As Thailand prepares for the Asean chairmanship starting next year, the nation is pushing for stronger commitments in terms of clamping down on the illegal wildlife trade and marine waste management, according to an environment minister.
Gen Surasak Kanjanarat, of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, said the country is determined to put a lid on the illegal wildlife trade.
He said the government has been adopting aggressive measures to assure the global community it is serious.
Such strong measures have allowed Thailand to "exit" the ivory trade watch list published by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).
The agency advised Thailand to set up measures to deal with illegal trade of African ivory in the domestic market, which led to amendments about how ivory is registered.
Since Thailand was listed as a hotspot for illegal African ivory, Cites urged the regime to come up with an action plan to deal with it.
If no substantive action was taken, flora and fauna products from Thailand would have been banned for trade, according to a threat by Cites.
But due to the success of the plan initiated by the government, the country's flora and fauna products are no longer at risk of being banned from international trade.
"We will try to push the issue of suppressing the illegal wildlife trade and marine bruise [waste] for serious discussion and develop a commitment among the Asean community to tackle those problems," Gen Surasak said.
He said the issue would be raised at the next meeting of Asean ministers of the environment in Thailand.
Regarding marine waste, Thailand is one of the top producers in the world, based on a recent study. Thailand produces around 24 million tonnes of garbage a year, of which only 20% is properly managed in an environmentally friendly way.
The rest is believed to be dumped at sea.
A quota of 70,000 tonnes of imported plastic will be set until 2020, after which it will be reduced to 45,000 tonnes.
If all goes to plan the government said it will halt importing plastic by 2021 to improve the situation.