Thailand will this month host the world's first international symposium on fireflies, attracting 200 experts from 20 countries to the kingdom to present the latest studies on the insects and discuss means of preserving them, media reports said Friday. ( dpa )
The International Symposium on Diversity and Conservation of Fireflies will be held on August 26 to 30 at the Botanical Garden Organization in Chiang Mai, 560 kilometres north of Bangkok.
Suyanee Vessburr, chief organizer of the event, said Chiang Mai was an appropriate venue for the symposium as the province was having trouble conserving their fireflies due to tourism, said the Bangkok Post newspaper.
Chiang Mai's firefly-watching cruises, for instance, have so irked local residents that they have taken to chopping down lamphu trees - the preferred residents of the little lighting bugs - to keep tourists away from their neighbourhoods.