Environmental conversation has become a hot topic these days. Whether we talk about an International conference or the launch of a new product, everyone seems to be talking about preserving Earth while incorporating a great deal of technology to make the use cases more efficient.

Environmental Issues in Southeast Asia

Unfortunately, Southeast Asian countries are significantly exposed to environmental disruption than the rest of the planet. In the last couple of years, we have observed a considerable rise in floods, cyclones, volcanoes, storms, and landslides in the very regions.

A US-based NGO conducted its research and found that these countries, including the Philippines and Indonesia, top the list for maximum plastic pollution. The research also depicted that these environmental issues touch their extremes during monsoons. What’s even more troubling is the fact that in 2017, Bali had to declare a garbage emergency.

Furthermore, a Thailand-based marine official said that the island provides a very delicate ecosystem to a variety of species living on or around the country. With an increase in the influx of tourists, this ecosystem is negatively exposed to the pollution originating from the hotels and boats.

Since SEA relies heavily on tourism, there must be an array of regulations and technologies to not only prevent the tourists from any unforeseen incident (e.g. land sliding) but to ensure that their activities do not cost Southeast Asian countries their climate.

Papua New Guinea’s Travel4Green Blockchain Project and What Southeast Asia Can Learn from It?

In order to foster tourism while preventing the degradation of the environment, Papua New Guinea has rolled out a futuristic project based on blockchain technology. 

The primary aim of this venture is to sustain the forests while minimizing the impact of the carbon footprint on our environment. This project would allow travelers to determine the amount of carbon footprint they leave in each country and then calculate their contribution to global emissions as well. Technically, this is a generic use case and all the SEA countries can follow this lead, but currently, it is only being practiced in PNG, at an official level.

Travel4Green will determine, record and show the tourists as to how ‘negatively impacting’ their trip was to the efforts of the local and international communities. In the long run, this venture will gather a significant amount of data that can be viewed and interpreted in the future to determine the pros and cons of tourism by applying certain filters/conditions.

Since T4G runs on a blockchain-based architecture, the transparency level surpasses any other existing technology in the market. This was a much-needed step, allowing the forest landowners to raise money for their assets and in the meantime, the government would also get the money, thus achieving a position for conducting extensive researches and impose existing strategies.                                                                                              

Conclusion

It is indeed a commendable step by Papua New Guinea to boost the usage of blockchain technology for sustaining its tourism industry and environment at the same time. Being the second-largest island in the World, with a virgin forest area covering 29 million out of the country’s 46.28 million hectares, this move towards blockchain adoption is quite significant.

Even though most of the SEA countries are not using modern technology to take efficient steps in that regard, PNG has set forth a decent initiative that others could take advantage of and the entire region could benefit from it.

Follow Asia Blockchain Review on:

• Telegram: https://t.me/asiablockchainreview
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/asiablockchainreview
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/abr_blockchain
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asia-blockchain-review/
• Website: https://www.asiablockchainreview.com/
• Email: [email protected]
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMQ5CVu0c9-pMlwB8LUvkiA