PHUKET, Thailand (10 Jan 2005) -- Scientists, environmental groups, government officials and local Thai citizens are calling for go-slow "green" reconstruction of Thailand's devastated coastlines that would protect coastal communities from tourism-driven overdevelopment and beach-front construction that damages fragile coastal ecosystems. In severely damaged areas such as Phi Phi Island where tsunami waves destroyed most or all of the hotels, dive shops and tourism infrastructure, many are urging government authorities to ban reconstruction and create fully protected marine reserves that would completely prohibit dive tourism and other commercial development schemes. "I feel that some of the areas must be made off-limits, with prohibitions on the divers," said Petipong Pungbun Na Ayudhya, a Thailand environment ministry official. But foreign exploitationists in Phuket who control Thailand's booming dive industry have launched a media-bashing campaign, and are aggressively pushing for business as usual and immediate reconstruction of eco-unfriendly beach-front dive shops and hotels. Supporting the local economy or wealthy foreigners? Even as thousands of distraught and bereaved relatives continue searching for their missing loved ones, rescue teams struggle to pull dead bodies out from under the ruins of collapsed buildings and authorities warn the public the death toll of tourists and local residents could reach 10,000 or more, Alistair Beveridge, a strident Phuket-based foreign dive shop owner and head of the Dive Operators Club of Thailand (DOCT), has issued an aggressive "let's go diving", business-as-usual press release that callously ignores the death, the devastation and the need to allocate limited basic resources to those who are directly involved in the difficult and ongoing rescue and recovery effort. "We encourage you to continue diving and not cancel your liveaboard (sic) or other diving plans out of Phuket. In this way, you can support the local economy," Beveridge beamed. It's the business as usual argument and it's as old as sewage-polluted lagoons, damaged coral reefs and environmentally unsustainable tourism development: Industry creates jobs, therefore industry is good especially to all those screaming foreign dive shop hustlers - mostly Europeans - who boast about hefty profit margins and how little they pay to their divemasters and scuba instructors, who work for subsistence wages or less if employed under dive industry "internship" schemes. So while Beveridge's dive shop cup runneth over - even as dead bodies were floating in on the tide he was boasting to the media that his "Wicked Witch" dive boat was full of paying customers - the dive shop employee cup is nearly empty. So much for the argument about supporting the local economy. Leave only bubbles (and sewage, garbage, diesel fumes, dive shops, hotels, bars and discos) As for the environment, scientists and environmental groups cite the rapid and unchecked overdevelopment of the tourism industry, and the booming dive industry in particular with its beach-front hotels and dive shops, as a primary cause of severely damaged fragile coastal habitats that could have protected many of those who died or were injured when huge tsunami waves struck Thailand and other parts of south Asia. Despite its "leave only bubbles" greenwash, the rush to grow the dive industry in Thailand as well as other parts of Asia and the world has completely destroyed unique and pristine coastal habitats including Koh Phi Phi and Sipadan, Malaysia's pristine uninhabited ecological gem of marine biodiversity in the Sulu Sea. | | The wrong place to build a dive shop, hotel or anything else. Thailand's foreigner controlled dive industry is fighting against scientists, ecologists and local Thai citizens who want damaged areas declared off-limits for reconstruction and tourism development. But that was before the dive industry juggernaut overran the tiny island with all of its scuba marketing gimmicks - the 5-stars, the gold palms, the top 10 magazine ratings, the international photo contests, the annual beach clean-up photo op and the phony eco awareness awards to dive shop owners who racked up huge profits and mostly ignored the many clear warning signs that "paradise" was on the verge of environmental ruin. Now many of Sipadan's reefs are rubble, the mangroves are all but gone, the island's groundwater is polluted with sewage, garbage is everywhere and the government of Malaysia has finally created a marine reserve and evicted all of the dive shop and hotel owners who have moved to nearby islands where the process of unsustainable tourism development and habitat destruction starts all over again. As it will in Thailand if Alistair Beveridge and other foreign dive shop hustlers persuade authorities that their business schemes are more important than protecting Thailand's coastal ecosystem and coral reefs that have sustained far more damage from unchecked tourism development than the recent tsunami. Tsunami benefits Ironically, the tsunami, which has killed so many and caused so much misery and devastation, has also focused the world on the need for both tsunami warning systems and environmentally-sustainable coastal planning where nature reserves are at least as important as hotels, and natural defence mechanisms such as mangroves, coral reefs, marshes and forests are fully protected. Many are urging Thailand to turn Phi Phi Island into a fully protected nature reserve and Sri Lanka's government has already announced that it would enforce strict laws to avoid future disasters when it rebuilt its shattered coastline including a complete ban on building seafront hotels and resorts. "Now that some of these places have been completely destroyed, there is a chance to do some zoning and create some national parks," Hakan Bjorkman of the UN Development Programme told reporters. "There is a real push (in Thailand) to get things back to normal as soon as possible, but it is important to do it carefully and do it right rather than to do it quickly." © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORK |
