Thai politics: Protecting our forest resources will need political will

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BURNING ISSUE
Protecting our forest resources will need political will
PIYAPORN WONGRUANG
THE NATION

BANGKOK: -- ON WEDNESDAY, the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry held a press conference to update the media on the state of the country's forests, stressing the challenge ahead that forest cover must be increased from 31 per cent, or 102 million rai now, to 40 per cent in the next 10 years, or another 26 million rai.

"I admit that to increase the forest cover by 26 million rai may not be easy because it might get stuck in strong opposition besides the issue of proof over land rights," Supoj Tovichakchaikul, the ministry's spokesman and deputy permanent secretary, was quoted as saying in local media.

Deforestation has long been an issue, which is sometimes politicised as it involves millions of poor families whose rights over ancestral land overlaps the state's, while rich encroachers exploit their political connections to influence legal cases.

But shortly after the military staged the coup in May last year and set up the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), forest encroachment was surprisingly placed at the top of its agenda along with other political issues.

The NCPO swiftly issued Order No 64, instructing the military and the Internal Security Operations Command to help reclaim and rehabilitate forestland. It later issued Order No 66, asking concerned agencies to target "large" forest encroachers and spare poor villagers.

And a few months later, the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry was assigned the draft of a 10-year master plan for forest management, with the goal of increasing forest cover to 40 per cent.

The NCPO's orders as well as the comprehensive forest management master plan have given hopes for recovery of the country's forest reserves, but as time has gone by some critical questions have been raised over the directives under the orders and the plan.

Those working on conservation have long observed that a part of the critical deforestation problem is the endless cycle of villagers driven by poverty to tap forestland for farming and then selling it to big investors who then turn the cleared forest area into a recreational area for residents or single-crop farms. This is complicated by the fact that many disadvantaged villagers claim to have lived in the forest long before the land was designated as a protected area and have not given up on their rights.

Past governments had tried to tackle this deadlock, and the cabinet in 1998 managed to issue a resolution that put on hold the conflict pending land verification, while allowing those villagers to have their rights verified and continue living there. But this came with a condition that they must not cause environmental risks, otherwise forest officials have the right to consider relocating them.

What followed were reports of massive amounts of land changing hands during the period of land verification, and resorts have ever since sprung up on forestland nationwide, creating further complications over forest encroachment.

The National Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation Department and the Royal Forestry Department have come up with operational plans after the directives, which show that a large chunk of forest encroachment falls in the areas where land rights were pending verification and those engaged in court battles.

Sirinat National Park in Phuket is a good example of how tackling forest encroachment is complicated. Sirinat covers around 13,750 rai (2,300 hectares) of land. About one-third, or around 3,500 rai, has allegedly been encroached upon and divided into plots. At least 710 of these plots have had land-ownership documents issued, with officials insisting that there were only a few land-utilisation documents that could be used to turn into those documents.

Almost all of them have ended up as cases involving fact finding and a verification process as well as long legal battles.

To achieve the goal of increasing forestland to 40 per cent in the next 10 years, the orders and the plan focusing on suppressing those clearing the land after 1998 must be revised in order to deal with the serious problem of land verification and long legal battles engaged in by influential figures. This needs strong political will and sincerity to assure the public that any politicisation of forest issues must end.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Protecting-our-forest-resources-will-need-politica-30270016.html

-- The Nation 2015-10-02

[kotsak]

How about starting with not photocopying the hell out of everything?

[wabothai]

How about puting the cops in jail for not doing their job (by sgt Schulz policies) in arresting encroachers and ARSONISTS.

NOBODY has the right to make breathing a danger to one's health.