An idyllic bay in southern Thailand is being called paradise lost as Hollywood filmmakers and environmental activists clash over a 20th Century Fox plan to bulldoze its sand-dunes.
Protesters camping out at Maya bay in the Phi Phi Islands national park say the film adaptation of the best-selling novel, The Beach, could ruin a secluded spot in one of Thailand's most spectacular coastal regions. Enthusiasm for tourist dollars is blinding the Thai government to threats to the environment, protesters claim.
The Hollywood team - including producer Andrew MacDonald and director Danny Boyle, who made Trainspotting and Shallow Grave - and the Thai Royal Forestry Department have vigorously defended the film project.
"I took away two tonnes of garbage. Tell me I'm destroying nature," said Mr Santa Pestonjii, Thai chief of production for The Beach.
"We have nothing to hide . . . and do not wish to see your environment damaged by the making of this film," Mr MacDonald and Mr Boyle wrote to Thai newspapers.
Activists remain unconvinced and are refusing to leave hook-shaped Maya beach, one of the prettiest bays in the turquoise waters around Krabi province, a popular travel destination.
Krabi's dramatic limestone karsts became a top tourism attraction after they featured in the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun.
The Thai authorities are not hiding hopes that The Beach - starring Hollywood's hottest property, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Irish actress Victoria Smurfit - might work similar wonders. The present stream of curious visitors to the area is likely to turn into a tide once the movie is released.
"Thailand is broke, we need the money the film will bring in," RFD chief Plodprasop Suraswadi told reporters. To protect Maya beach, Mr Plodprasop has ordered that special boats be used to avoid damaging coral, and he has banned the erection of buildings at the site of The Beach.
Alex Garland's story, echoing Lord of the Flies, is about a group of backpackers (one of whom will be played by Victoria Smurfit) who swap civilisation for a remote island paradise, only to have everything go badly wrong.
Maya beach seemed the ideal location for the movie - but it was not quite perfect enough for 20th Century Fox, which hopes to improve on paradise with the aid of a few bulldozers and 100 coconut trees.
Erosion and sediment caused by digging up scrub and planting the trees could ruin nearby coral as well as the beach, say local people and environmental activists.
Their "camp-in" has turned the issue into a media cause celebre and revived sensitive debates about damage to the environment as a result of under-regulation of the travel industry, Thailand's largest foreign exchange earner.
"The future of tourism in national parks is unfolding in front of our eyes in Krabi, and it is not a pretty sight," said the Nation, a Bangkok daily, in an editorial. Fears that Thailand could become a victim of its tourism success are frequently aired but less commonly heeded.
About seven million visitors a year flock to a country unusually rich in lush natural beauty, wonderful food and cultural attractions. Most visitors are charmed by still unspoilt beaches and mountains inhabited by ethnically diverse villagers clad in intricately and colourfully patterned dress.
But some are shocked at the increasing degradation of once-pristine areas and communities, while the authorities turn a blind eye to flagrant abuses of planning regulations.
Visitors expecting a serene idyll as they chug into Phi Phi on picturesque boats may be surprised to find masses of concrete bungalows, piles of plastic litter and disco music at the entrance to the national park.
"Piles of rotting garbage, streams of stinking sewage and a jumble of shacks sitting atop heaps of wreckage have turned part of the main island into what can only be called a slum," says Bangkok-based environment reporter James Fahn. Shops and sex bars have also arrived on the island.
The conservationists who long ago lost the battle to save that section of the park are determined to protect paradise beach in uninhabited Phi Phi Leh. As they wait for the bulldozers and coconut trees to land on Maya beach, both sides are growing increasingly defensive.
While Mr MacDonald told reporters that he has hired an armed security crew to protect him on the island, activists allege that they and local people opposed to the project are being intimidated by local political and business personalities who back it.
"Krabi is an old smugglers' haven. Democracy is still struggling to gain a foothold here and this battle over The Beach is one of its most important milestones,' wrote activist Ing K. Mr MacDonald expresses bafflement.
"We never expected to be faced with the criticism we have received in the last few weeks," he said.
