US embassy cable - 05BANGKOK6909

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 BANGKOK 006909 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR OES/ETC, OES/PCI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV, ECON, TBIO, TPHY, TH 
SUBJECT: BANGKOK FY06 REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL HUB WORKPLAN 
 
REF: State 166554 
 
1. Summary: In FY06, the Regional Environmental Office (REO) 
based in Bangkok will continue its broad range of activities 
in 25 countries in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.  Three 
priority topics, however, will likely dominate the attention 
of this hub - avian influenza, efforts to combat illegal 
wildlife trafficking, and engagement in ongoing negotiations 
on the environmental chapter of U.S.-Thailand bilateral Free 
Trade Agreement (FTA) and the bilateral Science and 
Technology Agreement being negotiated separately but in 
parallel with the FTA.  Avian influenza, in particular, is a 
major concern for this hub - if a human-to-human outbreak of 
the disease occurs or if a third wave of animal-to-human 
cases occurs in Southeast Asia, this hub, which works 
closely on the issue with Bangkok-based personnel of the 
U.S. Health and Human services/Centers for Disease Control 
and Prevention (HHS/CDC), and with health personnel at the 
regional USAID Mission (USAID/RDMA), will have the 
opportunity to play a key coordinating role between agencies 
at U.S. Missions in the region.  In order to prevent avian 
influenza from consuming all REO time and resources, REO is 
discussing with the Embassy front office, the Economic 
Section, and Human Resources Section the possibility of 
assigning a Junior Officer to the REO as part of a Consular- 
Economic Section rotational tour.  Priorities, anticipated 
activities, training, and percentage of time spent on each 
activity are discussed in detail below.  End Summary. 
 
Health 
------ 
 
2.  Avian influenza: REO has met with host government 
counterparts in Vietnam, Cambodia, and the Philippines on 
avian influenza, and coordinates closely with the Bangkok- 
based HHS/CDC, USAID/RDMA health personnel, and U.S. Foreign 
Agriculture Service on this issue.  In October 2005, REO 
served as the overall control office for Health and Human 
Services Secretary Leavitt's visit to Thailand.  REO also 
drafted Embassy Bangkok's Avian Influenza Tripwires and 
Response Plan.  In addition, REO will continue and increase 
its participation in avian influenza public speaking and 
public outreach events (following on a presentation in 
Manila and several speaking engagements in Bangkok in 2005). 
Even if a human-to-human outbreak of the disease occur does 
not occur, the REO will play a key coordinating role among 
U.S. agencies and Missions in developing and implementing 
prevention and outbreak containment plans in the region, 
including activities to prevent and contain avian influenza 
funded through the FY05 Tsunami Relief Act emergency 
supplemental appropriation. 
 
3.  HIV/AIDS: REO will continue its close working 
relationship with Bangkok-based HHS/CDC and U.S. Armed 
Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences (AFRIMS) in 
their work on vaccine and treatment regimens.  The hub will 
also continue its efforts to allow for local production of 
anti-retroviral medications through the Thailand Government 
Pharmaceutical Office as part of President Bush's Emergency 
Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).  The REO also coordinates USG 
activities, including providing input to the Global Fund, 
and the work of NGOs in the region, especially on cross- 
border HIV/AIDS prevention efforts. 
 
4.  Other Infectious Diseases:  The REO plans to increase 
its involvement with HHS/CDC, AFRIMS, USAID/RDMA, bilateral 
USAID Missions, and NGOs in combating infectious diseases 
such as tuberculosis, malaria, dengue fever, and other 
infectious diseases that, although do not capture public 
attention like avian influenza or HIV/AIDS, are more 
insidious in the region. 
 
Environment 
----------- 
 
5.  Combating Illegal Wildlife Trafficking: The REO 
organized a regional workshop for ASEAN countries October 17- 
21 in Thailand that produced a Memorandum of Understanding 
to create a regional law enforcement network against illegal 
wildlife trafficking.  The MOU will be signed at a 
ministerial-level meeting, also to be organized by the REO 
in Thailand in December, just ahead of the ASEAN heads of 
state summit, which will be held in Kuala Lumpur.  The REO 
will also work closely with the NGO WildAid and USAID/RDMA 
in the implementation of a long-term program to follow up on 
the creation of the wildlife law enforcement network.  In 
addition, the REO plans to work closely with constituent 
governments to advocate increased penalties and higher 
prosecutorial priority in bringing wildlife smugglers to 
justice in the region's criminal court systems.  REO also is 
also maintaining an oversight role with the NGO TRAFFIC in 
its ongoing program using USG funds to provide capacity 
building to airport and airline officials in key cities in 
Asia.  Finally, the REO plans to increase it monitoring and 
reporting of illegal wildlife trafficking in the region. 
 
6.  FTA Environmental Chapter: The hub will play an active 
role, along with USTR and EPA counterparts, in developing an 
environmental chapter in the bilateral FTA currently being 
negotiated with Thailand.  The goal is to negotiate an 
environmental chapter that will bind both parties to a 
commitment not to fail or effectively enforce their 
environmental laws, through a sustained or recurring course 
of action or inaction, in a manner affecting trade.  In 
addition, the negotiations will explore several avenues for 
joint cooperative activities in environmental matters. 
 
7.  Illegal Logging:  In tandem with efforts to combat 
illegal wildlife trafficking, the REO will continue to 
advance President Bush's initiative to address illegal 
logging.  In particular, the hub will work through the 
International Tropical Timber Organization constituent 
governments on efforts to better control the legal cutting 
and export of ramin wood and other timber and non-timber 
forest products as permitted under CITES.  The hub will also 
meet and work with constituent government agencies and NGOs, 
in conjunction with bilateral USAID missions, to develop 
better methods for protecting national forests, combat 
corruption and promote good governance, and educate and 
advocate for the rights of forest-dwelling indigenous 
peoples to harvest forest products in a sustainable manner. 
 
8.  Integrated Water Management and Sanitation: The REO will 
work closely with USAID/RDMA and its contractor in a large- 
scale regional program to increase the accessibility to 
clean drinking water and water for sanitation for Asia's 
burgeoning urban population, especially Asia's poor urban 
population, through a variety of means, including improved 
management of water utility companies.  The REO will also 
work to improve shared water resources management activities 
through coordination with USAID/RDMA and implementing 
partners such as the Mekong River Commission (MRC).  In 
particular, the REO will maintain its own dialogue with the 
MRC while exploring possible expanded collaboration between 
the MRC and USAID's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance 
(OFDA), and potential collaborative arrangements between the 
MRC and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. 
 
9.  Integrated Coastal and Marine Management:  The REO was 
not as active as it would like to be in 2005 in coastal and 
marine management, and expects to devote more time to the 
issues that fall under this topic in FY 2006.  In 
particular, the REO plans to become more actively involved 
in regional efforts to develop sustainable fishing 
practices, in coral reef conservation and rehabilitation 
activities, and sea turtle conservation efforts, and in 
mangrove conservation and reforestation, as well as issues 
important to sustainable development in coastal areas - 
hotel and other tourism infrastructure construction, shrimp 
farming, residential zoning, etc. 
 
10.  Sustainable Development through Eco- and Cultural 
Tourism: The REO plans to work with USAID/RDMA and various 
local and international NGOs to examine best practices in 
eco- and cultural tourism.  Eco-and cultural tourism, when 
practiced effectively, can help preserve environmental 
resources and cultural heritage, especially among indigenous 
peoples, while at the same time affording local village 
people the prospect of increasing their income earning 
potential and diversify their livelihood opportunities away 
from environmentally exploitative means.  When practiced 
unsuccessfully, eco- and cultural tourism can be 
ecologically damaging and culturally exploitative in itself. 
 
Science and Technology 
---------------------- 
 
11.  Science and Technology Agreement:  The REO will 
maintain close coordination with State's OES Bureau and 
other USG agencies in negotiating an S&T agreement separate 
but parallel to the environmental chapter of the U.S.-Thai 
FTA.  Preliminary discussions have already been held 
separately and on the margins of the FTA negotiating 
sessions. 
 
12.  Tsunami Early Warning System: Throughout the first half 
of 2005, the REO played a leading role in the coordination 
of USG efforts to assist in the establishment of an Indian 
Ocean Tsunami Warning System (IOTWS).  USAID/RDMA has now 
taken the lead on this issue, but the regional environmental 
hub will continue to play an important role in coordinating 
and monitoring the efforts of NOAA, USGS, the U.S. Forest 
Service, U.S. Trade Development Agency, and USAID/RDMA in 
the development of an IOTWS. 
 
Cross-cutting Issues 
-------------------- 
 
13.  Close Coordination with USAID/RDMA: USAID/RDMA has 
recently broadened its regional environmental programs from 
a focus on brown issues such as urban air and water quality 
to include blue issues such as coastal and marine resource 
management, and green issues such as biodiversity and 
wildlife conservation.  USAID/RDMA has included the REO as 
an integral part of its expanded regional environmental 
activities - for example, inviting REO to sit on its 
technical evaluation committee to evaluate and select 
contractors for its clean drinking water and sanitation 
program, which will include activities across the region 
from the Philippines to India.  REO will continue its close 
working relationship with the USAID/RDMA Environmental 
Office as it expands its regional environmental activities. 
 
14.  Establishment of a new Environmental Hub in Suva:  The 
Department, recognizing that limited resources and the sheer 
geographic stretch of its constituent posts has hindered the 
Bangkok REO's ability to maintain effective involvement with 
its twelve constituent Pacific Island nation states, is 
establishing a separate Pacific Environmental Hub based in 
Suva, Fiji, in the summer of 2006.  The Bangkok-based REO 
will work closely with the incoming hubster and his/her new 
FSNs to create a first-rate Pacific REO that will 
effectively address the environmental and health concerns of 
these island nations that are too often neglected or 
overlooked. 
 
15.  Regional ESTH Officer's Conference: REO is planning to 
hold an ESTH officers' conference for the region after the 
Chinese New Year in 2006. This will be an opportunity for 
ESTH officers to network with each other, regionally based 
government agencies and NGOs, and participants from 
Washington to strategize on bilateral and regional 
opportunities to advance U.S. goals on environmental, health 
and S&T issues. 
 
16.  Personnel: The geographic reach of the Bangkok regional 
hub is so vast and the environmental, health, and S&T issues 
so broad, that the REO is often hard-pressed to cover any of 
the various issues with the depth necessary for 
effectiveness.  Because of a continuing housing shortage at 
Embassy Bangkok, the REO is unable to bring over and utilize 
the services of a Science Fellow.  Additional manpower would 
be helpful, however, especially if avian influenza 
increasingly diverts human resources away from other issues. 
To that end, REO is exploring with the Embassy front office, 
the Economic Section, and Human Resources Section the 
possibility of assigning a Junior Officer to the REO as part 
of a Consular-Economic Section rotational tour.  (Note: The 
REO currently consists of the hub officer, an EFM (eligible 
family member), and an FSN embedded in an Economic Section 
with five other officers, two other FSNs, and an OMS.) 
 
17.  Muslim Outreach: Recognizing the importance of the 
Department's Muslim World outreach strategy, the REO will 
work closely with ESTH officers in Malaysia and Indonesia to 
identify aspects of our bilateral S&T and/or environmental 
activities that can be integrated with the concept of Muslim 
outreach. 
 
Percentage of Time to be Spent on Each Priority 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
18. Avian influenza is the wildcard here - a human-to-human 
outbreak or an increase in animal-to-human cases could mean 
an explosive amount of avian flu-related activities and a 
corresponding reassignment of workload priorities for U.S. 
missions' resources in the region, including those of the 
REO.  Assuming that avian influenza remains a threat, but 
not a pandemic, the REO estimates the following percentages 
of time to be spent on each priority issue identified above: 
 
Avian influenza: 20 percent 
HIV/AIDS: 5 percent 
Other Infectious Diseases: 5 percent 
Overall Health: 30 percent 
 
Combating Illegal Wildlife Trafficking: 15 percent 
FTA Environmental Chapter: 10 percent 
Illegal Logging: 5 percent 
Integrated Water Management and Sanitation: 5 percent 
Coastal and Marine Management: 5 percent 
Eco- and Cultural Tourism: 5 percent 
Overall Environment: 45 percent 
 
Science and Technology Agreement: 5 percent 
Tsunami Early Warning System: 5 percent 
 
SIPDIS 
Overall Science & Technology: 10 percent 
 
Coordination with USAID/RDMA: 2 percent 
Establishment of a new Environmental Hub in Suva: 5 percent 
Regional ESTH Officer's Conference: 4 percent 
Personnel: 1 percent 
Muslim Outreach: 3 percent 
Overall Cross-cutting Issues: 15 percent 
 
REO Travel Plan 
--------------- 
 
19. All regional travel will include meetings and activities 
associated with more than one listed priority so, it would 
be difficult to make a list of planned travel under each 
priority as requested in reftel.  Most regional travel will 
include meetings and public outreach associated with avian 
influenza.  Most travel will also include activities 
associated with wildlife trafficking and/or illegal logging. 
Travel to Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia will include 
meetings and activities associated with marine and coastal 
resource management.  There will be travel associated with 
the FTA and S&T Agreement negotiations, but the next formal 
session will be in Thailand and the location of subsequent 
sessions have not yet been decided.  Travel to Fiji, Samoa, 
and Papua New Guinea will be to gain a first-hand 
understanding of the environmental and health issues that 
will need to be addressed in the creation of the new Suva 
hub.  The following is a tentative schedule of REO travel in 
the region: 
 
November 2005: Vietnam (to participate in "S&T Days" event 
and meet with CDC and USAID on avian flu activities) 
 
December 2005: Papua New Guinea (to discuss wildlife, 
forestry, HIV/AIDS, avian influenza, and other infectious 
disease issues) 
 
February/March 2006: Indonesia and Malaysia (to discuss 
avian flu, wildlife, logging, coastal and marine issues) 
 
April 2006: Fiji, Samoa, Tuvalu (to learn Pacific Island 
environmental and health issues and lay groundwork for new 
environmental hub) 
 
June 2006: Cambodia, Laos, Burma (to discuss avian flu, 
wildlife and forestry, HIV/AIDS, and other infectious 
disease issues) 
 
August 2006: Philippines (to discuss coastal and marine 
issues primarily) 
 
Note:  The above travel plan is skeletal to allow 
flexibility to attend conferences and other events as yet 
unscheduled or unplanned. 
 
Anticipated Training 
-------------------- 
20.  The REO intends to send its FSN to attend the FSI ESTH 
training for FSNs (PE 221), September 18-29, 2006. 
 
Boyce