Golf Course Development In Southeast Asia example essay topic

Golf Course development in Southeast Asia: How the World's most prestigious game is swinging away at the Environment The sport of golf has come a long way since it was first played on the wind blown pasture lands of Scotland over 600 years ago. Today, golf courses around the world are in a way their own small ecosystem, where only pieces of the natural environment are a part of these artificial landscapes. Courses are meticulously groomed for both championship and tourist play. The game is taking front stage all over the world and new courses are being constructed everyday. This may be great for the game of golf and the wealthy investor who is making millions off of these luscious green fairways, but what about the drawbacks to environmental degradation that it is causing? The main environmental effects of golf courses in Southeast Asia are similar to those all over the world, but lack government regulation like in the United States.

These countries do not have a strict Environmental Protection Agency or other NGOs to keep these issues under control. The main problems between the environment and golf course development that will be discussed in this paper include water usage and contamination, deforestation, the use of toxic chemicals and fertilizers, and the importation of non native grasses. The governments of these countries will also be examined, as to how they are dealing with these problems and how, if at all, they are helping their native people. After discussing the problems of Southeast Asia's golf boom, this synthesis will go into detail about what can be done to help slow down or eliminate many of these problems. The world's golf craze and Japan's current obsession over the game has swept through the countries of Southeast Asia since the early 1990's and currently there are over 500 new courses in the region. This compares to a total of only 45 golf courses in these same countries in the early 1970's.

Currently, Malaysia has 155 courses, Indonesia has approximately 90, the Philippines have 80, and Thailand has close to 200 golf courses spread throughout their landscape. (ASIA GOLF) Along with these newly developed golf courses come all of the negative environmental impacts. In many of these countries, the government is either too corrupt, poor or they are focusing their energies on a multitude of other issues. Negative environmental effects are often times low on their priority list.

These new golf courses bring in much needed foreign currency and jobs. A golf crazy Japan, a country about the size of California, is finding new havens for their golf outings throughout the countries of Southeast Asia. The rising prices of green fees, club memberships, and a lack of land to build on in their own country have sent the Japanese to countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia to satisfy their golfing needs. It has become more economically feasible for people to golf in these neighboring countries than in their own. Golf courses in these countries also provide caddying services and other amenities that are hard to come by anywhere else in the world. At some courses in Thailand each player has up to 4 different caddies (site).

The caddies carry the player's bag, clean their equipment, provide players with snacks and beverages and even prostitution in some cases. New golf resorts have rapidly developed throughout the region and are now attracting Western tourists and investors to profit from these new resorts. Organizations such as the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) are welcoming these outsiders with open arms and are failing to pay attention to the environmental and social impacts that this new development is bringing about. Water Usage and Contamination In the countries of Southeast Asia clean water is a rather precious resource and water shortages are common. As elsewhere in the world, it is needed for agriculture, drinking and other daily tasks by the people of villages and towns throughout these countries. The plush grasses of these golf courses also need constant watering in order to stay healthy and lush for the clientele who have traveled long distances and are significant amounts of money to play these courses.

The average 18-hole golf course consumes 6,500 cubic meters of water per day, which is enough for the daily needs of approximately 2,000 families in these countries. (TED, pg. 1) It was originally thought when first evaluating these countries for golf course development that water would not be a problem because of high rainfall averages. During the dry season golf investors and managers thought nothing of the local villager and only cared about the well-being of their investment. In the early 1990's allocation of the water supply became a major issue, because the courses were taking all of the needed water from nearby villages. In Thailand this encouraged a government ban against golf courses drawing water from public water sources. (site) Since this ban course representatives indicated that they no longer were using these public sources to irrigate their courses and have established their own reservoirs to use utilize. Although this may have smoothed things over on the surface, this battle for water was far from over.

Water theft became even more corrupt and deceptive than ever. In 1993, Thailand was in the middle of its worst water shortage in recent history, to the point where farmers had nothing to use for their crops; and taps in many of the major cities, including Bangkok had dried up. Environmentalists and the Royal Irrigation Department (RID) uncovered more than 13 courses around the country that had been illegally drawing water originally set aside for human consumption and agriculture. The RID warned these courses to stop, but there was never anything done by the government to stop it. (S&E, pg. 4) This goes to show in one way how corrupt the governments of these nations truly are. The Langkawi pipeline project in Malaysia is another prime example of how government corruption and golf course / resort developers are taking advantage of the local people through water deprivation with severe, even fatal consequences.

A golf resort was being built on a neighboring island to Langkawi, called Re dang Island. The Malaysian government funded a $7.5 million pipeline that would pump potable water out to this golf course / resort from the mainland. (Time, pg. 2) Soon after the people that lived on the mainland were deprived of a sufficient supply of clean water because of the pipeline, cholera broke out and much of the town became ill with intestinal disorders. These two examples from Malaysia and Thailand have shown that these new developing golf courses and tourist spots are taking precedence over the interests of the local people. Government officials are being influenced by the developers and resort managers through gratis memberships to their clubs and substantial amounts of money. How a country allocates its clean water resources is a major issue and something that needs to be taken into serious consideration.

Turf Grass and the Use of Toxic Chemicals and Fertilizers In order for these courses to attract loyal golf clientele they must be in top condition and look and play like a professional golf club, so that these customers will enjoy their experience and want to come back. Numerous artificial fertilizers, pesticides, soil improvement agents, artificial coloring agents and surfactants are used on the courses to keep the fairways and greens in the best possible shape. These chemicals are beneficial, not just to these golf courses, but in agriculture practices throughout the region. Due to both cosmetic and course quality issues golf courses require somewhere from 7-9 times more pesticides per rai (2/5 equal an acre in Thailand) than the amount needed for farming. (source) This can ultimately lead to large amounts of runoff into streams, rivers and water reservoirs. On almost all of the courses built in Southeast Asia, grasses used for fairways, tee boxes and greens are not native species to this geographic region.

There are only about 12 different types of grasses that are used on golf courses throughout the world, due to the demanding criteria for turf quality. The greens on these courses are mostly comprised of bent grass or bermuda grass which are not indigenous to the tropic climates of Southeast Asia. The fairways and tee boxes can be composed of many different species of grasses including bermuda grass, European rye, zoysia, or centipede. When these grasses are introduced into these non-native environments, they are susceptible to many new fungi, insects, and weeds that they have no natural tolerance against Consequently, in order to deal with these problems, greens keepers must use copious amounts of pesticides; including herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides to keep this grass superbly conditioned. The average golf course in a tropical country needs 1500 kilograms of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

(IMPACT, pg. 1) These synthetic chemicals are entering the natural environment through many different means and cause negative impacts on the wildlife, humans, and other aspects of the surrounding ecosystems on the landscapes of Southeast Asia. Most recent research has shown that these pesticides seep into the ground water, where people in these areas source a significant amount of their drinking water. Neighboring residence to these golf courses consume this water, because they have very few other sources of purified water. In the end, this has high potential for threatening human health. In addition to being threat to contaminating the ground water, these chemical agents are also entering into the surface water, such as local ponds, lakes, and streams. A study of golf courses throughout the world has shown that at least one in four of these applied pesticides end up in 80% of the ponds located on the courses.

Other health problems from these pesticides have been reported to affect the quality of the air around the courses. Golfers, caddies, greens keepers, and nearby residents around some of these courses in Thailand have become sick with headaches and skin irritations. This is due to chemical vaporization and wind movement. In addition to causing these human health problems there are many negative impacts to local wildlife. Fertilizers used on these courses are composed mainly of nitrogen and phosphorous compounds.

When these ingredients are washed into ponds and other surface waters they stimulate the growth of algae. When this algae dies and decays it creates conditions that make it hard for aquatic animals to survive and thrive in their natural habitats. There have been cases throughout the world, including a few courses in Southeast Asia where these artificial agents are causing massive fish deaths. Work Cited, .

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