Eco-Tourism

Its another sad day for Malaysia. Some dumb ass has decided that the destruction of corals and endangered marine life will promote eco-tourism. Wondering what the fark was going through these dumb ass's heads when they were thinking about building a marina on Tioman Island. For those of you who don't understand what the fark I am talking about, here is the email and news I have been reading:

Subject: Fw: Tioman Island - Natural Environment soon to be damaged!!!To Friends of the Nature,Today, we got to know about the building of Marina Project over TiomanIsland. Tomorrow, who knows in the future whether the mountains or coralreefs will be there anymore....Tioman Island - once voted as the top 10 most beautiful island in the worldis currently being developed to be "eco-tourist" center similarly toLangkawi Island. They have already made it duty-free island, and plans areunderway to build a 2km airport. The govt intends to make it a one stopshopping island....On a start, the Marina project spans 127,000 sq metresand is expected to provide yacht docking areas, an administration building,water breakers and a cargo jetty which is expected to be 30m wide at thetip and stretches 175m into the sea. The marina will threaten the survivalof more than 200 endangered giant clams, 300-year-old corals and othermarine life which thrive within it.What the govt officials do not realise is when we have structuraldevelopments, these developments must be taken to adapt to the islandsenvironment, and NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND. Examples are like the Maldives,Palau or even Pangkor Laut. What the local tourism need is not anotherhustle and bustle of a city like Langkawi. We would like to see the beautyof the coral reef and its marine life - sting rays, moral eels, pufferfishes, nudi-branches, angel fishes; and the beauty of the forests - ourwonderful rainforest (dipterocarpus) trees - the tualangs, keruing, sepetirand many more.Malaysia is fortunate enough to be located at one of the world's topbiodiversity area. Traveller's come and visit our country to see howbeautiful our natural environment is. They don't want to see huge airportsand big marina. Who cares about them - they probably have much more betterones in their country. We don't want another CITY in an island. We visitthe islands to relax and enjoy the wonderful atmosphere...I don't normally forward much mails around but i would appreciate you toforward this around to your friends to create an awareness. I make this anexception cos I am a nature lover and would like to see to the conservationof our Malaysia's natural enviroment. For more information on the aboveissues, do check out the following sites :-1) The Star Newspaper Online - Tioman Dive Sites set to be destroyedhttp://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2004/9/6/nation/8833465&sec=nation2) Malaysian Nature Society - report on developments on Tioman Islandhttp://www.mns.org.my/marine.php?op=display&id=1023) Department of Environment, Malaysia....damage done to coral reefshttp://www.jas.sains.my/jas/batukarangtioman.htm

The email was written by Mr Tom Chan, I believe is a Malaysian Nature Society Committee Member.

I have to agree with him. I am not much of an environmentalist but I do love the sea. Tioman, once voted top 10 most beautiful island. Once voted? So what happened? How did we lose the ranking of being top 10? Do these bunch of morons know what eco-tourism is all about? Best part of it all is, if you read the comment by WWF in theStar's article ... they need to study the enviromental impact. Helllllo??? What impact? I farking pile into your house, you tell me what's the impact! What kind of moronic statement was that?

Same story with the fire flies. I was there a few times and each time I was there, its a totally different experience. Its like watching christmas trees light up.

All I can say is, they keep thinking that destroying and building new structures will promote the tourism industry. They should build but they have to find better ways to go about doing it ...