers from institutional and governance weaknesses and also road construction. With finding that fit between the community and tourism, it would be beneficial to limit the number of people per day visiting the rainforest and also their modes of transportation. It would also be beneficial if the local community and government could support in preserving this rainforest for years to come.

On the other hand, the Gunung Mulu National Park is not currently in danger. It's located in Malaysia and is the most studied tropical karst area in the world. The Gunung Mulu National Park consists of 17 vegetation zones with over 3,500 species of vascular plants, over 20,000 vertebrates and much more. The largest known cave chamber in the world, the Sarawak Chamber, is located within the Gunung Mulu National Park.

According to my research and the Unesco World Heritage List, The Gunung Mulu National Park meets all five principles within cultural heritage tourism list above. This includes, providing enough natural habitats above and below ground for all kinds of plants and animals. Also, providing protection for those threatened species and wildlife to roam where they wont be threatened. With having specific boundaries, this makes for the national park to have more of the natural landscape and preserved sites. Unlike the The Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra, the Gunung Mulu National Park is fully supported by the Government, community and tourism support for protecting the conditions and the integrity of the land. With this, there is not road access to the park and also no construction presently within it. With having limited public visitation, the park can be preserved to it's utmost full extent. The Gunung Mulu National Park is known for it's increased biodiversity and for it's karst features and displays the ecological and biological processes beautifully. There's numerous opportunities to study this National Park.

 

In conclusion, it's vital that we do our part in protecting these dangered national parks and rainforests. They won't be around forever, so why not protect and preserve them for the future generations. So I ask you, what are you doing to preserve and protect any site in danger? I challenge you to go and research these two historic sites and maybe research different ones that interest you specifically.

Cite: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/
Click here for the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra
Click here for the The Gunung Mulu National Park