Sustainability

We have started a partnership with a non-profit conservation foundation called Love Wildlife to help promote wildlife conservation. Our main project is the conservation of slow lorises. With many local trees native to Southern Thailand, it is a perfect habitat for them with everything to provide their natural diet. We also help Love Wildlife in collecting data about their behaviour, which will be used in the research of these shy animals.

Love Wildlife also performed a regular wildlife survey in the resort and found over 150 species, including hanging parrots, flying lizard and owls. This information is used to create information booklet in the rooms and also the wildlife information signs scattered around the garden.

We preserved most of the original trees of Khaolak during the construction of the resort, and half of the large site of 30 rai is covered with nature. We have a total of 276 trees, many of which are decades old, with some towering trees estimated to be over 100 years old.
We have partnered with Big Trees Project to help take care of the trees in our garden. Their team of professional arborists trained our gardeners to maintain tall, ancient trees with ropes and pulleys, ensuring safety for both trees and people. They also helped us compile a database of tree species and calculate their carbon value. They found that our trees stored over 76 tons of carbon over the years!

Water is the most important resource in the rainforest. All our wastewater undergoes an extensive treatment process using purely organic filtration and cleansing systems. The treated water is reused to water the plants and fill the streams in the resort. We are sure that our water is clean because many species of freshwater fish flourish in the canals around the resort. Our garden is huge and by reusing the water, we save many gallons of water and reduce our impact on the environment. Moreover, when the water runs off from the soil to the sea, we are sure that it is clean and have no chemicals that could contaminate the sea.

We minimize pollution through reducing, reusing and recycling solid waste. Our landfill waste is separated into types and kept in the trash sorting area, where local waste management companies can collect them and recycle the waste, lowering the impact to the environment. For organic waste, we either send them off to become pig feed in local farms or use them as organic matter in our own compost pits. The nutrient-rich compost is then used to fertilize our garden. Plastic waste is now a big problem because it takes a long time for them to decompose. We take active steps to reduce our plastic waste by choosing alternative materials, such as biodegradable straws, or reduce single-use containers. We also give out cloth bags to the staff and encourage them to be mindful of the impact of plastic bags.

Khaolak Merlin Resort is committed to cooperate and support the local community, especially in Thai Mueang district, the hotel’s location. We set targets when employing people from local community and provide jobs for the people in the area. We also create volunteering activities to help the local community such as trash pick-up rallies and cleaning local temples, and maintain a close relationship with the community. We also purchase goods and service from local suppliers and make regular donations to local environmental or humanitarian charities and encourage our guests to support them too.