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It is appropriate that the Tourism Authority of Thailand
chose Koh Chang as the venue from which to launch its new ''Keep Thailand
Beautiful'' campaign.
Appropriate because the choice demonstrates an
awareness of the need to take much better care of our natural heritage in
general, and our most beautiful islands in particular, if we hope to
preserve our country's pristine natural charm. Domestic tourism operators
have thrown their support behind the project's aim of stimulating the
country's tourism industry by using the resources of government agencies to
conserve scenic areas and encourage local villagers to act as proud hosts to
arriving tourists. The venture is a noble one but needs great care in
implementation, to ensure that past mistakes are not repeated. All too often
these took the form of glossing over the more sinister side of tourism
development or condoning it as the end justifying the means.
This darker side is the ecological impact of mass
tourism, which has been well-documented. So have the horrors perpetrated in
its name by greedy land speculators and rapacious resort developers. The
allegations are hardly a secret and neither are the deep pockets possessed
by some of the developers, which could have a bearing on why so many probes
and fact-finding inquiries at national and local government level get
nowhere.
If this attitude persists, then there is little hope
for the Tourism Authority's new campaign because few villagers, no matter
how proud they are of their surroundings, are going to draw attention to
their little bit of paradise if it means that developers will move in, take
their land and then pour mountains of concrete over it.
Koh Chang is not alone in being bruised and battered
by the effects of mass tourism. Alarm bells began to ring across the Gulf of
Thailand last year when a property boom in Koh Samui and Koh Phangan got so
heated that 292 foreign and 33 Thai property firms registered with the Surat
Thani provincial commerce office in the short space of four months.
International celebrities such as Manchester City football club coach Sven-Goran
Eriksson purchased a luxury home on Koh Samui, spurring tourism and sparking
a fever which drove land prices up to as high as a reputed eight million
baht a rai for prime beachfront plots on Koh Phangan.
All the familiar signs of unplanned and unregulated
development are present and they prompted one regular visitor and saddened
eye-witness to appeal in Tuesday's Postbag for the restoration of sanity and
the launch of a top-level environmental rescue mission. His letter condemned
the wanton destruction of some of Koh Phangan's finest features in the name
of development. It detailed the alarming extent of this vandalism which even
involved the bulldozing of an entire hillside overlooking scenic Mae Had
Bay, causing landslides into the sea. Predictably, the ensuing mud in the
water is suffocating and killing the magnificent coral reef.
Tragically, this type of abuse and destruction is an
all too common occurrence along our coastline. It is a disgrace, but then so
is the home-grown pollution fouling our parks, waterfalls and other areas of
great natural beauty. It is on a par with the criminal neglect which has led
to the disappearance of so much of our rainforest coverage over the past
four decades. Clearly, the ramifications of environmental awareness and
conservation have yet to permeate all levels of the government, business and
society.
There are laws to stop the richness of our country
being squandered but the increasing levels of environmental degradation
reflect their lack of enforcement. The abysmal record of government agencies
in this regard has left a vacuum into which the Tourism Authority and its
allies have now stepped with their ''Keep Thailand Beautiful'' project. Let
us hope they have the willpower to take on wealthy and influential vested
interest groups, and rise above the evil culture of institutional bribery,
apathy and corruption which is responsible for so many of the problems
plaguing our country today.
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