DOI: 10.14457/tu.the.2015.430
title: An analysis of damages to natural resources: a case study of Ao Phrao, Samed Islands

description: When the sea is contaminated with oil, it causes long-term damage and negatively impacts on marine life and the environment. Oil spills often leave behind environmental devastation and both people and the State are hardly compensated for the long-term effects of this kind of disaster. This is partly because it is difficult to assess the actual damage in an oil spill case.            The recent PTTGC oil spill in the Gulf of Thailand has raised important questions: “How to calculate the cost of oil spill damage?” and “Who will bear the cost of environmental damages?”. Surprisingly, there is no legislation specifically addressing on environmental damage assessment and liability for natural resource restoration. The only existing laws which are only partially relevant to oil spills are the Thai Civil and Commercial Code, Acts on Navigation of Thai Waters Act, B.E.2456 (1913) and The Enhancement and Conservation of National Environmental Quality Act, B.E.2535 (NEQA 1992) and given the extreme consequences and costs involved with oil spills, it is necessary to have rules or specific guidelines concerning with natural resource damage assessment.           While the government agency faces the problem of how to calculate the value of natural resources damaged by an oil spill and prove environmental damage in litigation, the court also faces the difficulty in assessing and awarding damages regarding natural resources. To sum up, the problem of how to calculate natural resource damages exists on the government entity’s side and the judge’s side. Using economic methods to assess damages to natural resources has been recognized in many countries except Thailand. Some countries also apply the damage schedule.             This thesis will focus on PTTGC’s oil spill case and an analysis of damages to natural resources caused by oil spill, propose a summary of methodologies for natural resource damage assessment and describe the process which the United States of America (U.S.A.) and other countries use to solve similar problem by developing measures focused on damage assessment, to contribute the proper remedies for oil spillage cases. The conclusions are as follows:            Economic methods or alternative methods should be applied to identify reasonable damages related to the environment. For Thailand, the official reform measures on regulations, guidelines and working mechanisms concerning damage assessment should be proposed and conducted. Effective provisions in order to lay down a legal framework for the concerning authorities to deal with these problems should be proposed.              The term “value of natural resources” and “damage” following Section 97 of The Enhancement and Conservation of National Environmental Quality Act of 1992 (NEQA), should be defined in the Act in order to avoid misinterpretation and make the terms clearer. The scope of coverage of the term “damage” in the NEQA should also include “the damage to marine ecosystems, biodiversity, habitat, marine aquatic resources, species distribution and species reproduction” in order to ensure that the interpretation of the court will cover these areas.       A Natural Resource Damage Assessment Institution should be established to be responsible for technical and research support together with the assessment, monitoring, and training process.