Forestry Agency Determined To Pursue Encroachment Charges Against Hotels

[Lite Beer]

Forestry agency determined to pursue encroachment charges against hotels

By The Nation on Sunday

Local business association warns of impact on tourism

Forestry officials will go ahead with their plan to bring charges against those involved in encroaching on forest reserve areas around Nakhon Ratchasima province's Wang Nam Kheow district, saying they will not negotiate with the wrongdoers.

"People who encroached on forest reserve areas first must be punished. Then the forestry agency will look into each case to determine whether they had intended to encroach on the reserve areas or not," forestry department chief Suwit Rattanamanee said.

The forestry agency last week found that about 20 luxury hotels and houses in Wang Nam Kheow had claimed land from forest reserve areas to build tourist facilities.

The forestry department is now investigating by using satellite images whether these houses are located in forest reserve areas or not.

"Preliminary results of the investigation will be revealed next week," Suwit said.

The department's initiative to launch legal proceedings against those who had allegedly encroached on forest reserve areas in Wang Nam Kheow last week prompted the Nakhon Ratchasima Tourist Business Association to urge the department not to arrest the people involved.

"The department should not arrest the owners of hotels and resorts who have encroached on the forest reserve areas in Wang Nam Kheow district. It will destroy the atmosphere of the tourism industry in the areas," association vice president Samer Jindapong said.

"Tourism activities in Wang Nam Kheow district are the main source of income for Nakhon Ratchasima province," he said.

Samer asked the department to allow hotel and house owners to rent the encroached areas.

" I want the forestry department to negotiate and compromise with the owners of hotels and houses located in the alleged forest reserve areas," he said.

The department should punish wrongdoers with light to heavy penalties, he added.

In a bid to prevent further encroachments, the forestry department should limit the number of buildings in forest reserve areas.

The department should issue an order to force wrongdoers to improve the landscape near their hotels and houses located in the encroached areas.

"Entrepreneurs who have invested a lot of money to build the houses and hotels in the area could face severe trouble if the department goes ahead with its plan to destroy all buildings," he said.

In the end, this move will affect the local people who are benefiting from the tourism industry in Wang Nam Kheow district.

-- The Nation 2011-07-17

[Kilgore Trout]

The department should punish wrongdoers with light to heavy penalties, he added.

Glad to see they are not being vague about it

[Tropicalevo]

"Entrepreneurs who have invested a lot of money to build the houses and hotels in the area could face severe trouble if the department goes ahead with its plan to destroy all buildings," he said.

In the end, this move will affect the local people who are benefiting from the tourism industry in Wang Nam Kheow district.

So it is OK to break the law then? The mind boggles as to where this will lead.

[hanuman2543]

What K Samer smoke?

[moe666]

I guess they should have though about the possible problems before building there.

[slapout]

Any lack of preemptive move to stop the initial encroachment is not mentioned, of course. Typical Thai style, let the illegal building flourish until some group points out that it is illegal and then try to justify the continued existence as being critical to local economy.

Forget the monies paid by the developers to get officials to look the other way initially? The land department, developers, national park officials, etc should be held accountable. Impound the facilities and lease them out on competitive bid, for continued operation, the wrongdoers lose everything, and the local economy is not affected.

Why even bring the topic up, its a rerun of what has/is going on thru out the country.

[arrowsdawdle]

I guess they should have though about the possible problems before building there.

Surely they did and concluded that they had access high enough up the tea money food chain to remedy the problem which no doubt will occur. All these people did was follow the example of the coup prime minister. What was his prosecution again...oh, that's right, there was none.

[OzMick]

Any lack of preemptive move to stop the initial encroachment is not mentioned, of course. Typical Thai style, let the illegal building flourish until some group points out that it is illegal and then try to justify the continued existence as being critical to local economy.

Forget the monies paid by the developers to get officials to look the other way initially? The land department, developers, national park officials, etc should be held accountable. Impound the facilities and lease them out on competitive bid, for continued operation, the wrongdoers lose everything, and the local economy is not affected.

Why even bring the topic up, its a rerun of what has/is going on thru out the country.

From another related topic:

"From Monday through Thursday, the combined military team had carried out an operation to crack down on forest land encroachments in the park's deep forest, in an area from which it would take seven days to walk to the outside world. The team, accompanied by some media members, arrested six Karen people and seized 70 rai of land that were encroached upon to grow rice and build several shacks. "

Wouldn't want to be accused of "double standards" would they?

"Impound the facilities and lease them out on competitive bid, for continued operation, the wrongdoers lose everything, and the local economy is not affected. "

Then repeat time after time until you are lucky to find a tree, let alone a forest. Nakhon Ratchasima Tourist Business Association couldn't give a rat's anus for what is right, wrong, legal or illegal, or the long term, they are making money NOW and there is NOTHING more important than that.

[harleyclarkey]

Local owner encroaching? Please don't do this again. Now where will we go for a beer?

Foreign encroachment? Police, land office, immigration dept., court, jail, fine and deportation.

What a wonderful happy place Thailand is for us guys.

[ginjag]

I guess they should have though about the possible problems before building there.

So no one gave planning permission, no one had a legal document to verify it was their land, no local land office permission, no money exchanged ? no one saw any movement of heavy transport with cement -sand-Iron -diggers- plumbing- electrics-tiles-and more obvious workers-technical experts-workers accom/huts-local shops busier-isn't there something totally sick here.

Now and only now when the horses gone, they want to untangle the lot. I keep mentioning the word to follow in this land is PREVENTION.

[Namchok]

I guess they should have though about the possible problems before building there.

Surely they did and concluded that they had access high enough up the tea money food chain to remedy the problem which no doubt will occur. All these people did was follow the example of the coup prime minister. What was his prosecution again...oh, that's right, there was none.

His house and land was confiscated. Why did you not ask what happened to the guy who sold the land ???? Double standard?

[webfact]

Developers face suits for encroachment

By The Nation

Forests chief undeterred by protests; hunt for evidence at Wang Nam Khiao

Initial findings show 22 developers have illegally built resorts on land acquired in the restricted Wang Nam Khiao national park area of Nakhon Ratchasima and face criminal prosecution as a result, Royal Forest Department director-general Suwit Rattanamanee said yesterday.

He said the final results of the RFD investigation, expected to be available next week, would identify more wrongdoers out of a total of some 300 developers involved in the area, who are calling on the department to halt its plan to immediately seize all the land that has been encroached upon and sold to private interests.

There are currently another 11 plots at risk of having resorts built on protected Wang Nam Khiao land. Filing encroachment and other charges with police against the developers in question will be the next step, but this will take time as more evidence first needs to be gathered and documents prepared, he added.

Suwit said the recent protest by the developers would not deter the RFD from going ahead with its planned crackdown on extensive land encroachment in Wang Nam Khiao and other national parks.

He blamed the encroachment on legal loopholes in a land scheme for farmers conducted by the Agricultural Land Reform Office (ALRO). He said the scheme had enabled developers to buy temporary ownership from qualified farmers who make their livelihood on the land.

Certain tracts of infertile land are allowed to be tilled by landless farmers under the ALRO law, but must be returned as state property to the RFD if a deadline passes without the farmers having acquired them through long-term leases. This enables unscrupulous developers to step in and buy temporary ownership of the land, he added.

Phoosit Phrommanop, a senior forestry official, said "soft and hard measures" could be used to deal with developers guilty of wrongdoing, citing as an example the land scandal at Mt Khao Yai Thiang, also in Nakhon Ratchasima, involving former PM Surayud Chulanont. Surayud was not charged with any criminal offence after he agreed to return the land and his home on the property to the RFD.

Phoosit claimed that suppression work by forestry officials was too slow, because they were intimidated by financiers and developers, while prosecution witnesses usually refused to testify against encroachers during trials.

Pheu Thai Party deputy leader Plodprasob Surasawadee, former chief of both the ALRO and the RFD, said he had seized vast areas of illegally acquired land in Wang Nam Khiao 15 years ago, but they were now owned by the same developers.

He said his party's upcoming government would take the problem seriously and put land encroachment on the national agenda. The Wang Nam Khiao land-grab scandal would be a model for the government in solving illegal land ownership and acquisition issues as a whole, he added.

-- The Nation 2011-07-19