Supreme Court orders rehabilitation of Maya Bay using funds from “The Beach” film production

[snoop1130]

Photo: Sakanan Plathong

 

The Environmental Cases Division of Thailand’s Supreme Court has upheld the acquittal of former Agriculture Minister Pongpol Adireksarn, the Royal Forest Department and its former director-general, Plodprasop Suraswadi, on charges of violating the National Park Act by allowing the use of Maya bay and beach, on the island of Phi Phi Leh off Krabi province, as the location for the shooting of the film “The Beach” in 1999.

 

The court did, however, order the Royal Forest Department to undertake sustainable rehabilitation of Maya beach and the island on which it is located.

 

Regarding Twentieth Century Fox and Santa International Film Productions, which were responsible for changing the landscape of the beach for the shooting of the film, the Supreme Court upheld the compromise agreement signed in 2018 by the two companies and the plaintiffs, under which the former agreed to provide 10 million baht for the rehabilitation of the landscape of the Maya Bay, to be undertaken by the Royal Forest Department, and for the department to report the progress of its work once every year for three years.

 

Full Story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/supreme-court-orders-rehabilitation-of-maya-bay-using-funds-from-the-beach-film-production/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2022-09-13

 

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[Gold Star]

Those in charge in Jomtien and Pattaya that decided to cut all the big tall native beach shade trees and replace them with coconut palms to fit the tourism script must be held accountable as well. 

[prakhonchai nick]

23 years pass before Thailand demands money for rehabilitation. What a joke!

[Catoni]

Huh ?    That was almost a quarter century ago. Is this a joke of some kind? 

[RichardColeman]

20th century will just now avoid filming in Thailand and they will lose far more than 10 million baht in future film revenue

[inThailand]

So let the Thai elite government employees off for approving the filming and fine the falang film company 23 years later? Avoid the LOS Land Of Scams for now on? So short sighted they are? 

[wombat]

They should have made that figure 10 million dollars.

[Jonathan Swift]

17 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

20th century will just now avoid filming in Thailand and they will lose far more than 10 million baht in future film revenue

It's only about $275,000 US, pocket change to the company really. 

[ThailandRyan]

So lets just go back in time and decide that when the Capital of Thailand was moved to Bangkok that those responsible for paving over the canals now be charged and must pay the rehabilitation funds to alleviate the flooding.

 

Time to find where the money paid to the the Royal Forest Department went and if in the past 4 years the department reported the progress of its work once every year for three years......

[Jonathan Swift]

1 minute ago, wombat said:

They should have made that figure 10 million dollars.

oopsie. Instead, they get about $275,000. No math whizzes in government  I guess. 

[chang1]

They can then fine the tsunami for damaging a few other beaches. 

I would have thought the amount of tourists that film brought in would make 10 million seem insignificant. Hardly worth risking future films that might be put off coming to LOS.

[Stevieb123]

On the other hand it has brought in massive tourist dollars to the area.  Surely enough money to replant a few native trees anyway.

[SiSePuede419]

At least they're standing up for Nature. ????

 

Thailand ????????

Thailand ????????

Thailand ????????

 

[sammieuk1]

500bt two plastic bags plus disbursements = 10m ????

[Swampy999]

Italian sports cars are rather expensive to maintain ????????

[Ralf001]

10 hours ago, Gold Star said:

Those in charge in Jomtien and Pattaya that decided to cut all the big tall native beach shade trees and replace them with coconut palms to fit the tourism script must be held accountable as well. 

Accountable for what ?

[Swampy999]

38 minutes ago, Stevieb123 said:

On the other hand it has brought in massive tourist dollars to the area.  Surely enough money to replant a few native trees anyway.

20th Century Fox, another Golden Goose that will go to pastures new.

[Srikcir]

This article requires careful reading. 

• Yes, the Court ordered the Government to rehabilitate the Bay using the 10 million baht fine agreed be paid by the two movie studios in 2018.
• The Court did not order the studios to pay the fine as it upheld the agreement by the studios to pay the government the fine. 

What begs the question is why the Government needed to start the rehab as per the Court order?

• Did the studios already pay the agreed fine to the Government pursuant to the 2018 agreement (I suspect so) but for some reason the Government "delayed" rehab? If the Government had received the fine, where are the funds?
• There is no mention of the studios being sued for the fine nor the studios refusing or suing the Government to avoid the fine. 
• It's possible that the studios had yet to poy the fine as per the 2018 agreement simply because the agreement was challenged  (by whom?) all the way to the Suprem Court. Thus, the payment would have been held in abeyance.

 

[BTB1977]

Go pound sand is a good response.  23 years later is a joke. I would think trees and grass could have grow back by now. But than with the millions and millions of tourists at 200 baht per tourists isn't enough.  The Film studio should send them a bill for advertising the area.  What a joke. 

[micmichd]

2 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

20th century will just now avoid filming in Thailand and they will lose far more than 10 million baht in future film revenue

Who cares? Thailand has its own film industry. 

[ThailandRyan]

5 minutes ago, micmichd said:

Who cares? Thailand has its own film industry. 

TollyWood

[jaywalker]

2 hours ago, prakhonchai nick said:

23 years pass before Thailand demands money for rehabilitation. What a joke!

Get some sleep says the BUTT-Ugly British gal.

 

"I may want to have sex in the morning."

 

ROFL ????

 

I recall a Nana gal who took offense to my fifth session that night.

 

 

[Iron Tongue]

That's chump change!

I'll bet that's less than the amount of money a certain energy-drink heir has spent on cocaine since he went into hiding.

[dogfish180]

2 hours ago, wombat said:

They should have made that figure 10 million dollars.

 

[Sydebolle]

What a joke; it took 'em 23 years to find out, that the Adireksarn clan had its fingers in the honey pot too? 
No wonder why many Thai-related movies are filmed elsewhere, going back to 1957 "Bridge on the River Kwai" which was shot near Kandy/Ceylon (today Sri Lanka); many other movies followed being done in Cambodia, Malaysia and the Philippines. 
If it is not the work permits and the goons at the censoring bureau then it is something else. 

20th Century Fox though will cough up the fine of less than USD 300,000 with pleasure as it will reactivate the interest in "The Beach" ...... oncemore again. I assume that this fine is being used for the uglification of beach strips like the "change" of trees along Pattaya beach etc. 

[edogthong]

Thailand has likely seen billions of baht in tax revenue from that particular film. No other movie has done more to bring tourists here. The local authorities approved all the environmental construction work at the time. This just further cements Thailand's reputation as a greedy and investment unfriendly nation. It will likely cost them further billions of Baht in lost revenue streams as film studios take their business elsewhere. Well done Thailand!

[Gottfrid]

3 hours ago, Catoni said:

Huh ?    That was almost a quarter century ago. Is this a joke of some kind? 

Unfortunately, not. They never joke about money!

[happydreamer]

44 minutes ago, dogfish180 said:

 

Literally beat me to it

[nickmondo]

Really thinking of bizarre ways to get more money from the farang!

23 years to come up with this one!

thats about right.........

as usual, absolutely laughable.

im really starting to think seriously whether i want to live here any more.

Im wondering if another Asian country would be a bit better.........

its just one stupid thing after another here.

[rwill]

When they filmed Survivor Thailand the Thai government did the same thing to them.  They wanted millions more.  They had an agreement in the contract that area would be restored to how it was before filming.  Which Survivor said they did plus more or left it better shape than when they had arrived.  So that is why there was only one Survivor filmed in Thailand.