Source : Bangkok Post, Thailand, 19 May '09
By : The Editor
  

The headquarters of the Tarutao National Marine Park has officially announced the closing of the system for six months. The Andaman Sea park covers 51 islands, of which several are popular with tourists.

The annual closure was announced at the weekend. Officials said the heavy seas at this time of year are dangerous to travellers, and added that the six-month period would give the islands a chance to recuperate from the tourist season.

The second reason is actually the better explanation, and similar steps should be considered for all sites, throughout the country.

Encouraging foreign tourism to Thailand has been a policy of all governments for more than 50 years. Economically, tourism has been a boon to the country. Over the decades it has fetched us billions in foreign currency and has grown to be a major source of commerce. In the process, tourism has created millions of jobs, tens of thousands of small and medium-sized businesses. It has opened Thailand to the eyes of the world, almost always positively.

As frequently noted, however, there is a strong and troubling downside to tourism in Thailand. The apparently uncontrollable building of tourist accommodations and services have trampled on natural and public lands. Large parts of premium land and offshore waters have been spoilt at Pattaya, Phuket, Samui and other islands, while the Rose of the North, Chiang Mai, is withering with pollution.

The visitor centre and administrators of the Tarutao National Marine Park have succeeded where others have failed. They simply close down the park each May when the high waves start. The weekend announcement in Phangnga province by Panumas Samseeniam, the chief of Similan national park, was straightforward. The park will be closed for six months. High waves from now until November will make travel dangerous to Similan and other popular park sites on Surin, Lanta and Tarutao islands.

But tourist travel during the last six months has trampled and destroyed a good part of the vegetation and alarmed much of the wildlife. Left to nature for six months, the popular islands will largely return to their natural state. They will be that much more attractive when they reopen to the public on Nov 15.

How much better - and ultimately richer - the country would be if similar rejuvenation periods were declared everywhere. Beaches, forests, animal populations, endangered fishing grounds - all these and more are best reinvigorated by nature. Putting the Andaman Sea park off limits has proved the programme works.

Realistically, there are limits to instituting a national programme of "holidays for nature". Major tourist beaches such as Jomtien and Patong probably cannot be closed for an effective period because of the huge economic damage. But huge areas of forest, scores of rivers and waterfalls, and portions or all of dozens of islands around and throughout the country would greatly benefit from even a few months of closure.

Both tourism and natural resources are valuable to the country. The good news is that today's foreign tourists are aware of their responsibility to the environment. It is short-sighted to think tourists would criticise holiday periods for popular destinations - as the praise for closing the Tarutao park proves. As a responsible guardian of its own natural resources, the value of Thailand as a tourist destination would actually rise.