Smog drives away Thailand’s tourists as Laos, Myanmar farmers grow cash crops for China
- More than 2 million people in Thailand have been hospitalised with breathing problems this year, as farmers in Myanmar and Laos slash and burn land
- Regulating agriculture is challenging as it affects people’s livelihoods, while the crisis in Myanmar makes border management virtually impossible
For weeks now, a thick smog carrying harmful particles that routinely reach beyond the hazardous limit has greeted arrivals at Chiang Mai airport, with images of the wheeze-inducing smoke shared across social media.
“Customers have been calling to cancel their stays. It gets worse each year.”
Thailand battles spread of mountain wildfires as heavy smog hits northern tourist hotspot
The hotel cancellations are a bitter, cruel blow to northern Thailand’s Covid-battered economy, which has been recovering at a slower pace due to China’s delayed reopening to the world.
But critics say it is just as much a home-grown problem, as local farmers also burn their fields to grow maize, while successive Thai governments have failed to enact tough laws on air quality.
More than 2 million people have been hospitalised with breathing problems this year, according to the authorities, and particulate-matter levels – known as PM 2.5 – are often among the worst in the world at this time of year.
The hazardous air means that those who can afford to work elsewhere, including the legion of global digital nomads based in Chiang Mai, are seeking sanctuary in other parts of Thailand, where PM 2.5 levels are more manageable.
On April 1, Chiang Mai had an Air Quality Index value (AQI) of 306, making it the most polluted city in the world and double Dhaka’s AQI of 151.
But Chiang Mai is far from alone: Thailand’s tourist hubs of Chiang Rai and Pai, as well as Vientiane and Luang Prabang, the two largest tourist spots in neighbouring Laos, have all seen hazardous PM 2.5 levels in recent weeks.
“There’s no end in sight,” said John Roberts, who runs an elephant sanctuary in Chiang Rai. “There’s no sign of any help from the authorities either.”
“The rains will come before the end of the month and, once they do, this will all be forgotten. The struggle will be to keep up the pressure to prevent it from happening again next year.”
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Tour agents report that visitors have also cancelled trips to Mae Rim, a popular tourist destination outside Chiang Mai.
“In the past week, because the air was so bad, many cancelled stays,” Surin Nateepraiwan, a village leader in Mae Rim, told This Week in Asia. “We can’t do anything.”
Laos is also suffering. Photos shared by tourists in the ancient city of Luang Prabang showed a heavy yellow haze enveloping temples and obscuring normally stunning views of the Mekong River.
On April 6, John Pearson, the British ambassador to Laos based in Vientiane, sent out a tweet urging people to stay indoors and wear a mask if they venture outside as “Smogageddon continues in Laos”, with a screenshot of an AQI recording at 401.
Laos’ slash-and-burn farmers have few other means to survive, with many coming from hill tribes that have been driven further onto forested hills by mass farming in the lowlands to grow cash crops for China’s vast market.
“The burning is most intense in northern and central parts of Laos,” said Valy Phommachak, co-founder of the country’s only dedicated news site, Econews Laos. “But it’s complicated for the government … as it relates to people’s livelihoods. Still, we need to enforce the law and invest in more sustainable agricultural methods,” she added.
Hazy handling
Experts say northern Thailand’s mountainous geography traps air pollution during the dry season, when there is a lack of rain and temperatures soar.
But each year, seasonal burning in farming communities compounds the problem. This year, the Chiang Rai provincial government in late January issued a strict ban on agricultural and forest burning between February 15 and April 15.
Individuals caught violating the rule face up to 30 years’ imprisonment and a hefty fine of up to 3 million baht (US$88,000).
But the deadline appeared to drive slash-and-burn farmers to get to work early – by February 15, the mountains were in flames.
01:32
Wildfire breaks out in central Thailand, engulfs mountaintops
Pollution also drifts over from Myanmar and Laos, which border northern Thailand.
According to the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency, as of March 25, Thailand had 4,376 “hotspots”, while Laos with 8,535 had almost double that number, and Myanmar at 12,581 nearly triple.
Myanmar is currently in the grip of civil war, making regulation of its borderlands virtually impossible, while Laotians say slash-and-burn farmers are returning to their hillsides, many for the first time since Covid restrictions were eased completely.
Across Southeast Asia, the causes of forest fires are similar, experts say, differing only by the levels of poverty, corruption, forest mismanagement and inadequate law enforcement that all exacerbate the situation.
Unless these underlying problems were addressed, the haze would return every dry season, said Paruedee Nguitragool, a transboundary-haze expert at Chiang Mai University.
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“The media often focuses on fires on agricultural land, but the majority of hotspots in northern Thailand are located in the forest and protected areas,” said the scholar, whose research interests include environmental politics.
Dry-season conditions, which experts say are getting worse every year due to climate change, help fuel the fires as indigenous peoples burn the forests in a bid to maintain their livelihoods.
Legislation to fix the issue has also stalled.
The Clean Air Bill, which defines breathable air as a right of Thai citizens, was last discussed in parliament in 2021.
“The reality is that we cannot have good health in a bad environment,” said Weenarin Lulitanonda, co-founder of the Thailand Clean Air Network.
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Politics of pollution
The smog crisis is also taking on a political dimension.
Then on April 3, party leaders – aside from Prayuth – joined a televised debate ahead of the May 14 general election, with pollution among the thorniest topics.
Clean air is the foundation for the quality of life for all Thais
Prayuth’s de facto running mate, Peerapan Saleeratvipak, hailed the government’s response to the smog, which has leaned heavily on the unscientific method of spraying water into the air to make PM 2.5 particles subside.
“Clean air is the foundation for the quality of life for all Thais,” she said in the debate.
