In the part, rapid tourism development has impacted significantly on the nomadic lifestyles of the indigenous Chao Lay who inhabit the islands and coastal sites of Surin, Rawai, Tukay, Lanta, and Adang. Their subsistence lifestyle, based on the careful exploitation of marine resources, is now rapidly changing and in grave danger of disappearing altogether because of externally imposed pressures on their traditional environment. The continued survival of the Chao Lay cultures is further exacerbated by the fact that, as minorities, their official status – and thus their right to own land or other property – is ambiguous under Thai law. This places the Chao Lay at an even greater risk of unscrupulous exploitation by external competitors.