Celebrating World Ocean Day 2025 and Thailand’s Heart Made Islands Project: “30+ Islands Clean-Up – So Cool Mission

IGES is proud to join more than 30 island communities, government agencies, development partners, academic institutions, private sector actors, and civil society organisations in co-organising Thailand’s largest island-wide clean-up and the 3rd Thailand Sustainable Island Tourism Symposium —a national platform to spotlight community-driven solutions for plastic waste, climate resilience, and sustainable tourism.

IGES’s contributions to this event build on a strong foundation of ongoing support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Google.org through the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN). This support has helped pilot scalable circular economy models from waste to recovered oil technology to low-carbon tourism innovations in Thailand and Japan. These practical solutions are now being further strengthened and showcased through this national forum. This work also complements IGES’s broader engagement on sustainable tourism, including initiatives supported by UNEP-IETC, such as the Krabi Sustainable Tourism Partnerships project.

IGES Highlights at the Event:

Circular Waste Solutions for Islands
On 8 June (World Ocean Day Roundtable) and again on 10 June (Island Waste Solutions), IGES presented insights from its ongoing work on decentralised waste-to-fuel systems that convert plastic waste into recovered oil - a practical innovation for circular economy and energy recovery in island contexts. These systems are currently being piloted in Thailand and Japan with strong potential for replication across other islands in the region.

Co-Organising Global Tourism Standards and Thai Island Tourism Session
On 11 June, IGES will co-led a session on aligning Thai island tourism with global sustainability and regenerative tourism standards, drawing from its broader regional engagement, including collaboration with UNEP-IETC and ASEAN partners.