The Nation
Tuesday, Dec 1, 1998
Editorial & Opinion
Adding to the bustle of daily commerce at Ao Nang, Ko Phi Phi Don and Raileh is some extra excitement at the prospect of a major Hollywood movie, The Beach, slated to be filmed by 20th Century Fox at Maya Bay, on the island of Phi Phi Leh, a small but still sparkling gem in the Andaman Sea. And while tourists may be unaware of the controversy that has sprouted up over the project, particularly over plans to uproot native plants and put a hundred or so coconut trees on the beach in question, the locals are paying close attention. They know there are important principles at stake, such as why they weren't consulted about a project which is so clearly going to affect them.
Indeed, they seem more aware of it than many observers in Bangkok who have dismissed the film as a minor environmental irritant set against the backdrop of a marine park long since degraded by uncontrolled tourism development. That does the issue an injustice -- it is akin to saying, ''the area is already polluted, so what if it is damaged a little more'' -- because there are some legitimate environmental concerns about the project.
It is first necessary to separate the issue of the filming itself from the plans to plant the coconuts. Most of the Thai workers on Phi Phi Don are migrants from other parts of Thailand, but they are proud that their corner of the world has been selected as the location for a major motion picture. Even the protesting environmentalists are not against the filming itself. But there is a great deal of concern over the transformation the beach at Maya Bay will undergo.
''There have been plenty of films made in Krabi and elsewhere in Thailand, and they have never generated protests,'' points out Saritpong Khiewkong, the deputy chief of Krabi's provincial administration organisation, who has led official opposition to the project. ''It is the need to put in these coconuts that we question, because it is worse than useless to try and improve on Nature.''
The most serious direct environmental threat seems to be to the coral in Maya Bay. The removal of topsoil on the beach will lead to more sand eroding into the sea. Combined with the run-off from the fertilizer used on the new coconut trees, the resulting sediment could eventually kill off the fragile reef.
''I'm definitely concerned that it will damage the coral,'' worries Pongsak Mukda, a divemaster on Phi Phi Don. ''Coral can't run away, so any sediment that covers it will cause it to die off. It may take a few years to happen, but it's a real threat.''
For all we know, the Bt5 million environmental bond put up by the producers (in addition to their Bt4 million donation to the Royal Forestry Department) may no longer be available if and when the damage is realized. And even if the insurance is still there, how do you decide the monetary value of a patch of coral?
Ross Palmer, a landscape architect hired by the film producers to oversee the project, says the coral won't be hurt because the sediment will simply wash back up on the beach. The fertilizer, he adds, is fast-acting and will only be used in the plant nursery to be set up on Phi Phi Leh. But some visitors to the island report seeing workers applying fertilizer to the beach plants, as well.
There are other concerns, as well -- about the state of the beach itself, about the pier built on the island, and the trails cut through its forest. Hopefully, the new committee set up to study the environmental impacts of the project will be able to assess them, and action will be taken accordingly. In fact, such a study should have been carried out before the RFD approved the project.
In the meantime, we should be thinking about the broader implications of the forestry department's actions. For, while it claims the film will serve as a boost for tourism in the area, it freely admits that it is unable to regulate development there.
The film-makers, for instance, have pointed to their efforts to clean up the garbage which washes up daily on the beach at Maya Bay, and it is a welcome contribution. But it's also a very short-term one. The responsibility for such clean-up activities actually rests with the RFD, but park chief Wirachart Thepaphiphit says he simply doesn't have the staff or budget to do it. (He does seem to have enough time and manpower to arrest local housewives found collecting shellfish in the park, but perhaps the villagers simply forgot to make a Bt4 million donation.) Why, then, is the agency so eager to promote more tourism to the island?
The forestry department has also talked about building some bathrooms on the island for tourists, which sounds like a good idea. But just who is going to look after the sewage, especially once hordes of tourists arrive to see where The Beach was filmed? The answer, almost certainly, is no one. The waste water will either pollute the island, or the surrounding coves, or both.
Even the promises of RFD chief Plodprasop Suraswadi to have the film-makers' activities on Phi Phi Leh monitored continuously don't seem to be worth much. On the day we were there, forestry officials did not show up until several hours after the workers did, and Saritpong reports there were no RFD officials there at all when he visited.
Phi Phi Leh is still largely unspoiled, and it is vital that an effective environmental management plan, complete with quotas for the daily number of visitors, be set up now, before the situation gets out of control. A similar plan acknowledging carrying capacities should have been established long ago for other areas around the park, including Phi Phi Don, parts of which have degenerated into what can only be described as a slum. Its piles of rotting garbage, streams of stinking sewage, and jumble of shacks sitting atop heaps of wreckage make it look more like Klong Toey than the tropical paradise it once was and should still be.
Everyone on Phi Phi Don seems to complain about it, but nothing is done. In fact, the island already has a garbage incinerator and a waste water treatment plant, but disgracefully neither is in use. Why? Some say that faulty technology was employed, others that there is not enough electricity. Some even claim there is not enough garbage, and yet boatloads of rubbish are sent over to the mainland for disposal every day.
The tourism blight which has ravaged Thailand's national parks and coastlines has a very predictable life cycle: promotion leads to encroachment and development, which is followed by pollution and decay. If we only look at the final stages, we may miss out on finding the cure.
''We know that the film will bring us more tourists, and that this will put still further strain on our environment, which is already at the breaking point,'' explains Surat Jepkhok, the head of Phi Phi Don's villagers' committee, who led the drive for a petition expressing concern over the filming of The Beach. ''If we don't get a handle on the situation soon, it will be our ruin.''
Cynics may view all the protests as merely a chance to cash in on the publicity surrounding the movie, and it's almost certainly true the mass media is paying attention this time -- as opposed to past controversies in Krabi -- because of the presence of Hollywood. But there is more than one reason why The Beach has become a cause celebre.
For this is also an opportunity to seriously address the issues surrounding tourism in national parks, and it may be the last chance we get to save Krabi. With the increased publicity from the movie, and the province's airport to open soon, many more tourists will be clamouring to go there. The only way to fit them in would be to build yet more hotels on yet more encroached land. A renewed construction boom would end all hopes for the area's environmental recovery.
As for the film producers, they obviously have found themselves in a bigger bind than they ever imagined. They deny bribing officials to get permission to shoot. But if they're telling the truth, then Bt4 million seems a very small price to pay for a wealthy Hollywood movie studio seeking the ideal location for its blockbuster movie, especially since its lead actor is reportedly getting a whopping Bt700 million.
Some have suggested the film-makers should donate more money to set up a foundation that would help look after Phi Phi Leh long after they're gone. But ensuring the money is spent effectively would be tricky, and it would not guarantee that protests would end.
Their best chance to end the controversy here and now is to scrap the coconut trees. After all, they have found a way to film a ganja plantation at Ao Nang without growing real marijuana plants. Perhaps they can use computers or certain camera angles to get the effects they want on the beach. Otherwise, they could have a genuine public relations fiasco on their hands.
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