"Paradise not much longer" a Ko Chang Travel Page by riproy

I thought i would post some news that deserves wider readership regarding the future of Koh Chang. This is taken from a Thailand-based publication on tourism in SE Asia called "New Frontiers". For more articles, check out http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/nf84.doc

[Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA): Feb. 2002; Koh Chang Group: May 2002] – A STUDY by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) and the government’s development plan point out that the resources of Koh Chang and surrounding islands would be preserved. “Sustainable community-based tourism development” is stated as a major objective.
But independent researchers, who have investigated the realities on the ground, have found that the official intiatives to develop Koh Chang tourism have just set off a race to grab and destroy land and natural resources as fast as possible, with authorities turning a blind eye to legitimate local people’s concerns and wide-spread environmental abuses, such as clearance of mangrove forests, dredging of beaches and encroaching on national park land (see also new frontiers 8[2] and 8[3]). A report produced by the “Koh Chang Group”, a group of foreign and Thai environmentalists that has begun to raise public awareness on Koh Chang issues, highlights the vast contradictions between the official rhetoric of “sustainable tourism” and the current practices:
“Although the plan [for Koh Chang] calls for highly legislated construction and development laws, problems arise when large corporate interests, who are effectively above the law due to their influential connections with the government, start unregulated development… Even though the plan calls for careful control and monitoring of development to prevent problems associated with unregulated private development projects, it is already clear such regulations are not being enforced.”
As an example, the report mentions an influential investor, who has been building a boat resort near the fishing village Bang Bao on the south side of the island, thereby illegally dredging the shoreline. Apparently, the Harbor Department gave the developer permission to dredge the beach, says the report, but the backhoes continued dredging past the Harbor Department jurisdiction and up into the national park land. After the Royal Forestry Department (RFD) found out about it, they administered a small fine but the damage was already done. When asked about the incident, RFD chief Plodpasop Suraswadee said that since they were so far along in the construction he granted them further permission to continue the dredging.
The Koh Chang Group has found that this illegal resort construction is by no means an isolated case. “The thought that the government has ulterior motives or unsaid involvement in the development of Koh Chang is continuously revealing itself through incidents such as this,” the report says, adding that the RFD is focusing on potential tourism dollars instead of preserving national park land. (see also story above: national parks as money spinners).