On 14 Oct 2001, at 22:01, Bjorn Vang Jensen wrote:

> An excellent idea - if only the money would be spent on the maintenance of
> the reefs. Naturally, however, like Cozumel, the money will find its way
> straight into the pockets of officials, with the bulk no doubt going to Mr.
> Suraswadi himself.

Unfortunately that is the case in many areas but even if a few cents
of it makes it way to helping, in some small way, to keep the reefs
for a bit longer then I would not have a problem, as a guest of your
country, paying it.


>
> This is the same bleding-heart environmentalist bastard who allowed 20th
> Century Fox to film The Beach in Maya Bay, where they destroyed beyond
> repair one of the most beautiful natural parks in South East Asia. It seems
> Leonardo wanted palm trees, which unfortunately don't grow in Maya Bay, so
> they brought in bulldozers, stripped hundreds of years worth of topsoil,
> planted coconut trees on the beach, then wrecked it again when they removed
> the trees and brought in foreign soil on barges to "replace" what they
> destroyed.

This is simply freakin' disgusting, but then money has a way of
being disgusting.

>
> Mr. Suraswadi, at the time, authorized this, in direct contravention of Thai
> law on natural parks. 20th Century Fox of course paid for the usage of the
> park, but there seems to be some disagreement between what the studio says
> they paid, and what the Forestry Department deposited. And even if they had
> paid a trillion Dollars, it would STILL have been illegal to use the park
> for anything at all other than admiring it. Corrupt usurpers like Mr.
> Suraswadi wreak more havoc on the environment than a thousand scuba divers.

I believe that this will always be the case. As a general rule I like to
think that most divers care enough about the environment that we
visit to try and not damage it while we are there. I, like most of us on
this list have seen those that don't have the skills necessary to be
diving on such a fragile environment like a reef, but even with those
divers counted I still believe that we do much less damage than the
general population does. The general population does not care in
the least what is going on where they can not personally see it.


>
> So forgive me if I am a bit cynical. With "friends" like the Thai Forestry
> Department, the environment doesn't need any enemies. And with collectors
> like him, the environment will never see a penny.

Don't see where you need to be forgiven. Wish lots more of us
would be pissed at such things. :-)


>
> Bjorn
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mike Wallace" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2001 12:53
> Subject: [SCUBA-SE] News Article
>
>
> > BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand said on Friday it would charge
> > scuba-divers 200 baht ($4.50) each time they visit popular diving
> > spots in the Andaman Sea and use the money collected to preserve the
> > environment.
> > Forestry Department chief Plodprasop Suraswadi said the fee, to be
> > imposed from the start of Thailand's tourist high season next month,
> > had been agreed by government agencies and dive tour operators.
> > The money collected would be used to help look after the fragile coral
> > reefs skirting popular tourist destinations and to improve local
> > services, he said.
> > The Andaman Sea, on the eastern fringes of the Indian Ocean, is home
> > to some of the best dive spots in the world, including the Surin and
> > Similan Islands, 850 km southwest of Bangkok.
> > Millions of tourists each year visit the popular Thai resort island of
> > Phuket and southern beaches around Krabi, putting huge strain on the
> > environment, local officials said.
> > Plodprasop said his department simply did not have enough money to
> > maintain all the reefs in crowded dive spots, which have been
> > damaged in recent years by large numbers of divers and by the anchors
> > of pleasure boats.
> > "Those who go to enjoy nature and damage the coral should pay a
> > maintenance fee," he told Reuters.
> > Diving operators generally welcomed the move.
> > Napapen Kridakorn, coordinator at Bangkok's Dive Master diving
> > school, said the Forestry Department had occasionally charged divers
> > in the past but at a much lower rate of less than 100 baht per person
> > per trip.
> > She said the new fee should be accompanied by an improvement in
> > services for visitors.
> > "We hope they will install more moorings for boats because there are
> > so few of them now that one buoy may be used by several boats at the
> > same time, which is not convenient at all," she said.
> >
> > ~~~~~~~~~~
> > Mike Wallace
> > Huntsville, Alabama


~~~~~~~~~~
Mike Wallace
Huntsville, Alabama