----- Original Message -----
From: Tim Team
To: timteam02@...
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 4:22 PM
Subject: tim-team Clearinghouse: Tourism 'worsened' tsunami, says UNEP


Dear colleagues and friends,



The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) acknowledges in a newly released report that
environmental degradation caused by tourism development has worsened the effects
of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster. UNEP also calls on countries in risk zones
to establish natural buffer areas along their coasts to be protected against
disasters coming from the sea.



But can we be confident that such recommendations will be heeded by the
powers-that-be? As Satya Sagar points out in a special commentary for The
Nation, despite the initially overwhelming solidarity for the tsunami's victims
from around the world, it has been found that in many areas struck by the
disaster, the distribution of relief and the rehabilitation process overseen by
governments are marred by corruption, inefficiency and waste. State agencies
have taken the typical top-down approach, with little or no regard for the needs
and interests the suffering locals. Satya concludes, "The failure of a disaster
as great as the Asian tsunami to elicit more humane and people-centred policies
from governments of affected nations is yet another indication of just how
remote these governments are from the populations they claim to represent."



In the light of this, the idea that the disaster aftermath can be made an
opportunity to bring about more equitable and sustainable development may be
little more than wishful thinking. In particular, the politics of post-tsunami
recovery is much more complicated than some self-styled experts in sustainable
or fair pro-poor tourism would expect.



Yours truly,

Anita Pleumarom

Tourism Investigation & Monitoring Team (tim-team)



-------------------------

The Telegraph (UK): 26 February 2005



TOURISM 'WORSENED' TSUNAMI, SAYS U.N.



By Paul Miles (Filed: 26/02/2005)



The United Nations has blamed tourism development for worsening the effects of
the recent tsunami, according to a new report.



The report, undertaken by the UN Environment Programme (Unep), revealed that in
areas where mangrove forests or reefs had been destroyed to make room for
tourist developments the tsunami had a more devastating impact than it would
have had otherwise.



"Severe damage on the coast was observed where coral mining in the sea had been
rampant. There were signs of absorbed impact and less damage in locations with
healthier vegetation and less disturbed ecosystems," said the report.



In Sri Lanka, the Yala and Bundala National Parks escaped damage because
vegetated coastal sand dunes stopped the tsunami, which was able to enter only
where the dune line was broken by river outlets.



Naturetrek, a British tour operator, is still taking tourists to both parks on
birdwatching and natural-history tours.



Reefs that had been ravaged by mining and fishing by dynamite were also
ineffective in protecting the coastline. In one of the case studies in Sri
Lanka, the reef in Dutch Bay is reported to have been almost entirely destroyed
by the tsunami.



"If coral hadn't been destroyed to build hotels, mangroves removed to make
`perfect beaches' and hotels built so close to the shoreline, the death toll may
well have been lower," said Tricia Barnett, director of Tourism Concern, which
campaigns for sustainable tourism.



Ms Barnett is confident that any rebuilding along the affected coastlines will
now be better planned. "Local people recognise the opportunities that this
catastrophe has opened up for everyone to benefit from sustainable tourism," she
said.



Isabelle Louis, director of the Worldwide Fund for Nature's Asia Pacific
programme, which helped compile the Unep report, said that rebuilding should be
as environmentally friendly as possible. WWF is helping to ensure supplies of
sustainable timber for reconstruction and looking at improving waste disposal
and energy provision and providing opportunities for local people.



---------------------

Agence France Presse (AFP): 23 February 2005



TSUNAMI-HIT NATIONS MUST HEED ENVIRONMENT IN RECONSTRUCTING: UNEP



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 Tuesday.



The report noted that Sri Lanka, one of the hardest-hit countries, had already
decided to establish a no-build zone up to 200 metres from the average high tide
line.



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.



"Priority should be given to near-shore forest development as trees will help
absorb the energy of future tsunamis, prevent coastal erosion due to rising sea
levels and meet national objectives for reforestration and job creation," it
said.



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 dollars 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 minimise 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.



"Buildings and other infrastructure need to be built in less vulnerable areas
and to standards that will protect them and their inhabitants in the event of
future tsunamis," UNEP chief Klaus Toepfer said.



"This makes sense not only in respect to tsunamis but also with respect to
storms surges, floods, hurricanes and other extreme weather events," he said.



The report also suggests that the tourism industry, a vital source of revenue
for many of the tsunami-affected countries' economies, should take the lead in
locating hotels and resorts in less exposed areas.



In addition to the immediate damage to lives and property caused by the tsunami,
the report said the disaster had been compounded by the amount of debris and
toxic substances it spread into marine eco-systems.



"There is an ongoing potential danger to those involved in disposing or
recycling such material," it said. "Rapid clean up may have resulted to
inappropriate disposal methods."



In Indonesia's worst-hit province of Banda Aceh alone, between seven and 10
million cubic metres of waste were generated by the tsunami. In the low-lying
Maldives islands, dislodged asbestos and leaking fuel have mixed with human and
animal waste to form a potentially lethal mix, the report said.



---------------------

The Nation: 28 February 2005



TSUNAMI RELIEF EFFORTS AWASH WITH INEPTITUDE AND DISDAIN

(shortened version)



By Satya Sagar



In its immediate Aftermath the December 26 tsunami prompted an overwhelming
response of solidarity and sympathy for the disaster's victims, not just from
ordinary people but also celebrities, corporations and governments around the
world.



But as operations move from relief to rehabilitation in the region there are
problems cropping up.



Chief among them being lack of consultation with affected populations about
their own future. Within each of one of the affected countries governments,
national elites and bureaucrats - after a brief and ritual suppression of baser
instincts - are headed back towards politics as usual.



In Thailand, the Thaksin Shinawatra government predictably focused all its
energies primarily on ensuring the tsunami disaster did not affect the country's
lucrative tourism industry.



Sure, a few thousand tourists died because Thai weathermen were too shy to put
out a tsunami warning and "scare away tourists"; but hey look. the sun is out,
the sands are back to golden and the sea is sparkling blue again!



The most shameful part of the Thai response has been the way authorities have
treated Burmese migrants, over 1,000 of who are believed to have died in the
tsunami.



Thai police have deported migrants who came looking for dead or missing
relatives and friends in the aftermath of the disaster.



Thailand is also the site of a most intriguing politics played out over the
identification of bodies of foreigners and locals who died due to the tsunami.



While initially, Thai officials and volunteers disposed off all bodies they
found, they were forced, on the insistence of Western governments, to identify
each body properly through DNA tests for return to the countries the victims
originated from.



While this special attention being given to the bodies of foreigners has been
criticized by sections of the Thai media as discriminatory, the fact is that the
Thai government is doing what other tsunami-affected countries should have done,
that is, treat the dead with dignity and make all efforts to identify and hand
them back to their relatives or given a proper burial.



On this score, India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka have fared very poorly with most
of their tsunami dead dumped into mass graves with little procedure or respect.
Most of those who died in these countries belonged to the poor, disempowered
communities and in death there was the same lack of concern from the elites they
faced when they were alive.



The worst of the lot is the Indonesian government whose response to the disaster
in Aceh has been simply atrocious. The genuine logistical problems of reaching
relief to a million or more affected people, many in remote villages, has been
compounded from the start by an inept and corrupt bureaucracy suspicious of all
NGOs and foreign humanitarian agencies. As if this were not bad enough, the
Indonesian government has continued its brutal operations against Acehnese
rebels - fighting for autonomy or nationhood - even after such a catastrophe.



In Sri Lanka, another country with a long running separatist rebellion,
attitudes have been no better.



In the aftermath of the disaster that devastated communities across religious
and linguistic divisions, hopes were raised that at least now Sinhalese
politicians and Tamil separatist leaders would start afresh and take the
country's faltering peace process forward. No such luck.



That the Sinhala and Tamil leaders continue to show blind and narrow
sectarianism at a time of great common devastation exposes their utter lack of
concern for their own people.



Parts of India struck by tsunami, the coastal regions of southern India and the
Andaman and Nicobar islands, do not have any ongoing separatist movements. But
the Indian government is trying its best to foster a rebellion in these places
by toying with the lives of those affected by the tsunami.



This is particularly so in the Andaman and Nicobar islands where the Indian
government has barred even Indian NGOs and humanitarian agencies from entering.
The entire relief and rehabilitation operations are carried out by the Indian
army along with state officials. Indian media reports say that the distribution
of relief is marred by corruption, inefficiency and waste.



In all four tsunami-struck countries discussed above reports are coming in of
state officials deciding relocation, livelihood options and levels of
compensation on behalf of the affected populations.



The failure of a disaster as great as the Asian tsunami to elicit more humane
and people-centred policies from governments of affected nations is yet another
indication of just how remote these governments are from the populations they
claim to represent.



About the author: Satya Sagar is a Thailand-based writer and video-maker
covering political and developmental issues in South and Southeast Asia.



--------------------------------

NOTE: The articles introduced in this Clearinghouse do not necessarily represent
the views of the Tourism Investigation & Monitoring Team (tim-team).







tourism investigation & monitoring team (tim-team)
P.O. Box 51 Chorakhebua
Bangkok 10230, Thailand
Email: timteam02@...
Webpage: http://www.twnside.org.sg/tour.htm
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