Koh Chang residents unhappy
with Dasta - May 11, 2005
Tourism agency is killing our island
Koh Chang residents say
the tourism agency charged with developing the island has been doing more
harm than good.
They have called on the government to examine and improve the performance of
the agency, the Designated Area for Sustainable Tourism Administration (Dasta).
"The organisation is killing our island,'' said Bamroong Ruamsap, president
of Koh Chang Iyara Development Co and adviser to Trat Environmental
Conservation Group.
"Koh Chang is likely to develop much faster and better than this without
the agency, which has joined hands with forestry officers in oppressing
villagers and operating destructive projects,'' he said.
The Thaksin Shinawatra administration launched a plan to develop Koh Chang
in Trat into a world-class tourism destination. Dasta, led by Plodprasop
Surasawadi, assistant to the minister of the PM's Office, was established in
2003 to realise the plan by drafting a tourism development blueprint and
integrate work between relevant agencies to reclaim forest land and public
beaches from encroachers.
Mr Bamroong said over the past two years, Dasta had totally ignored people's
participation in formulating the master plan. Citing the government's
tourism development plan, the agency also conspired with Moo Koh Chang
National Park in constructing projects that could harm the ecosystem, he
said.
He cited as examples two road projects, one cutting through a pristine
forest area and the other severely damaging a mang-rove forest, the proposed
eco-lodge projects and a garbage dump site in the protected forest area.
Dasta should be more independent to ensure transparency, Mr Bamroong said,
adding that the agency should be separated from the national park office to
prevent Dasta from using forestry officers to complete their work. He also
called for the ouster of Mr Plodprasop to ease local resistance to the
project as the locals had questioned Mr Plodprasop's transparency and his
disregard for public opinion.
Mr Bamroong also urged concerned agencies to look into alleged forest
encroachment and illegal issuance of title deeds at the historical naval
engagement site and encroachment of a mangrove forest by an influential
businessman.
Natural Resources and Environment Minister Yongyuth Tiyapairat, who made an
inspection trip to the eastern resort island over the weekend, expressed
concern over rising conflict between the park officials and local residents.
The minister said Dasta could not make progress because land occupiers
refused to return the land plots, some of which were illegally obtained, to
the government, which needed large tracts to develop basic facilities to
serve tourists.
In a bid to speed up Dasta's work, Mr Yongyuth has set up five committees to
deal with public and park land encroachment, town planning, waste
management, rehabilitation of marine ecosystem, and drafting sustainable
tourism development master plan.
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