Reclamation of Thai forest land 'has had mixed results'

[webfact]

1 YEAR AFTER THE COUP
Reclamation of forest land 'has had mixed results'
PRATCH RUJIVANAROM
THE NATION

BANGKOK: -- WHILE the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has a good policy to reclaim forestland from encroachers, landless and underprivileged people have sadly been the first group to bear the brunt of its implementation.

People have been forced off forest-land, which has been their home for decades. But when these people lived in forests, they did not really harm them. So even though the NCPO has impressed the public with its tough stance against encroachment, many non-government groups believe the NCPO-installed government should get a failing grade.

The NCPO has, of course, achieved something. On April 24, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said since the NCPO came to power last May, the country had successfully reclaimed 35.34 million rai (5.4 million hectares) of forest.

The public has seen the authorities taking action against businesses accused of encroachment, such as Pak Chong-based Bonanza International Speedway and rubber plantations in the South.

With soldiers chopping down rubber trees in areas that were encroached on, investors will have to think twice before trying to claim state forestland.

Still, in the eyes of some NGOs, government strategies cannot really implement reforestation successfully, because they end up hurting landless people.

"As far as I've known, forest areas have not really increased. Even worse is the fact that the NCPO and this government have failed to adequately provide justice to people who lived in forests long before the establishment of national parks and preserved forest," Prayong Doklamyai from the People's Movement for a Just Society said.

He said implementation of NCPO Order No 64/2557, which was issued last June, resulted in more than 1,000 unfair evictions.

He believed the NCPO may have had good intentions, pointing out that the order aimed to stop deforestation, while it issued Order No 66/2557 to exempt the poor, landless people who lived in forest areas from evictions.

'Poor people suffered most'

However, Prayong said he could not ignore the fact that officials in charge of implementing the policy appeared to ignore Order No 66/2557 and took harsh action against poor people, so as to perpetuate evictions.

"The problem with implementing Order No 64/2557 is that the authorities cannot separate the poor and landless people from the wealthy who encroach on forests, just like they can't separate an eel from a snake," he said.

Nid Tortun said Bo Kaew, his village in Chaiyaphum, was one of many communities across the country which faced problems from implementation of the NCPO's reforestation policy.

"Since the NCPO came to power, our village has been harassed by the forest rangers, who threatened to evict our community," Nid said.

"We insist that we are not destroying forest like the government said. We are managing land as a community plot and we also have common rules for the community members to use and preserve the forest," he said.

Another worrying government policy was the decision to allow people back on land if an aerial photograph from 1952 to 1956 showed it was occupied, Prayong said.

"What if the original owners then sell the returned plots to capitalists?" he asked.

He believed that the designation of critical zones for forestry master plans in 18 provinces was also not relevant to the reality of the situation, as most of the zones were more than 40 per cent covered by forests.

"In contrast, many provinces, mostly in the central region, which used to have some areas of forest but [those forests] are now long gone, did not appear in the critical zones list," he said.

He had doubts over how successful the reforestation campaign will be.

But on a positive note, Prayong said the government's move to grant landless people the right to use community forests was good.

"This is the right approach," he said.

In April, the PM granted 7,282 rai within the Khun Mae Tha national conserved forest area for this purpose.

The project has three phases. The government will hand over 53,697 rai in four provinces in the first phase, 51,929 rai in eight provinces in the second phase and 50,018 rai in 17 provinces in the third phase.

Prayong suggested the government should respond to land dispute problems by imposing a land tax on a progressive rate for landowners who have more than 50 rai.

Income from this tax should be used to set up a land bank for allocating land to the poor, he said.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Reclamation-of-forest-land-has-had-mixed-results-30260475.html


-- The Nation 2015-05-20

[canuckamuck]

The fault is in the glacial pace the governments have taken to register land ownership and offer chanotes.

Where we live there is not a chanote to be found anywhere. It is all up to the memory of the people and discretion of the head man. More aggressive people have been squeezing out the meek and claiming the land is theirs. based on they once planted something there 20 years ago or some such tale. And those people have been forced to slash and burn land further out in the hills. Especially as families grow.

There is no reason why my father in law does not have any paper for his land. It was his fathers land and they have lived there for at least 4 decades. Yet no paper exists.

You can't expect people to maintain their boundaries with such wild west rules are in place.

[canopy]

underprivileged people have sadly been the first group to bear the brunt of its implementation

This is not sad. It makes sense because the poor are such a huge part of the encroachment problem so it will be difficult to find a scapegoat. The poor deliberately destroy forest land for their own selfish gain. Any forward progress to protecting the dwindling forests should be applauded rather than saddening news.

But when these people lived in forests, they did not really harm them.

This is the most ridiculous statement of all time. Take a look around these places sometime. Burning it all annually, cutting down every mature tree, hunting anything that moves to extinction including endangered species, farming with poisons, and setting up noisy speaker systems is not just harmful, it's a shameful thing to do to a forest set aside for all Thai people.

[smutcakes]

So they have reclaimed 10% of the total of Thailand's land or 35 million out of 320 million rai

if they claim they have reclaimed 35 million rai they are outright liars, that amount is more than the total current registered national park land in Thailand!!

[halloween]

The fault is in the glacial pace the governments have taken to register land ownership and offer chanotes.

Where we live there is not a chanote to be found anywhere. It is all up to the memory of the people and discretion of the head man. More aggressive people have been squeezing out the meek and claiming the land is theirs. based on they once planted something there 20 years ago or some such tale. And those people have been forced to slash and burn land further out in the hills. Especially as families grow.

There is no reason why my father in law does not have any paper for his land. It was his fathers land and they have lived there for at least 4 decades. Yet no paper exists.

You can't expect people to maintain their boundaries with such wild west rules are in place.

I can think of a very simple reason why he has no paper for the land, and I'm sure it may have occurred to you.

[canuckamuck]

The fault is in the glacial pace the governments have taken to register land ownership and offer chanotes.

Where we live there is not a chanote to be found anywhere. It is all up to the memory of the people and discretion of the head man. More aggressive people have been squeezing out the meek and claiming the land is theirs. based on they once planted something there 20 years ago or some such tale. And those people have been forced to slash and burn land further out in the hills. Especially as families grow.

There is no reason why my father in law does not have any paper for his land. It was his fathers land and they have lived there for at least 4 decades. Yet no paper exists.

You can't expect people to maintain their boundaries with such wild west rules are in place.

I can think of a very simple reason why he has no paper for the land, and I'm sure it may have occurred to you.

The land is in a village with a school and a highway running through it. It looks like any other mountain town with about 50 houses and even some government buildings. and this is true of al the towns 50 km's in either direction. full of people and infrastructure and they too have been there for decades.

If you are claiming they are land encroaching, then the government has certainly been sending a very different signal. In fact the forestry department has a barrack 10 minutes away and they are in town daily.

This is the reality all over northern Thailand. The people buy and sell, and even borrow money against their land but they have no papers. surely they are not all encroachers.

[canopy]

This is the reality all over northern Thailand.

Exactly right and same here in Phetchabun. Like you say it's crazy right now that the government doesn't know who owns what, but the people living/encroaching there do and buy & sell with ease even with no titles. And the forestry people drive right on by their dwindling forests. Out of curiosity I once politely stopped a forestry pickup truck and pointed to a fire made by poor people encroaching in the forest nearby and innocently asked why they didn't do anything. They said basically "enforcement is not our department" and went on their way doing whatever they do.

But there is a change in the air. Earlier this year the government for the first time had every single village in our province use GPS equipment to survey every single land holding without chanote and get signatures from each person who claimed the land. Maps and boundaries were then drawn up and submitted to the authorities. I don't know what this is going to be used for, but heard it is subject to approval. Mass evictions seem doubtful but I am hoping, probably incorrectly, this will at least become an impenetrable wall that no one is allowed to encroach past.

[Jeremy50]

There is no flat land forest left in Thailand, so encroachment spreads further up the sides of hills, even steep ones, this can be seen everywhere. There are few mammals left anywhere. If a deer was suddenly to appear, it would be surrounded by astonished locals and then caught to be sold or eaten. Much of Thailand is a wildlife desert. The rats do well in the paddies and along the rubbish festooned highways, and because of that some birds of prey also do well. It seems like everyone here is poking around in bushes or ponds trying to find some living thing that can be sold at the market.

[Fat Haggis]

Reclaiming the land is a good thing overall, but let's see the same "enthusiasm" reclaim the beaches that have been encroached upon on in the tourist populated areas, and see if the "locals" are all happy about this too.

I passed by the area of encroachment from the road stop shops and cafes around the lake at Pak Chong, Saturday on my way home and the roadside stalls were being flattened. I used to stop there on my way home all the time oblivious to the fact they should never have been there in the first place.

[LannaGuy]

The fault is in the glacial pace the governments have taken to register land ownership and offer chanotes.

Where we live there is not a chanote to be found anywhere. It is all up to the memory of the people and discretion of the head man. More aggressive people have been squeezing out the meek and claiming the land is theirs. based on they once planted something there 20 years ago or some such tale. And those people have been forced to slash and burn land further out in the hills. Especially as families grow.

There is no reason why my father in law does not have any paper for his land. It was his fathers land and they have lived there for at least 4 decades. Yet no paper exists.

You can't expect people to maintain their boundaries with such wild west rules are in place.

I can think of a very simple reason why he has no paper for the land, and I'm sure it may have occurred to you.

The land is in a village with a school and a highway running through it. It looks like any other mountain town with about 50 houses and even some government buildings. and this is true of al the towns 50 km's in either direction. full of people and infrastructure and they too have been there for decades.

If you are claiming they are land encroaching, then the government has certainly been sending a very different signal. In fact the forestry department has a barrack 10 minutes away and they are in town daily.

This is the reality all over northern Thailand. The people buy and sell, and even borrow money against their land but they have no papers. surely they are not all encroachers.

surely no papers = encroachment? whether by the modern family or past generations

[canuckamuck]

This is the reality all over northern Thailand.

Exactly right and same here in Phetchabun. Like you say it's crazy right now that the government doesn't know who owns what, but the people living/encroaching there do and buy & sell with ease even with no titles. And the forestry people drive right on by their dwindling forests. Out of curiosity I once politely stopped a forestry pickup truck and pointed to a fire made by poor people encroaching in the forest nearby and innocently asked why they didn't do anything. They said basically "enforcement is not our department" and went on their way doing whatever they do.

But there is a change in the air. Earlier this year the government for the first time had every single village in our province use GPS equipment to survey every single land holding without chanote and get signatures from each person who claimed the land. Maps and boundaries were then drawn up and submitted to the authorities. I don't know what this is going to be used for, but heard it is subject to approval. Mass evictions seem doubtful but I am hoping, probably incorrectly, this will at least become an impenetrable wall that no one is allowed to encroach past.

Yes they did the GPS thing in our village to this year, but not for the farm land just in the town limits. However, it is a very hopeful start towards getting titles.

[canuckamuck]

The fault is in the glacial pace the governments have taken to register land ownership and offer chanotes.

Where we live there is not a chanote to be found anywhere. It is all up to the memory of the people and discretion of the head man. More aggressive people have been squeezing out the meek and claiming the land is theirs. based on they once planted something there 20 years ago or some such tale. And those people have been forced to slash and burn land further out in the hills. Especially as families grow.

There is no reason why my father in law does not have any paper for his land. It was his fathers land and they have lived there for at least 4 decades. Yet no paper exists.

You can't expect people to maintain their boundaries with such wild west rules are in place.

I can think of a very simple reason why he has no paper for the land, and I'm sure it may have occurred to you.

The land is in a village with a school and a highway running through it. It looks like any other mountain town with about 50 houses and even some government buildings. and this is true of al the towns 50 km's in either direction. full of people and infrastructure and they too have been there for decades.

If you are claiming they are land encroaching, then the government has certainly been sending a very different signal. In fact the forestry department has a barrack 10 minutes away and they are in town daily.

This is the reality all over northern Thailand. The people buy and sell, and even borrow money against their land but they have no papers. surely they are not all encroachers.

surely no papers = encroachment? whether by the modern family or past generations

I don't think that is true. We are talking about the way it is for most of Northern Thailand and likely many other places. How can 1000's of villages be illegal? How can all of those farms be illegal, and why are there no legal farms if this not a protected area? I think that there is an arrangement with the land holders and the government, and they do have permission to be there. The land is even protected under inheritance laws. Meaning My wife's father can not sell the land with his children's consent.

This can't all be encroachment, although there is lots of that here too.

I think the titles are coming, but they are just being very slow about it.

[Fat Haggis]

Let's hope the titles arrive before the bulldozers do mate

[FangFerang]

"many non-government groups believe the NCPO-installed government should get a failing grade"

No shit Sherlock.

And still no GPS survey of alleged encroachment by Suthep's son into the National park on Koh Samui...not a whisper, not one day spent on it. Why?

You figure it out.

[marko kok prong]

The fault is in the glacial pace the governments have taken to register land ownership and offer chanotes.

Where we live there is not a chanote to be found anywhere. It is all up to the memory of the people and discretion of the head man. More aggressive people have been squeezing out the meek and claiming the land is theirs. based on they once planted something there 20 years ago or some such tale. And those people have been forced to slash and burn land further out in the hills. Especially as families grow.

There is no reason why my father in law does not have any paper for his land. It was his fathers land and they have lived there for at least 4 decades. Yet no paper exists.

You can't expect people to maintain their boundaries with such wild west rules are in place.

Same where i live in southern Petchabun province,no one has chanotes,my wife has papers for her land but not chanotes,as they don't seem to exist here in her village,she originally brought the land for her house from her father,i have tried to find out about it but,it seems as long as the village cheif signs off on it it is okay,or so i am told.

[yellowboat]

"'Poor people suffered most'"

This is a coup to protect the urban rich and not the poor.

Reforestation is an exacting, scientific process which Thai academia understands. Soldiers with machetes are not the answer, but the good general will bumble along causing havoc for the non elite for whom he serves

[hlj]

This is the peoples land so to speak. I agree evict them but put them up in a new free condo where they have a home. Everyone knew this was coming but no one knew when and hoped

it never would.