new frontiers
Briefing on Tourism, Development and Environment Issues
in the Mekong Subregion
Vol. 11, No. 1
February 2005
January –
THE REGION
TSUNAMI AFTERMATH:
UNEP’S CALL FOR ENVIRONMENTALLY SOUND RECONSTRUCTION MUST BE HEEDED
[Agence France Presse: 23.02.05] - COUNTRIES hit by last year's devastating tsunami should erect natural buffer
zones along their coasts and rebuild in less exposed areas to protect against future calamities, a UN report said.
The planting of trees, primarily mangroves, around denuded shorelines would lessen the impact of disasters like
the December 26 tsunami which killed nearly 290,000 people around the Indian Ocean, according to the report.
The report, entitled ‘After The Tsunami - Rapid Environmental Assessment’, was released in Nairobi at the
annual meeting of UN Environment Program (UNEP) governors. UNEP estimates that reconstruction and
rehabilitation costs could top US$10 billion and take as long as a decade to implement.
As countries proceed, they must heed the long-term environmental lessons of the tsunami, particularly the
consequences of ripping out mangrove swamps and the destruction of coral reefs that protect coastlines, it said.
In rebuilding destroyed housing and infrastructure, UNEP lamented a lack of best practice guidelines for
construction to minimize damage from giant waves and said that such blueprints should be urgently drawn up. In
the meantime, however, it suggested that countries enact strict building codes in coastal areas to keep construction
away from sites known to be prone to high waves and flooding "This makes sense not only in respect to tsunamis
but also with respect to storms surges, floods, hurricanes and other extreme weather events," UNEP chief Klaus
Toepfer said.
The report also suggests that the tourism industry should take the lead in locating hotels and resorts in less
exposed areas. 
Special
tim-team monitors and documents tourism-related issues in the Indian Ocean region affected by the
tsunami disaster. Please see below the ‘News & Views’ section on
THE POLITICS OF POST-TSUNAMI TOURISM IN THAILAND
DEADLY DISEASES MAY CAUSE MORE TOURISM SLUMPS
[CBC News: 21.01.05; Inter Press Service: 10.02.05] – THE bird flu virus has claimed nine lives in Vietnam since 30
December. This may indicate the coming of a global pandemic that could cause more devastation than last month's
tsunami, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
"If we continue to experience these frequent new outbreaks with the virus spread both in poultry and people, it
finally might result in an awful virus strain that could become a pandemic with a horrendous outcome," said Hans
Troedsson, WHO's representative in Vietnam.
"We've got to be very careful that we don't lose sight of, or control of, the bird flu health threat which could have
much greater public health implications than the tsunami," said William L. Aldis, WHO's top representative in
Thailand.
WHO experts warn that millions could be killed in a bird flu pandemic. It is feared that the H5N1 bird flu virus
could mutate into a deadly human form. Since the end of 2003, outbreaks of bird flu have killed 38 people: 27 in
Vietnam, and another 12 in Thailand. It has also led to the death or culling of more than 120 million birds across
Asia (see also Vietnam section, “Travellers warned…”)
In a different development, Susan Hunter, a consultant for the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
(UNAIDS), recently said in New York that Asia is poised on the brink of an HIV/AIDS explosion unless governments
take radical steps to rein in the disease, as well as the social and economic problems fuelling its spread.
Hunter's new book, titled ‘AIDS in Asia: A Continent in Peril’, warns that current figures for the region are
probably vastly underestimated, and that the situation will only get worse unless problems like women's oppression
are formally addressed. ”This is very much the point where humanity must step up and make this play out in a
positive way,” she said at the book's launch.
The UNAIDS annual report, released last November, estimates that 8.2 million people in Asia, excluding the
Asian part of the Russian Federation, were living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2004. Last year, Asia saw some 1.2
million new infections and 540,000 deaths.
Hunter believes that individual governments are not doing enough to prevent the spread of AIDS. Many, she
said, simply ignore the growing problem Sexual abuse and the organized sex trade in many Asian nations have also
led to the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS. The oppression of women, extreme poverty, and the long-lasting devastation of
last year's tsunami has left many women with no choice but to sell themselves, Hunter said.

TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MEKONG TOURISM FORUM
[Asian Development Bank: July 2004; ASIA Travel Tips.com: 31.01.05] - THE 10th Mekong Tourism Forum (MTF), will be
held in Siem Reap, Cambodia from 25 to 27 March under the theme "Celebrating a Decade of Co- Operation".
Hosted by the Cambodian Ministry of Tourism, the Forum will be organized by the Pacific Asia Travel Association
[PATA] in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Economic and Social Commission for Asia
and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP).
It is expected that the MTF will be attended by leading tourism officials, tour operators, hoteliers, investors,
consultants, and representatives from airlines, travel distribution services and the media. Related meetings will
cover subjects such as "GMS tourism sector strategies" and "Expanding Mekong tourism". The initial conclusions
of an ADB-sponsored GMS strategy and action plan, which has a focus on poverty reduction through “ecotourism”
and “community-based tourism” will also be revealed.
According to the ADB document entitled ‘Technical Assistance for the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Tourism
Sector’, a new technical assistance project will contribute to the goal of increased cooperation in the Mekong basin
area to “promote the development and sustainability of the tourism sector” and “to reduce poverty”. The project will
assist Mekong countries to prepare a 10-year subregional strategy and a 5-year action plan for a “sustainable
tourism” sector. The strategy will include a framework of programmes for the period 2006-2015, and the action
plan will present a detailed schedule of activities and projects to be implemented during the first 5 years.

BURMA
JUNTA GEARING UP FOR A BIG TOURISM SHOW
[Travel Trade Gazette-Asia: 04-10..2.05; Myanmar Times: 07-13.2.05] - BURMESE tourism officials are organizing the
ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) for the first time next year. ATF 2006 dates have been fixed as January 13 to 26. The
show will be held at the Trade Centre near Rangoon’s downtown area, while the ministerial and National Tourism
Organizations’ meetings will be held at Traders Hotel.
Meanwhile, the director- general of the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, U Htay Aung, stated that Burma has set
a target of 750,000 tourist arrivals this year. He told a media briefing during the recent ATF on Malaysia’s
Langkawi Island that the country had received 656,910 visitors in 2004.
“Myanmar [Burma] is a paradise waiting to be discovered,” U Htay Aung was quoted as saying by the Malaysian
daily, The Star, adding, “More than just a land of pagodas, Myanmar has just about everything that makes a
holiday experience memorable.”
“As part of our efforts to entrench tourism as a key economic pillar, we are working hard to attract tourism
investments. Projects under consideration include beach resorts in the Myeik Archipelago and theme parks in
Yangon,” U Htay Aung said. 
THE SHAKY GROUND OF BURMA TOURISM
[Agence France Presse (AFP): 07.02.05; Burma Campaign-UK: Feb.2005] – A recent AFP story entitled “Tourists flock to
Myanmar” said, “Tourists mulling a visit to this beautiful, but repressed country find themselves in a quandary;
torn between a plea by the opposition not to visit until reforms are introduced, and a craving for the old Asia that
has all but vanished in tourist centres like Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong.”
Campaign
"I'm Not Going" - The Burma Campaign UK is asking people to support the democracy movement in
Burma by signing a pledge not to go for holiday in the military-ruled country; you can sign up at a new website:
http://www.burmacampaign.orguk/imnotgoing.htm .
Following its launch on 1st February 2005, over 70 celebrities and politicians, including British Prime Minister Tony
Blair, have expressed their support for BC’s new public awareness campaign "I'm Not Going" because of Burma’s
condemnable human rights records.
For more information, contact: Mark Farmaner, Burma Campaign UK, E-mail:
mark.farmaner@burmacampaignorg.uk
The author, Jack Barton, suggested that “desire to discover appears to be winning out”, referring to the junta’s
statistics that say some 600 000 foreign visitors arrived last year, an increase of more than 20 per cent over 2002.
According to an official survey at Rangoon airport, visitors from Thailand topped the list of Asian tourists,
accounting for 10.8 per cent, followed in order by Taiwan, Japan and China. Germany provided the highest number
of Western tourists, trailed by the United States, France, Britain and Italy.
Burma's tourist spurt flies in the face of an international outcry over the ongoing detention of opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy (NLD) party supports a tourism boycott, as advocated by
democracy and human rights groups, until the political situation improves.
Hoping for more tourists and their dollars, the junta has launched new ambitious tourism initiatives. But
human rights activists such as Debbie Stothard of the pressure group ALTSEAN-Burma continue to urge people to
shun Burma for ethical reasons. "What people have to remember is the money they spend doesn't go on things like
education, but on weapons so the junta can terrorize their own people," she told AFP.

THAILAND
THE POLITICS OF POST-TSUNAMI TOURISM IN THAILAND
- NEWS & VIEWS Damages and fatalities in Thailand’s six Andaman provinces (according to official sources):
- More than 5,000 dead
- More than 3,000 missing and presumed dead
- More than 7,000 injured
- Children made orphans:1,000
- About 13,000 hotel rooms damaged or destroyed out of about 50,000 rooms in the three top Andaman province
destinations for tourists
- Economic damage including cancellation by tourists estimated at between Bt30-40 billion (about US$800-1,000
million)
- Unemployment: 20,000-30,000 [The Nation: 18.02.05]
Fast-track back to normal – Within hours of the December 26 disaster, the Tourism Authority of Thailand
(TAT) was already thinking of how to help Andaman tourism get back on its feet. The Crisis Communication Centre,
set up in Phuket by the TAT after 9/11, played a pivotal role in sending the message out to the world that the
destruction in tsunami-hit tourist destinations was not as serious as reported by major news agencies. It feverishly
worked to diffuse negative perceptions in the aftermath of the catastrophe and made concentrated ‘please
visit’-pleas to prevent a major tourist slump, at a time when locals and foreigners were still mourning the dead.
[Bangkok Post: 27.01.05]
Phuket surveys on beaches hit by tsunami – The Phuket City Planning Office has conducted four
in-depth surveys of the extent of damage to Phuket’s beaches. Besides three devastated beaches – Kamala, Patong
and Haat Yanui, three others have been categorized as “near-critical”, three more suffered “moderate damage” and
another nine beach areas are considered as “slightly damaged”. The report concluded that the tsunami’s impact on
Phuket was “extraordinarily high”, largely because commercial and residential areas were located in
“geological-risk” areas. One city planner explained: “If we look at the history of Phuket carefully, you will find that
native residents around Patong have never liked to make their homes in these low-lying [beach] areas It’s the new
arrivals lured here by the tourism industry who did not care enough to take necessary precautions against the
sea.” He added another cause for the tsunami’s devastating impact was the destruction of coral reefs and the
denudation of coconut and pine trees on shore, which had once acted as natural barriers. [The Nation: 24.01.05]
Examining coral damages – Different teams of marine scientists are trying to estimate the damage done to
the Andaman Sea ecosystems. Below the water, the damage was also catastrophic. Large swathes of the shoreline
and seabed were battered, causing great harm to the marine ecosystems in Phuket, Phang Nga and Krabi. Although
an overall evaluation report has not been completed yet, scientists called for closing off seriously damaged areas to
tourism for marine life to regenerate undisturbed. [The Nation: 12.01.05]
Death toll may be far higher – Did the government try to downplay the severity of the tsunami disaster –
to limit the damage to the multi-million dollar tourism industry? Many suspect so. In four makeshift morgues in
Phang Nga province alone, the Deutsche-Presse-Agentur (dpa) confirmed nearly 7000 bodies already on 1 January.
Others voiced fears that 10,000 people had died in the province. Rescue workers told dpa the final toll could even
be several times higher than official estimates, as an unknown number of bodies remain buried under debris and
mud, while others continue to wash up from the sea. Also on Phi Phi Leh Island, which was completely washed
over by the tsunami, more than 2,000 people were feared dead. Survivors, who reached Phuket, told dpa there were
probably 6,000 people on the island, but only a small number of those seemed to have been accounted for.
Likewise, the real toll in Phuket is probably several thousand, with hundreds killed in Patong and Kamala beaches.
Many of those who perished were Burmese who worked in Phuket. [The Nation: 5.01.05]
Hotel bosses fail to help identify bodies - A large number of decomposed bodies of hotel and resort
workers have been left unidentified because their employers failed to show up to identify them, said Khunying
Porntip Rojanasunan, who supervised the tsunami victims identification unit. ''These dead people are still in
uniforms with hotel names and logos clearly on them, some still with room keys tightly grasped in their hands.
With this material evidence, the corpses can be easily identified but nobody has shown up to claim them,'' she said.
''It is possible the hoteliers have failed to identify their dead employees for fear the death toll would damage the
hotel business.'' Khunying Porntip handed a list of unidentified bodies believed to be those of hotel and resort
workers to the police[Bangkok Post: 26.01.05]
Sex worker community needs help – According to a report by the Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP),
coordinated by the Bangkok-based NGO Empower, 2,000 sex workers may have perished when the tsunami struck
the South of Thailand. Empower has been working in the areas with sex workers, bar owners, brothel owners, tuk
tuk drivers, customers, landlords and other members in the sex worker community to find an answer for all those
affected by the catastrophe. A major problem is that despite making huge economic contributions to Thailand’s
economy, entertainment workers have long been denied the recognition of their activities as work under labor laws
and have therefore denied access to social security benefits or migrant worker status. [Network of Sex Work
Projects (NSWP): 18.01.05]
Supernatural Fallouts – Fear of ghosts keeps tourists away – As has been reported widely through the
local and international press, there is the belief that the spirits of tsunami victims, possibly in their thousands,
may still be haunting the white sandy beaches of Phuket, Phang Nga and islands like Koh Phi Phi. All
tourism-related parties, ranging from government officials, hotel operators and travel agencies have listed the fear
of ghosts as the greatest hurdle to overcome before Asian visitors start pouring back into Andaman coast resorts.
"It's no laughing matter and this superstitious aspect of the tsunami disaster is a real nightmare that is haunting
us," Pamuke Achariyachai, president of the Kata Group, a major resort operator in Phuket's Kata beach area, was
quoted as saying. [Agence France Presse: 15.01.05; Associated Presse: 18.01.05; The Nation: 18.01.05; Bangkok
Post: 15.02.05]
Cabinet approves Bt3.85 billion for tourism revival - The cabinet has approved a budget of Bt3.85
billion (about US$100mio) to revive tourism in the tsunami-affected southern provinces. The funds will be used
over the next six to seven months, according to Deputy Prime Minister Suwat Liptapanlop Short-term plans to
stimulate tourism include low-priced fares and room rates, incentives for civil servants and state enterprise
employees to take vacations in the area, and the establishment of some duty-free shops. The Finance Ministry and
the TAT will survey locations and outline conditions for tourists eligible to buy tax-free goods. Other measures
include reducing airport landing fees to encourage more charter flights to Phuket and cutting entry fees to national
parks on the Andaman coast. Suwat said Bt790 million (US$20mio) would go to the TAT for marketing campaigns
aimed at local and foreign tourists. [Bangkok Post: 23.02.05]
TAT puts ‘Happiness’ campaign on hold – The TAT has postponed the grand launch of its ‘Happiness on
Earth’ slogan until May, and meantime is diverting its promotional budget into a specific, short-term campaign
aimed at focusing attention on the six provinces affected by the recent tsunami disaster. Called ‘Andaman
Sunshine’, the new campaign will run until the end of April, by which time it is expected some normality will have
returned to the marketplace and the launch of the ‘Happiness’ campaign will be more appropriate.[Travel Trade
Gazette-Asia: 04.-10.02.05]
Government denies plan to stage Miss Universe in Khao Lak - Deputy Prime Minister Suwat
Liptapanlop denied that the government was planning to stage the Miss Universe contest in Thailand's
tsunami-damaged resort of Khao Lak, where thousands lost their lives last December. But he admitted that the
managers of the contest had suggested Khao Lak as a possible location. He confirmed that the actual event was
likely to be held on the outskirts of Bangkok and that the contestants would take a nationwide tour, which would
lead them to the southern Andaman provinces of Phuket and Krabi. He acknowledged that the government would
use the contest to promote tourism. [Mass Communication Organization of Thailand (MCOT): 18.02.05]
Row swirling over how to re-develop Phuket's tsunami-hit beaches - Phuket island is emerging as the
front line in a battle between a government bent on improving the environment on beaches, and tourism
businesses keen on a return to the pre-tsunami situation. Authorities have vowed they would spare no expense in
bringing devastated areas back up to speed as quickly as possible. But they have also demanded displacement of
about 1,000 beach vendors who offered everything from sun loungers and umbrellas to massages, temporary
tattoos, and fresh seafood The reconstruction plan for Kamala Beach, commissioned by the TAT, was strongly
protested, with hundreds of vendors and villagers converging on the Kamala police station to air their grievances
for several days.[Agence France Presse: 22.01.05; The Nation: 14.01.05; 18.01.05]
Vendors appeal against 'smart Patong' plan – Tourism entrepreneurs tried to persuade authorities to
allow them to trade on Patong Beach as they did before the tsunami. Around 300 fishermen, jet ski owners, beach
masseurs, renters of umbrellas and beach beds, motorbike rental businesses and beach vendors attended a
meeting [on 22 Jan.] to discuss the government’s recovery plan The traders were barred from the beach since the
tsunami, as part of the plan to smarten up the beach. They will be allowed back eventually, but only in certain
areas, and under the control of Patong Municipality. [Phuket Gazette: 23.01.05]
Small-scale operators on Kata Beach threatened by big business - Kata Beach Resort, owned by the
Kata Group that runs several large resorts in the Kata-Karon area, recently hosted an emergency session of the
United Nations World Tourism Organization (WTO) to discuss the recovery of tsunami-affected tourism industries.
Kata Beach Resort was chosen as the conference location to showcase Phuket’s recovery and convince foreigners
that Thailand was once again a safe destination. According to the WTO secretary-general Francesco Frangialli, a
key part of the proposed plan, the Phuket Action Plan, is to aid the recovery of small and medium-sized tourism
businesses.
However, from 26 December until recently, local businesses were not allowed to operate on Kata beach. A
one-month safety period was declared to determine whether the beach was safe again for tourists and the small
businesses they attract Chan, who rents out chairs and umbrellas on the beach, explained it is not the tsunami
that causes the real concern of small tourist operators. “Everybody is talking about the tsunami and how to fix the
damage,” he said. “But the [Kata Beach Resort] hotel is worse: the tsunami came once, but the hotel has been
trying to make the beach private for 14 years. They have been trying to get rid of local businesses for years.” He
added, “The big hotel owners do not want us on the beach because we take away business from the hotel If we
provide shade on the beach, hotel guests do not sit at the hotel pool or in the hotel restaurant. They come to the
beach and buy drinks from the local stall” [The Nation: 07.02.05]
Survivors caught in land disputes - Land conflicts are mushrooming along seaside land in Phang Nga as
tourism-oriented developers are eying the strip Giant waves forced seaside villagers in Phang Nga's Takua Pa
district to take refuge at a relief centre on 26 December. Now a rising wave of commercial development is keeping
them away from their old village sites. Residents of Ban Nam Khem, Ban Thap Tawan and Ban Thung Wa villages
are most affected. One woman from Ban Nam Khem complained, “The villagers are already doomed as their homes
were destroyed or damaged by the giant waves. But they are now in even deeper trouble as they cannot return to
the land where their houses once stood.'' She added that local authorities had made no effort to help the villagers
because the other party involved in the dispute included a powerful figure.[Bangkok Post: 16.02.05]
Tourism businesses cry out for cash – The operators of about 80 hotels and other tourist-related
businesses in Khao Lak called for a Bt20-billion (US$526.30mio) financial bail-out from the government so they
could stand on their feet again. Owners of hotels hit by the tsunami also asked the government to buy all the land
in the area, develop new infrastructure within two years and then lease the land to them on contract. In Phuket,
tourism businesses lamented the lack of any clear plan to distribute financial assistance despite the government’s
announced policy to help them. [The Nation: 22.01.05]
Who profits from the tragedy? – From a commentary by Sopon Onkgara: “The devastation of the seaside
resorts on the Andaman coast has proved to be a big windfall. The prime minister [Thaksin Shinawatra] guided the
Cabinet last week to come up with a policy to establish a special economic zone in the six tsunami-hit provinces
and open the way for foreign investors to lease land with privileges for 99 years. He is practically selling off the
prime coastal resort areas on the Andaman Sea. This time around the disaster will not be caused by Mother
Nature, but by the new policy of bypassing constitutional stipulations” [The Nation: 16.01.05]
TAT wooing investors – The Tourism Authority of Thailand expects Bt100 billion (US$2.63bio) to flow into
the country following its approaches to investors in the United States, Dubai and other Middle East countries in an
effort to spur investment in resorts and hotels in Phuket, Phang Nga and Krabi. [The Nation: 11.01.05]
Foreigners look to scoop up land – In a shocking display of greed, several foreign investors have moved to
buy up disaster-ravaged land in Phang Nga’s Khao Lak resort town at bargain prices. One landowner in Khao Lak
reported that only a week after the disaster some Bangkok-based real estate agents representing foreign investors
made an offer to buy up his land for a price of 75 per cent below last year’s rate. [The Nation: 10.01.05]
British travel agents demand: Slash prices further – A group of 17 British tour operators recently told
Thai tourism industry representatives that Phuket hotels must cut their room rates another 20 to 30 per cent if
they are to appeal to foreign tourists again, even though most hotels have already offered 50 per cent price cuts
following the tsunami. One travel agent said, “If hotels can’t cut the rates a bit more, we’ll be fine but we might
have to offer destinations such as China.” Thai hotel operators and tourism officials gave the British businessmen a
cold response, saying such measures would not help tourism at all. [The Nation:12.02.05]
There has never been a better time for righting wrongs – From a commentary by Mukdawan Sakboon:
“… it is out of place for some hotel operators and tourism business to come out in concert to defend their
businesses. We have been mercilessly exploiting nature and the environment in the name of tourism development
for far too long. Local administrations have allowed hotel and resort developers to squeeze every inch of the
country’s once-pristine beaches in their hunger for tourist dollars. As a result, numerous hotels and resorts were
built too close to beaches, something that is prohibited in many other countries. Perhaps this is one of the reasons
why so many people died from when the tsunami struck beach resorts in six provinces in the South. Furthermore,
some operators have built properties on protected national parkland, while others prohibit local communities from
accessing the beaches they are sited at, fearing their guests might be disturbed.” [The Nation: 08.01.05]
A little order in rebuilding – From a Bangkok Post Editorial: “Talk is cheap, so the air was filled for two or
three weeks with platitudes about the necessity of building a tourist-friendly region with a self-sustaining
environment… Now the fighting has begun. Small-business men and women want to resume work. Hotels and
other big-baht businesses which previously had clearly violated the ban on building on beaches have started
rebuilding. The entire Thai Andaman region and tourist officials in Bangkok are pleading with tourists to return to
``normal'' in Phuket, Phangnga, Krabi and elsewhere. “Nothing has changed,'' advertised a beach hotel, and many
fear that is right. The culture that brought the pre-Dec 26 mishmash of unplanned, often illegal establishments
challenging nature for possession of coastline and inland waters may, indeed, not have changed at all…” [Bangkok
Post: 24.01.05]
Whose opportunity are we talking about? – From The Nation Editorial: “At this point the most visible
post-tsunami proposals have come from the tourism industry. It is therefore not terribly surprising that these plans
completely ignore past mistakes and recent lessons learned. The only difference between the new plans and the
destructive status quo of the pre-tsunami days is the intensity of the calls for public subsidies. Protecting nature,
meanwhile, barely makes the footnotes. The TAT has demonstrated no interest in adhering to its environmental
rhetoric. Its primary goal remains bringing in tourists and the foreign-exchange value they represent. Tsunami or
no tsunami, the TAT’s target remains 13 million arrivals for this year…
Beneath the official momentum to restore the status quo lies another crime: white-washing the exploitation of
public resources by property developers in the tourism sector. Those who obtained dubious land rights in national
parks or watershed areas by paying corrupt land department officials now see a golden opportunity to have this
dubious legacy erased. Pang Nga residents know this history only too well.
The rehabilitation plan that Thailand needs must cover more than just the recovery of the tourism sector. It
should also address how the country’s coastal resources are an important part of the livelihoods of people from
other sectors, particularly small-scale fishermen. A good rehabilitation plan requires more than money and benefits
for the privileged few. It should also include a commitment to doing what’s right for all of Thailand.” [The Nation:
23.0105]
Focus on victims, not businesses – From The Nation Editorial: “While every other country affected is
likely to pay respect to the 400,000 or so victims, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s first instinct is to
congratulate the hoteliers and tourism-business operators whose cash registers are once again raking in foreign
currency. In all of the recovery efforts to date, it has been the locals, volunteers, NGOs, even some foreign
volunteers and tourists, who worked together to clean things up – while the military and government agencies have
generally performed their jobs perfunctorily and inefficiently, remaining in the background. And the same is true of
post-tsunami aid. Despite ongoing public pronouncements of fishing villages to receive new boats and loans to be
made available to assist small businesses and affected homeowners, the action on the ground has not matched the
promises… Corruption and government red-tape aside, everything seems to be geared towards getting those big
hotels rebuilt at all costs. Contrary to what the government would have us believe, post-tsunami recovery is much
more complicated than bringing back the tourists and expecting their dollars to trickle down through the local
economies, redistributing the wealth among the residents.” [The Nation: 23.02.05]
European tsunami victims sue NOAA, Accor hotels, Thailand - A group of Austrian and German victims
of the Asian tsunami disaster have filed a lawsuit, targeting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) in Washington and its Hawaii-based tsunami warning centre; the Accor group of hotels where some of the
victims stayed; and the Thai government. The NOAA is accused of having registered the earthquake but failed to
alert Indian Ocean countries of the impending tsunamis as the Hawaii centre covered only the Pacific. The lawyers
said that if the NOAA and Thai authorities, which had their own information, had passed on their alerts in time, it
would have enabled people on shorelines to flee inland. Accor is named in the lawsuit because the plaintiffs say the
chain did not properly inform relatives of the victims after the disaster and had built its Sofitel hotel, in the Thai
resort of Khao Lak, on a quake fracture line.
Responding to the group's allegations, Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan for the Thai government
called for understanding from the entire global community, stressing that Thailand had never before been placed in
an earthquake risk zone, and that after the tsunamis, it had provided a high level of assistance to both its own
nationals and to foreigners.[CYBER DIVER News Network (CDNN): 1502.05; Mass Communication Organization of
Thailand (MCOT): 17.02.05] 
**********
ENVIRONMENTALISTS OPPOSE IMPORT OF WILDLIFE FROM KENYA
[East African Standard: 11.02.05] - KENYA has agreed to ship dozens of animals, including zebras, giraffes and lions,
to the controversial government-funded Chiang Mai Night Safari zoo in northern Thailand. But conservationists
have condemned the move, citing concerns for the animals' welfare.
The Kenya Wildlife Working Group, a consortium of 15 wildlife groups, questioned the logic behind the planned
translocation of several wildlife species to Thailand. Its chairman, Mr Omara Abae Kalasinga, said the move was
ill-advised since wildlife numbers were declining.
Meanwhile, Plodprasop Suraswadi, project coordinator for the night safari project, insisted: “"I can 100 percent
guarantee the safety of these animals.” He added, "African animals have been here for nearly 30 years. That's why I
don't understand why some NGOs are making noise. It's absolute nonsense" Environmentalists from the Born Free
Foundation want the Kenyan government to reverse its decision to export up to 300 animals, including rare species
of white rhino, leopards and spotted hyenas. The group slammed the plan, saying many of those destined for
Thailand were protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

PARK TODAY, GONE TOMORROW?
The construction by villagers of a dirt road inside Doi Inthanon National Park, with the knowledge, if not exactly the
blessing, of national park and other government officials, throws the problem of parks and people into sharp profile,
writes Philip D. Round, an ornithologist currently working with Mahidol University's Faculty of Biology
[Bangkok Post: 07.02.05].
The Karen village of Ban Muang Ang lies in the dry dipterocarp forest zone on the lower slopes of the national park.
It is situated about three kilometres off the main access road into the park, and is home to a few hundred souls.
The access is well known to birdwatchers, as there is a wooden suspension bridge, some 20 years old, across the
Nam Mae Klang at that point. From there, a footpath ascends the ridge eventually leading to the village.
Roughly 10 years ago, the Muang Ang villagers, using hand-tools, started to upgrade the footpath to a
motorcycle trail. This did not seem too threatening, and though some of us felt disquiet at the time, we kept our
peace. Early in 2004, however, the disturbance escalated. The villagers widened the track to make it useable by
pick-up trucks. Any large trees that had the misfortune to be in the way were ring-barked to kill them, while
smaller trees were simply cut down. Further burning took place along the sides of the road so that, in places, there
is a now a cleared strip 30 to 40 metres wide through what used to be forest.
This road construction inside a national park is undoubtedly illegal - and with good reason. National parks,
along with wildlife sanctuaries, are Thailand's front-line defenses against the erosion of biodiversity. Pretty much
everyone agrees that parks are a good thing. Even if you asked the Karen of Ban Muang Ang, they would probably
accept that, on balance, Doi Inthanon National Park should be maintained.
If the watershed area was not protected, the villagers would probably suffer from a lack of water during the dry
season. Yet here, as elsewhere, there are many issues of conflict among the disparate groups with an interest in
national parks - "stakeholders" as they are referred to both by park management and the community-forest lobby.
There is a large body of opinion that holds that villagers who can provide evidence that they lived in an area
before a national park was established should be allowed to remain there. This is generally regarded as a right, not
a privilege. Those who argue for the co-existence of people and forests are mostly mute on the subject of the
escalating desires and expectations of villagers living in the forest. Of course, they will want road access. Today, a
dry-weather track will do; tomorrow, it will be mains electricity and other amenities, and the day after tomorrow
perhaps an asphalt road as well.
The National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department makes enormous sums of money from gate
receipts, from renting accommodation and the sale of goods and services in areas under its aegis. At present, none
of this money goes to benefit local people, and precious little goes to pay the salaries of park staff or to benefit
conservation at all. Instead, it disappears into central government coffers, and remains more or less unaccounted
for. If it returns to the park, it is in the form of new buildings, restaurants and grandiose facilities designed to make
yet more money for the department through catering to an ever greater number of tourists. Instead of using
tourism revenues destructively in this manner, we should instead use them to benefit conservation. At least part of
the money from gate receipts could be used to compensate villagers living inside parks, and to support those who
would voluntarily accept resettlement outside protected-area boundaries.
The issue of local people living inside national parks will not go away and, thus, needs to be addressed. Firstly,
local park-management boards need to be established. These would allow people living in and around park genuine
participation in management decisions. In order to ensure that neither the money- oriented department, nor vested
local business interests are enabled to subvert the conservation objectives of national parks, national and local
nature-conservation NGOs would also need to be represented on park-management boards.
Precisely because such a system would deprive the department of its exclusive nominal control over its "empire",
and force some sort of financial accountability upon it, the department will fight tooth-and-nail to oppose its
establishment. Sooner or later, though, it will be deprived of its exclusive control, whether it accepts this gracefully,
or whether it remains reactionary to the end: social pressures will demand it.
The chief danger is that the present system, instead of evolving gently into a balanced, genuinely participatory,
conservation-oriented system, involving park- management boards, could be toppled and replaced by something
much more dangerous - a business-oriented, tourism development-at-all-costs ethos led by populist politicians,
businessmen and the much-touted "CEO provincial governors" favoured by the present administration.
In the meantime, the people of Ban Muang Ang and a thousand other communities inside Thailand's national
parks are quietly and unobtrusively doing what they will always do - seek to better their lives and increase their
living standards, free of government interference, as far as is possible.

VIETNAM
TRAVELLERS WARNED ABOUT AVIAN FLU
(Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy (CIDRAP) News: 08.02.05; Vietnam Economic Times: 01.02.05) –
US health officials are warning travellers to Vietnam to take special precautions to protect themselves from avian
influenza. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its advisory for Vietnam-bound travellers
on 4 February after Vietnamese government sources reported 15 human cases of avian flu, including 12 fatal ones,
since late December, most of them in the south.
Noting that human cases of avian flu have occurred recently in northern Vietnam, the CDC said the disease's
spread "could pose a greater risk to travellers, especially during the upcoming Lunar New Year [starting on 9
February], when increases are expected both in travel and in preparation and consumption of poultry."
Among other things, the CDC urged travellers to:
- Locate healthcare resources in Vietnam before leaving home
- Avoid poultry farms, live-bird markets, and contact with sick or dead poultry
- Thoroughly cook all foods from poultry, including eggs
- Monitor their health for 10 days after returning home and see a physician if symptoms develop
A separate advisory for people going to Vietnam to visit family and friends offers more detailed advice, including
advice on food preparation and a warning not to travel on commercial airline flights while sick.
The head of Vietnam’s animal health department said avian flu was showing signs of decreasing, according to an
Agence France-Presse (AFP) report. Bui Quang Anh attributed the signs to the "tough measures" used by the
government. But Anton Rychener, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) representative in
Vietnam, told AFP, "I would not pay much attention to this statement. Vietnam wants to reassure people before
[lunar] new year."
Vietnam’s tourism industry hopes to receive 3.2 million foreign visitors and serve 15 million domestic visitors in
year 2005. However, according to officials of the sector, it is not easy to reach the target. Ms Vo Thi Thang,
Chairwoman of the Vietnam Administration for Tourism (VAT) said that at the beginning of the year, nobody can be
sure whether the sector can reach its full-year plan or not because there will always be unexpected and
unpredictable changes.
For the time being, the country’s tourism industry has been heavily affected by the outbreak of avian flu and the
fallout from the Indian Ocean tsunami crisis. To cope with unexpected changes, the sector has set up a detailed
plan for year 2005 with importance attached to diversifying tourism forms and pushing up tourism promotion. 
YUNNAN/ CHINA
Special Report
TOURIST SEARCH FOR YUNNAN’S UTTERMOST END
This is a shortened version of a travel report, published in the South African Sunday Independent on 06.02.05
You might think of Yunnan Province as the Dordogne of China, with its pleasant weather, rustic landscapes and
quaint old towns. But, in consequence, the tourists are now coming. And boy, are they coming - affluent Chinese
urbanites by the thousands.
Some come on package tours, others come independently. Huge crowds of camera-clicking tourists zoom in on
every spot of cultural or natural interest The "old" quarter of every town is a maelstrom of boutique shops and
open-air restaurants. China has been only too happy to promote internal tourism.
Yunnan stretches from the tropical jungles of Burma, Laos and Vietnam to the wintry fringes of Tibet. I've been
in the regional capital, Kunming, which already resembles Chicago. I've been to scenic, sunny Dali, where western
backpackers have been coming for years to drink cappuccino and eat spaghetti.
Mainly, though, I've been in Lijiang, which has become one of the great tourism phenomena of the world. If you
wanted to be negative about Lijiang, you'd complain that it was a faked-up Disneyfied version of Old China. But the
town is also immaculately clean and immensely picturesque. It is tempting to stay in Lijiang for ever, but the end of
Yunnan is where I'm heading, by bus: to a small town, north of Lijiang up in the Tibetan borderlands. When I
disembark here, several hours later, a serious frost is in the air. This feels like Tibet all right. The local people are
ruddy-cheeked Tibetans. Distant Tibetan mountains ring the valley Tibetan yaks amble on street corners. A Tibetan
monastery commands the heights on the edge of town.
It doesn't look like a town where I'd find ancient wisdom, let alone an international hotel, but strangely enough,
I'm booked into one - the Banyan Tree. But where exactly is this? A few years ago the local authorities had the big
idea of renaming it to raise its profile as a tourist destination. If there is one thing I wouldn't have done, it would
have been to give this town a new name It already had two - Diqing (the original Chinese name) and Zhongdian (the
Chinese rendering of the Tibetan name, Gyalthang). And now it has a third: Xianggelila (Chinese for Shangri-la).
Which brings me to the British writer James Hilton.
In his 1930s novel, Lost Horizon, Hilton depicted Shangri-la as a valley hidden in the wilds of Tibet, where time
moved so slowly that people could survive for centuries, steeping themselves in high art and culture. Hilton seems
to have got the name from Shambhala, a mythical haven referred to in ancient Tibetan texts. His idea was that
Shangri-la would eventually be called upon to re-seed human civilization after the rest of the world had destroyed
itself by war
The local authorities of the town to which I must now refer to as Shangri-la may have identified their valley as
the source of Hilton's story, but I fear the mountains are too distant, and that the land too brown and dusty. The
other implausibility about this latter-day Shangri-la is that it is far too accessible. Look at me. I've just cruised up
here on public transport.
Daily flights land here. A huge economic boom has caused a new Chinese town to spring up on its outskirts,
packed with fashion shops, hairdressing salons, music stores, cell-phone euphoria and Internet cafes. Three or
four large hotels, oddly reminiscent of Las Vegas, have also appeared. Everyone you speak to admits that the place
is no longer the Shangri-la that it once was.
Might not some mistake have been made in promoting a place as a peaceful haven, when the desired
consequence of that promotion would be to lure noisy crowds to descend upon it?
Affluent people from Guangzhou and Shanghai have come to Shangri-la to renovate old houses and to convert
them into mellow little cafes. They represent the vanguard of China's new bohemia. Meanwhile, the local Tibetans,
lucky them, get to live in modern apartment blocks on the edge of the new town.
Tibet is the borderland between the old world and the new. It is also a borderland between China and India. My
guide is Tibetan, but grew up in India, before returning with his family to China several years ago. He speaks good
English, Hindi, Tibetan and Chinese. He and his friends have introduced cricket to Shangri-la. His boss, born to
Bengali parents in Uganda, moved to the Sudan, studied in India, worked in Nepal and finally drifted here. These
are the kinds of people you find on the fringes of modern Tibet. And what will happen to Shangri-la when Lijiang's
tourist hordes arrive? Perhaps it will keep moving, until the tourists can penetrate no further.
I am still restless, in search of Yunnan's uttermost end. The road from Shangri-la to Deqen is one of those
incredible scenic mountain routes that you cannot imagine anyone bothering to build. It zigzags up and down
near-vertical slopes surrounded by massive snowy mountains. The villages here are all Tibetan - full of grazing
cows, nibbling goats, rootling pigs, pecking chickens, and magnificent peasant cottages of whitewashed walls,
gorgeous painted window frames and carved eaves. We finally reach a cold little road on a cliff-top directly
overlooking the Meilixue Shan mountain range. It's de rigueur among China's new tourists to stay here and watch
the sun rise over the mountains.
In the evening, I find a trendy cafe playing western pop music and serving curry. Before dawn, I get up to watch
the mighty peaks turn pink. Then we drive down into the deep valley of the upper Mekong, along a road with a
vertical drop to the river. On the other side of the valley, it will be my task to walk up to the glacier of Mount
Kagebo, which is Tibet's second holiest mountain.
The proper Tibetan pilgrimage is to walk around the mountain, spending 20 or 30 days over it. Compared with
that, this touristic pilgrimage - up to the glacier and back - feels rather trivial. But the Chinese tourists help me to
restore my pride. They all ride mules, while I walk. My big spiritual moment occurs on the return journey, when I
fall in with a Tibetan family. Here is an old gentleman and his wife, encouraging me to follow them along invisible
short cuts. They keep offering to carry my bag. They seem to be asking me for money, but when I offer it, they look
at me as if I am mad - all they want is a picture of the Dalai Lama. Anyway, we keep going, and as we go, I fall into
a kind of rhythm, my head empties and my spirits rise and I tell myself I am half- way to finding Buddhism. 