Forest Office Orders Hunt For Those Behind Fires In Thailand's North

[webfact]

Forest office orders hunt for those behind fires

The Nation

MAE HONG SON: -- After struggling with a month of severe pollution caused by manmade fires in the North, the Mae Hong Son forest office ordered a hunt for the arsonists yesterday.

A control station in Muang district reported that 28 fire ignited since February 3 had destroyed 133 rai of fertile forests. Last year, some 29 fires were reported, which destroyed 105 rai of forestland, station chief Chai Chaisiri said.

Meanwhile, a 76year-old Lampang native who suffered from severe asthma hanged herself yesterday because she could no longer bear the suffering, the House was told yesterday as part of an urgent motion raised by the Opposition.

Democrat MP for Tak Thanitphol Chaiyanant said Jansom Saikhruakham's death could have been prevented if the government had done something more to deal the smog problem, which is worsening.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Preecha Rengsomboonsuk said the governors of the nine smoghit provinces had been instructed to take action, but did not provide details on the action taken and the expected success.

He said districts where dust particles exceeded the safety limit would be declare highrisk zones, but so far, no such areas have been named despite the rising number of reports of health hazards and numerous cases of people suffering from respiratory problems and red eye.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry has called on neighbouring countries to control manmade fires on their soil, he added.

Chiang Mai authorities will meet Burmese officials on Saturday to discuss the problem, and any local officials found being negligent in tacking the problem will be penalised, PM's Office Minister Woravat Auapinyakul said.

Nok Air, meanwhile, has cut its five daily flights to Mae Hong Son down to four due to poor visibility, acting director of Mae Hong Son airport Thanissara Singhakul said yesterday. However, Kant Air is still able to provide five flights a day because it uses smaller aircraft that can fly at lower altitudes, she added.

Up to 2,800 people seek treatment for breathing problems every day in the seven hardest hit provinces, the provincial public health office in Chiang Mai reported.

The number of small particles detected in Lampang was 236.88 microgram per cubic metre of air yesterday, while the average pollution in seven provinces exceeded the safety standard at 120mcg per cubic metre, though none have been announced as areas of high risk as claimed by Preecha.

-- The Nation 2012-03-09

[yummypizza]

Always talk, it's all about enforcing the law,if they set up a special task force with air support and full authority over local Police and army, then maybe there would be a chance..local Police will not hurt their neighbors and people they grew up with, needs some sort of a firm hand with this burning off situation....

[lovetotravel]

Chiang Mai authorities will meet Burmese officials on Saturday to discuss the problem, and any local officials found being negligent in tacking the problem will be penalised, PM's Office Minister Woravat Auapinyakul said.

Probably have to penalize them all! Everybody knows what's going on, who owns the land, who cleared it, etc. Happens every year.

[moe666]

Just go into a hilltribe village and arrest every male over the age of 10. Then you have a good chance of catching the culprit. Burning the forest is a way of life for these people and they donot care about the health of themselves or others.

[KireB]

Drive around in any village around 6pm and follow your senses, the fantastic sensation of burning plastic, leaves and whatever filling your nostrils and lunges! Take a stroll through 'hill tribe land' and you will catch the fire starters in the act! Law enforcement could be so easy if taken serious!

[lovetotravel]

Just go into a hilltribe village and arrest every male over the age of 10. Then you have a good chance of catching the culprit. Burning the forest is a way of life for these people and they donot care about the health of themselves or others.

I think the problem is they don't understand and are EXTREMELY poor. Just doing what they can to get by. Education is the key.

[moe666]

Just go into a hilltribe village and arrest every male over the age of 10. Then you have a good chance of catching the culprit. Burning the forest is a way of life for these people and they donot care about the health of themselves or others.

I think the problem is they don't understand and are EXTREMELY poor. Just doing what they can to get by. Education is the key.

Yes some of them are poor but not all, riding on the 1263 highway which cuts thru a hilltribe area, I came across a market day and there was a long line of pickups parked on both sides of the road in the village. I was very impressed with the fields cut out of the deforested hillsides, the burning debries from the corn harvest and the Royal farming Program. Yes some are very poor but many are not.

[canuckamuck]

Everybody knows who owns the fields in any given village. If the field is on fire than fines should go to the owner. Not very difficult it seems, except that you would have to fine every single farmer in the north and that would likely not play too well.

As far as forest burning though, anyone caught planting crops in the newly burned area should be considered as the one who burned it out. That would be an effective deterrent, and a little easier to enforce.

[Morgo]

Every 2nd or 3rd morning the Poo Yai gives the local news over the village loud speaker system, not once have I heard him warn against the lighting of fires. Maybe it's because while walking past his house I noticed him burning rubish.

[chiangmaicharlies]

Just worse than ever today in Chiang Mai

[BKK03]

This is an absolute joke…..the hills and rice patties have been burned since people first learned that a fire cleared the field, and with rain the ash helped fertilized the earth. The problem is that the wealthy Thai and Chinese -Thai have deforested more land. When the farm land in burned it creates more smoke than before. In years past the area was small compared to the area that is burned today. Books have been written about the burning, such as The Night They Burned The Mountain.

[lovetotravel]

It's not just Thailand's problems. Burning is happening all over Asia. Making the entire region a problem area.

[chrisinth]

Just go into a hilltribe village and arrest every male over the age of 10. Then you have a good chance of catching the culprit. Burning the forest is a way of life for these people and they donot care about the health of themselves or others.

That to me is a very important line which should be noted by all those complaining. Don't forget, it is their land. I find it hard to believe the advice being given to a guy who is planning to move here from UK (ongoing thread), probably to the Chiang Mai area and the number one item is check out where you are planning to live, don't buy for at least a year until you are happy with your surroundings. Not one comment about the burning that I have seen.

That said I do understand the health issues involved, but don't forget that it is their way of life and you are their guests. It was your choice to live where you are and even though there has been an increase (through modern measuring instruments) this problem has always been here.

(And no, I don't live in Bkk)

[mowgus]

You don't have to go to the hills to find the fires.... I see them right in Chiang Mai City. I find it laughable that the foreign minister has requested bordering nations to stop the fires.

Just like the floods, it will happen every year... it's a way of life here. It would seem the average Thai doesn't care about the health affects or they wouldn't be lighting them. Or is it simply that they have no alternative or lack education of an alternative? They need to do more than just laying down fines (that they don't have the money to pay).

Incidentally, I did a wikipedia search on Chiang Mai the other day and saw the pollution problem listed as a concern in 1994. 18 years later and it's worse than ever. Clearly the locals don't care. Actually, that's not true... I hear locals complaining about the smoke all the time. But they don't care to do anything about it.

Anyone seen Doi Suthep?

[yummypizza]

yeah i did,on my way to Doi Pui....

[BoonToong]

2 weeks ago I was driving the road between Chiang Mai and Fang. As we were passing through the mountains, some people were burning the bush either side of the roadway and it was generating significant amounts of smoke.

The local guy I was giving a lift to told me that this was being done by government workers

[yumidesign]

It's not just Thailand's problems. Burning is happening all over Asia. Making the entire region a problem area.

and ASEAN is for what? More than useless!

[northernboy]

It is a matter of education but (as are helmet laws) without a personal financial reasons to stop burning the average person who does, will not stop for what is the good for all concerned. Yet a financial fine for offenders and reward for those reporting offenders would quickly help it. As stated above it is a matter of friends and life long acquaintances not wanting to complain but money soon gets results in Thailand. We do in On Tai hear daily reports not to burn the forest. It still happens and those that do are known by some for sure, but again is a comunity acceptance, as one only suffers if one reports.

As a person who backs onto the forest it is not as we would always like and to blame, that the rich trying to claim new land, or the farmers of farming reasons, it is often just fire bugs or careless habits, that start many of these fires and they spread by wind.

Edited March 9, 2012 by northernboy

[anterian]

And the most effective remedy medically is now banned, pseudoephedrine.

[belg]

oh yeah, order the manhunt when they already are putting fires for a month... sure they will find them

[Thomaspaul]

There is a simple answer to stop this and other similiar crimes and that is when catching

people make a example of them. Once 2 or 3 aremade example of the message wouild soon get round

Confiscation of Motorcycle, Car and other things that they own for starters.

[hhiser]

It's not just Thailand's problems. Burning is happening all over Asia. Making the entire region a problem area.

I see you are a bit of an apologist. The truth is this not happening all over Asia. It is certainly happening in the developing parts of Asia as it is in Africa and the Americas.

[japatee]

Just go into a hilltribe village and arrest every male over the age of 10. Then you have a good chance of catching the culprit. Burning the forest is a way of life for these people and they donot care about the health of themselves or others.

That to me is a very important line which should be noted by all those complaining. Don't forget, it is their land. I find it hard to believe the advice being given to a guy who is planning to move here from UK (ongoing thread), probably to the Chiang Mai area and the number one item is check out where you are planning to live, don't buy for at least a year until you are happy with your surroundings. Not one comment about the burning that I have seen.

That said I do understand the health issues involved, but don't forget that it is their way of life and you are their guests. It was your choice to live where you are and even though there has been an increase (through modern measuring instruments) this problem has always been here.

(And no, I don't live in Bkk)

You sound just like the monk that lives next door to me.

I approached him recently about burning plastics and politely offered to help collect his garbage for him each week to limit the emission of deadly gases that spread to all the locals in the immediate area. In a very agressive manner he told me that he had lived here for over 10 years and told me to get off 'his' land.

Although some of these comments in this topic are complaints, a lot of them are not - a lot of them are suggestions to make this a better place for everyone that wants to live here, locals and foreigners alike Thailand has so much potential and for the most part it is a beautiful place to live. That's why we're here now, right? Foreigners should have a say, whether they are foreigners to Thailand or any other country. I'm from London and there are probably more foreigners than English people there. They all get a say on how London operates. What does it matter anyway, where we're from? Where we're going is much more important. And if we all start to act positively about this and actually do something about it, Thais and foreigners, rather than putting our headsin the sand, then we can have a positive impact on this terrible situation that effects not only those in the North of Thailand, but everyone in Asia and even beyond.

It is a fact that slash and burn farming does not improve soil fertility. It is an easy way to clear/clean up land. It is a lot more beneficial to the land to recycle organic waste. There are more people on this planet than ever before and so slash and burn farming doesn't work like it used to. Before, when the land had be depleted by this practice, the farmer would move on to the next plot of land. Now, we can't do that anymore with less land available and so people are turning to chemicals to 'boost' their output.

Burning forest land is simply a selfish act and those that do it should be caught and punished. The local police don't do anything about it because they probably know the individuals personally and so it becomes a bit awkward for them. Most effected people don't do anything about it because it goes against Thai culture to report another person. Also there is a severe lack of education regarding the dangers of breathing this smoke, which leads me to the next issue concerning the burning of plastics. Here, again a good educational program could really make a differnece here. In most cities, like Chiang Mai and Bangkok, your average Thai is probably aware of the dangers of burning plastics in and around your home, but in small villages, most people just don't know either way. So they burn it.

I personally feel the positives of Thai life far outweigh the issue of burning that we see at this time of year, but I also feel that it is something that can and really ought to change. For everyone’s benefit

Edited March 9, 2012 by japatee

[nikster]

Just worse than ever today in Chiang Mai

OMG... evacuate if you can, this is ridiculous

[connda]

Just go into a hilltribe village and arrest every male over the age of 10. Then you have a good chance of catching the culprit. Burning the forest is a way of life for these people and they donot care about the health of themselves or others.

There isn't a hill tribe member within 150 kilometers of my wife's village, but the locals are lighting up the fires in the National forest with glee. Don't make the hill tribes your "whipping boy". There is plenty of blame to be handed out to everyone engaged in burning. Using your model, the government should arrest every farming family in rural Thailand. Get real.

[nikster]

Well these political rumblings - even though they won't have an immediate effect - are a sign that people have started to complain, and are starting to build awareness. And by people I mean Thais living in the north, not a handful of foreigner know-it-alls on a forum.

Lots of Thais I know in Pai and CM are organizing and doing things to stop the burning. IMO it would probably pretty cheap - comparatively - to pay off the locals to become guardians of the forests instead of firebugs. The financial benefits from the burning are small, the costs for everyone's health big. Fines are good but I want to see more carrots... what does it take to stop them from burning? Not much, probably.

My approach would be to assign local villagers / hill tribes guardians of the forest, give them some area to protect, and reward them when their area is found to have not been burnt any given year. You could call them fire brigade with rewards for not having fires.

[chrisinth]

Just go into a hilltribe village and arrest every male over the age of 10. Then you have a good chance of catching the culprit. Burning the forest is a way of life for these people and they donot care about the health of themselves or others.

That to me is a very important line which should be noted by all those complaining. Don't forget, it is their land. I find it hard to believe the advice being given to a guy who is planning to move here from UK (ongoing thread), probably to the Chiang Mai area and the number one item is check out where you are planning to live, don't buy for at least a year until you are happy with your surroundings. Not one comment about the burning that I have seen.

That said I do understand the health issues involved, but don't forget that it is their way of life and you are their guests. It was your choice to live where you are and even though there has been an increase (through modern measuring instruments) this problem has always been here.

(And no, I don't live in Bkk)

You sound just like the monk that lives next door to me.

I approached him recently about burning plastics and politely offered to help collect his garbage for him each week to limit the emission of deadly gases that spread to all the locals in the immediate area. In a very agressive manner he told me that he had lived here for over 10 years and told me to get off 'his' land.

Although some of these comments in this topic are complaints, a lot of them are not - a lot of them are suggestions to make this a better place for everyone that wants to live here, locals and foreigners alike Thailand has so much potential and for the most part it is a beautiful place to live. That's why we're here now, right? Foreigners should have a say, whether they are foreigners to Thailand or any other country. I'm from London and there are probably more foreigners than English people there. They all get a say on how London operates. What does it matter anyway, where we're from? Where we're going is much more important. And if we all start to act positively about this and actually do something about it, Thais and foreigners, rather than putting our headsin the sand, then we can have a positive impact on this terrible situation that effects not only those in the North of Thailand, but everyone in Asia and even beyond.

It is a fact that slash and burn farming does not improve soil fertility. It is an easy way to clear/clean up land. It is a lot more beneficial to the land to recycle organic waste. There are more people on this planet than ever before and so slash and burn farming doesn't work like it used to. Before, when the land had be depleted by this practice, the farmer would move on to the next plot of land. Now, we can't do that anymore with less land available and so people are turning to chemicals to 'boost' their output.

Burning forest land is simply a selfish act and those that do it should be caught and punished. The local police don't do anything about it because they probably know the individuals personally and so it becomes a bit awkward for them. Most effected people don't do anything about it because it goes against Thai culture to report another person. Also there is a severe lack of education regarding the dangers of breathing this smoke, which leads me to the next issue concerning the burning of plastics. Here, again a good educational program could really make a differnece here. In most cities, like Chiang Mai and Bangkok, your average Thai is probably aware of the dangers of burning plastics in and around your home, but in small villages, most people just don't know either way. So they burn it.

I personally feel the positives of Thai life far outweigh the issue of burning that we see at this time of year, but I also feel that it is something that can and really ought to change. For everyone’s benefit

Thank you for that, I was possibly a monk in another life, in a galaxy far away........................

And I am extremely happy that London has solved its slash & burn problem and its multi national populace is now living in harmony. But I am off topic as that is not Thailand. My issue was not to do with burning plastics; that I cannot stand.

You state that there are many suggestions included in this thread. I have seen one mention of education and another suggestion to read a book, apart from that, nothing but complaints.

As for the below statement, I wish you luck, but tread carefully when telling advising the land owners what to do. Wonder what it is doing for global warming (you could have used that as well)?

"And if we all start to act positively about this and actually do something about it, Thais and foreigners, rather than putting our headsin the sand, then we can have a positive impact on this terrible situation that effects not only those in the North of Thailand, but everyone in Asia and even beyond".

[lovetotravel]

It's not just Thailand's problems. Burning is happening all over Asia. Making the entire region a problem area.

I see you are a bit of an apologist. The truth is this not happening all over Asia. It is certainly happening in the developing parts of Asia as it is in Africa and the Americas.

Actually, it is:

http://firefly.geog.umd.edu:8080/firemap/?x=98.0625&y=19.387500000000003&z=5&g=g&v=1&r=5&i=er&l=ad,ct

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Southeast_Asian_haze

The 1997 Southeast Asian haze was caused mainly by slash and burn techniques adopted by farmers in Indonesia. Slash and burn has been extensively used for many years as the cheapest and easiest means to clear the lands for traditional agriculture. Fire is also used during the long fallow rotation of the so-called jungle rubber in Sumatra and Kalimantan to remove most of the biomass, including the woody parts before new plantations are re-established.

[hbullinger]

Reading through all the various comments on the burning issue I did not detect the real reasons for it.

They are called STUPIDITY and IGNORANCE, equated by some apologists to THAI CULTURE.

[lifeincnx]

How convenient for everyone to blame the hill tribes for this. In fact, most Thais in rural areas burn their rice fields back, burns their trash, and clears land scrub by.... BURNING. Yes hill tribe perform slash and burn but as one can see from the fire maps it is not just in the Northern forest regions but throughout central and Northern regions. Living in Chiang Mai the problem is only worsening. To get a sense of the air particulate YOU and I are breathing watch this you tube video taken on March 4.

Share this via email - blaming others and just sticking our heads in the sand, Ostrich style, does not help the issue but accepts it. Change starts with us.