ENVIRONMENT
Pak Bara Port could kill marine ecosystem: NRC member
PRATCH RUJIVANAROM
THE SUNDAY NATION

BANGKOK: -- CONSTRUCTION of a deepwater port at Pak Bara in Satun would lead to a domino-like collapse of the marine ecosystem in the entire South Andaman Sea - destroying scores of people's livelihoods and way of life, an environmental expert has warned.

National Reform Council member and leading marine biologist Thon Thamrongnawasawat said that if the port is built -on 4,000 rai (1,581 acres) of the Petra Marine National Park, the marine ecosystem in the area, as well as those from Phang Nga Bay to Lipe Island, would be destroyed.

"Pak Bara's sea is the same sea as the whole Andaman Sea. If the Pak Bara seaport is constructed, the connected ecosystem of the South Andaman shallow sea will be cut - the rich biodiversity will vanish forever," Thon told a forum at the Pak Bara Paradiso fair at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre on Friday.

Thon revealed that a study by his team had recently found a new species of soldier crab in the Pak Bara estuary that was only found in Pak Bara.

"The prime minister said the government would compensate those affected by the project but how would the government compensate these crabs, which are a treasure for everyone in the country," he said.

Thon said the Pak Bara seaport would be just the beginning of industrial development in the South.

"After building this seaport, the petrochemical industry and power plants will come. The people in the South will suffer the same fate as the people in Rayong's Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate," he warned.

Providing a tourism perspective, Kaiwut Chusakul of the Lipe Ferries and Speed Boats Company said that if the underwater environment was destroyed, the tourism industry would surely suffer - and local fishermen.

"The tourism industry is a sustainable economic development in the South," Kaiwut told the forum. "The people here can live well because they get what they need from the sea. But if there is no more natural resources from the sea, the tourism and fishing industries will collapse."

Andaman Foundation general secretary Somboon Khamhang told the forum the seaport would not be profitable as the time and cost needed to transfer goods across a bridge that would extend from Pak Bara to Songkhla seaport would be more expensive than transporting goods via Singapore.

"Many entrepreneurs in logistics and energy businesses - as well as foreign entrepreneurs - are looking forward to expanding their wealth through the project. Should the government care about their benefit rather than the people's benefit?" Somboon said. "Economic development in the South should be done via sustainable tourism, by carefully using our unique and rich ecosystem," he said.

Source:http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Pak-Bara-Port-could-kill-marine-ecosystem-NRC-memb-30258762.html

-- The Nation 2015-04-26

An unelected Govt should not be making decisions like this. Bangkok riding roughshod over the people whose homes and land it has been for centuries made under a law that gives one Thai absolute power over 60-70 million thais. Doesn't seem right.

The plan was to build a canal from Ranong to the Anderman Sea which is on and off the cards regularly but it would be better than this idea!

I'd give a lot of weight to what a leading marine biologist like Thon Thamrongnawasawat has to say.

I can hear the official rebuttals now. Boil 'em all down and they will amount to: "Ah well, you can't make an omelette. . . "

An unelected Govt should not be making decisions like this. Bangkok riding roughshod over the people whose homes and land it has been for centuries made under a law that gives one Thai absolute power over 60-70 million thais. Doesn't seem right.

No government - elected or unelected - should go ahead with this disaster in the making.

An unelected Govt should not be making decisions like this. Bangkok riding roughshod over the people whose homes and land it has been for centuries made under a law that gives one Thai absolute power over 60-70 million thais. Doesn't seem right.

No government - elected or unelected - should go ahead with this disaster in the making.

+1.

The plan was to build a canal from Ranong to the Anderman Sea which is on and off the cards regularly but it would be better than this idea!

I'd give a lot of weight to what a leading marine biologist like Thon Thamrongnawasawat has to say.

While I also liked the Kra canal plan, the money to be made is from the ports, not from the passage of ships through a canal a la the Singapore ports near the Malacca Straits. Hence, if they did the canal they would still need a port system.

How would the government compensate these crabs?

Export them as seafood to China and Russia?

The plan was to build a canal from Ranong to the Anderman Sea which is on and off the cards regularly but it would be better than this idea!

I'd give a lot of weight to what a leading marine biologist like Thon Thamrongnawasawat has to say.

The plan was to build a canal across the Kra isthmus, ENDING somewhere near Ranong, permitting a passage for ocean going ships from the Gulf of Thailand to the Andaman, and avoiding the long route round by Singapore. Apart from the physical difficulties - lot of hills in the way, requiring locks or long tunnels, it would be appallingly expensive, and no way could the Thai economy cope. Maybe the Chinese....

Edited April 27, 201511 yr by Farang99

i know very little about this port proposal. What I do know is every time a major infrastructure project is proposed, a group of Chicken Littles start screaming their version of the sky is falling, usually with reference to some previously undiscovered of endangered frog, fish, bird, blowfly, or in this case , crab, and the inevitable disasters that will befall it and mankind.

At least in this case, the complainer has some qualifications. Usually they are uninformed idiots spouting pseudo-science fed to them by Greenpiss or similar organisation. If for once they came up with positive suggestions to ameliorate damage, they might be worth listening to. But no, it's always "The sky will fall, don't do it!" because that's easier than actual working out a solution to the problems they anticipate.