The development of tourism on Koh Lipe is a new economic resource to the island, but if precautions are not taken in the early days of expansion, over time this industry may negatively affect the island environment and the local community. Therefore it is important that each visitor to the island behaves in an environmentally friendly manner.

What you should know and can do to help....

Local community:
Thaï and Chao Ley (local population) alike are very timid people. They are respectful of traditions and to them politeness remains an important issue. Out of respect for them please dress appropriately when you walk around the village and the island. Try to remain calm and smiling under all circumstances…we know that’s not always easy….but otherwise you might scare away all people who would otherwise have come to your aid :-)

Water Management:
Water is one of the basic necessities for survival. If it is not used and managed in a safe way, we risk sickness and water becomes a danger to us. 
Koh Lipe is a small island, fresh water supplies do seem abundant but that may not be the case in all locations. Please be mindful of wasting water and try to keep unnecessary consumption to a minimum. Avoid long showers and leaving the water running. Close all taps carefully before leaving your room.
Water is collected and stored in big drums during the rainy season and used by the local population. During the dry season well water is used. This water has been filtered through the ground which is why it is so important to think about how your waste water is recycled….
Very few resorts on Koh Lipe have septic tanks, prefering the much cheaper bottomless pits. Please inquire about this before renting your bungalow and try to support those businesses that make an effort to protect the environment. Avoid using the toilets near the beaches because sewage will eventually filter through the sand and into the ocean. Wherever you are please remember not to throw (toilet)paper or any other sanitary objects in the toilets.
Well water on Koh Lipe is safe for washing clothes and pottery, and for bathing, but not for drinking. Brushing teeth out of the tap or bathing with exposed wounds should be avoided unless the water has been boiled.  Boiling water kills most of the contaminates and parasites that live in the water.  It is recommended to drink only bottled water.
Fortunately several bars and resorts will allow you to refill your plastic water bottles with filtered water for a small fee. We recommend you use this service rather than keep buying new plastic bottles :-)

Water on Koh Lipe:
The Italian Association GEA Onlus has analyzed the water contents on Koh Lipe for safety levels and to suggest to the local people as well as tourists, better water management. They have concluded that the rain water is clean and free of bacteria, toxic substances and unsafe micro-organisms.  However, there is an unsafe level of contaminates in the well water.  Conclusions are that the water is contaminated by:

• Soap and detergents because people bathe or have built showers too close to the wells.
• Burning of rubbish near a well.
• Most of Lipe's resorts and business operations have a "bottomless" septic tank which relies on a natural filtration process through the ground.

Waste management:
With the annual increase in tourism, plastic and other waste also increases on the island. The collection and recycling of this waste is difficult at the moment, but there are programs in place. Please assist us by depositing your plastic waste in the big containers around the island. Unwrap items on the mainland, leave plastic wrappings and unnecessary bags behind. Of course, the best method to keep this problem under control is to reduce the amount of plastic you use.

For your information:

• paper decomposes in 2-5 months
• orange peels in 6 months
• cigarette filters take 12 years to decompose
• plastic decomposes in 450 years into ever smaller bits but never disappears completely!

Please remember to throw all your waste in the bins provided and help avoid that the beaches become covered in cigarette butts.
Most resorts have recycle bins for aluminium cans and glass bottles. Please don’t throw your batteries in the bins but return them to the mainland where you can leave them at the reception of your hotel in any big town, otherwise they will be burned on the island and become very dangerous.

Did you know that…
- Coral reefs occupy less then 1% of the ocean bottom but give shelter to 25% of planetary marine species! This represents 4000 species of fish, 700 species of corals and thousands of plants and animals of all kinds. On top of offering a habitat to numerous creatures, coral reefs protect our coasts from erosion and damage which might otherwise be caused by waves.
It is therefore in our own interest to protect them.
- Ocean waste severely damages natural fauna and the environment. During the high season, on Koh Lipe, beaches are cleaned daily so it is hard to measure the scope of the problem. During low season no one cleans the beaches and the sea brings in hundreds of kilos of waste from all over the place daily!
- As divers, we recover the waste we encounter under water on every dive…mainly plastic bags.
- 1,000,000 plastic bags are being used every minute throughout the world!
- 4,5 trillion cigarette filters are thrown into the sea, yearly. The pollution they cause endanger our oceans.
- The UN Environmental Program estimates that over a million seabirds, as well as more than 100,000 marine mammals- such as dolphins, whales and seals- as well as numerous turtles die every year from ingesting plastic debris, or wrapped up in abandoned fishing nets or lines.
- 86% of sea turtles are affected by marine waste.
- There is a huge plastic waste dump site in the Pacific Ocean that is twice the size of the continental United States. Some researchers estimate that there are over six kilos of plastic for every kilo of naturally occurring plankton in the Pacific plastic waste dump. This mass of plastic is slowly being broken down into a plastic dust forming a sinking toxic soup that extends down to 6 meters below the ocean’s surface. Birds, fish and mammals mistake these bits for food, consuming tiny bits of plastic as if they were normal plankton, only to die of malnutrition.

What to do:
- On Koh Lipe, many souvenir shops sell shells, dried seahorses, black coral jewellery etc. Don't let yourself be tempted, please don't buy any of those. Let's leave in the sea what belongs to the sea.
- Don't eat reef fish, sharks, rays or turtles. Most restaurants on Lipe propose a wide range of fish from the national park. Please help us fight reef depletion by choosing your food carefully :-)
- Know your surroundings, be a smart traveler. Dive with those shops which develop environmental protection programs.
- During low tide it is possible to walk from Sunrise beach to the two small islands in front of the island. This may be amusing but remember that each time you touch a coral you either damage or kill it. Plan your snorkeling at high tide and do not touch anything….it's so beautiful, watching is all you need to do!
- Don't throw anything into the sea: cigarettes, fruit peals, paper... dispose of your waste in the bins provided on the island.
- Dive cautiously, control your buoyancy so that you don't touch nor kick anything.  Ensure that your equipment does not touch de bottom nor the reef. Most corals are extremely sensitive and they need considerable time to develop. Let's respect them and admire them while keeping our distance!
- Your interactions may negatively affect aquatic life. Do not touch, manipulate, feed or ride any form of aquatic life. These actions may stress the animal, change it's feeding habits or mating rituals, or even provoke a hostile reaction in normally non-agressive species.
- Be a role-model for other divers and snorkelers. As a diver you see the results of negligence towards the aquatic environment; show the right example through your own actions so that you may inspire those around you.

What Adang Sea Divers does to protect the environment ...
- We manage our waste carefully. We have a compost heap for organic waste and we separate aluminium, iron and glass.
- We send used batteries, oil and other pollutants to the mainland to be disposed of appropriately.
- Whenever possible we use rechargeable batteries.  
- We don't use plastic water bottles and limit our use of plastic bags as much as possible.
- We recycle waste water of our diving centre and our environmentally friendly accommodation through the use of a septic tank and we re-use our grey water to water our plants.
- We inform our divers and give dive briefings insisting on respect for the under-water world, the need for buoyancy control while diving and prohibition to touch aquatic life.
- We use mooring buoys to attach our boats instead of anchors to avoid damaging the coral reef.
 - We support those associations which promote environmental protection and participate in regular beach and under-water clean-ups.

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