Forest reform proposal merits our full attention

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Forest reform proposal merits our full attention
By PIYAPORN WONGRUANG
THE NATION

 

Maewong National Park.

 

BANGKOK: -- Alarmed by the steep decline in Thailand’s forest cover, reformers have drafted proposals for remedial action. A few weeks ago, the National Reform Steering Assembly’s natural resources sub-panel completed a 250-page proposal, which has been submitted to the NRSA for endorsement.

 

The document notes that Thai forestland has shrunk dramatically in the last few decades, from 139 million rai in 1973 to 81 million rai in 1998 – an average loss of two million rai per year. In 1998 the government attempted to halt encroachment with a Cabinet resolution to register forest dwellers, but the woodland kept disappearing – albeit at a slowed rate of 250,000 rai per year.

 

By last year, the country had around 102 million rai of forest left, or around 31 per cent of Thailand’s total landmass. Of this, around 70 million rai are designated protected areas, in the form of national parks or wildlife sanctuaries.

 

Full story: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30306541

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-02-17

[Ricardo]

On the other hand, in my area there is a lot of formerly-afforested land, which people have been farming & living-on for decades, but still can't get proper title to.

 

Land-reform & titles in Thailand is a real mess, IME.

[anon4546543]

Very few replies to this and I am not surprised. Very few foreigners care about the state of the country and I suspect very few govt officials do either. Some officials are busy logging and there is no accurate record keeping or any attempt to prosecute offenders who log forest land. It will all be gone soon. For me, I am planting forest trees on my wife's land which I am sure will be cut down when I am dead. 

[Wilsonandson]

16 minutes ago, spiderorchid said:

Very few replies to this and I am not surprised. Very few foreigners care about the state of the country and I suspect very few govt officials do either. Some officials are busy logging and there is no accurate record keeping or any attempt to prosecute offenders who log forest land. It will all be gone soon. For me, I am planting forest trees on my wife's land which I am sure will be cut down when I am dead. 

I think your wrong. When I've been on holiday to one of Thailand's many islands, I've seen many foreigners cleaning rubbish off beaches. I was on a swallow tail boat travelling back to my hotel when I saw a man stuggling to pull something out of the sea. I asked the boat driver to take me to him. He was cleaning up garbage. He told me he'd been doing it for about 3 hours. I asked him why? He said he just wanted to do something to help the environment.

 

I help the environment by recycling waste products at home. We recycle plastic bottles, glass bottles, newspaper and cardboard. I also have a bucket I put all my leftover food in. This goes to a grateful pot belly pig that lives 2 doors down from me.

 

Many people do their bit for the environment these days. We're not all like Donald Trump.

Edited February 17, 2017 by Wilsonandson

[anon4546543]

aWilsonandson. Thank you for your reply. I was of course generalising. But cleaning some scum from tourist beaches is not like the wholesale destruction of the forests. The forests are declining at a rapid rate and I see no tourists or govt agencies replanting stolen forests. I doubt Dumph, sorry Trump every felled a tree and I don't know how he got into the conversation.

[jak2002003]

10 minutes ago, spiderorchid said:

aWilsonandson. Thank you for your reply. I was of course generalising. But cleaning some scum from tourist beaches is not like the wholesale destruction of the forests. The forests are declining at a rapid rate and I see no tourists or govt agencies replanting stolen forests. I doubt Dumph, sorry Trump every felled a tree and I don't know how he got into the conversation.

Agree.

 

I live up North... Chiang Mai province.  Been here 10 years and each year there are more and more huge areas of the mountain forest being destroyed and converted to areas to grow corn.  On my trips to Chiang Rai there was some beautiful original forest left.... now so much is gone, and much of the remaining forest is now made up of only teak trees... no variety of native trees or undergrowth, orchids, shrubs etc.  The forest is burnt each year which kill off other tree and plant species and then the soil erodes away and nutrients are washed away with the soil into the mountain streams in the rainy season.  What is left is of little value to any wildlife.

 

Also the amount of rubbish and dumped building materials has increased a huge amount.  I have stumbled upon large areas just filled with refuse, which were formally beautiful areas of forest.  Seems out of sight is out of mind for most people here... as in the rest of the world.

[billd766]

I live in rural Khampeang Phet about 2 km from the gate to the eastern part of the Mae Wong National Park. The back of our land is separated from the park by a rusty wire fence. Nobody on this side is illegally logging that I have seen or heard of and we have lived here for 13 years.

[anon4546543]

Difficult to know how to reply to you billd766. Have you ever heard of the rosewood tree. Maybe there is no commercial value in the National Park you live close too. Or too much bother. The fact that forest reserves are declining is no doubt due to your vigilance. Or it is happening out of eyesight.

[fruitman]

30 minutes ago, spiderorchid said:

Difficult to know how to reply to you billd766. Have you ever heard of the rosewood tree. Maybe there is no commercial value in the National Park you live close too. Or too much bother. The fact that forest reserves are declining is no doubt due to your vigilance. Or it is happening out of eyesight.

I saw a nice big piece of rosewood for sale on a furniture fair, i didn't know what it was or anything just liked it.

The sales approached me and i asked how much it costed....very much but they could get me some cheaper one from Burma they told me.

 

Don't know if that was illegal wood or not but for sure if you pay you can get it...wood is so expensive they will do anything to get it.

 

I have never seen a really ancient old huge tree in Thailand, many of them in other asian countries. It's sad, they could at least plant a few of them in BKK parks and protect them well.

[anon4546543]

Rosewood is a protected species but has been sawed to near extinction. The same is true of most commercial hardwoods. Cut it and burn the land. It is revolting to see. But this is Thailand, the land of so many Admirals and Generals as to make China, Russia and US quiver. 

[Alan Deer]

11 hours ago, Wilsonandson said:

I think your wrong. When I've been on holiday to one of Thailand's many islands, I've seen many foreigners cleaning rubbish off beaches. I was on a swallow tail boat travelling back to my hotel when I saw a man stuggling to pull something out of the sea. I asked the boat driver to take me to him. He was cleaning up garbage. He told me he'd been doing it for about 3 hours. I asked him why? He said he just wanted to do something to help the environment.

 

I help the environment by recycling waste products at home. We recycle plastic bottles, glass bottles, newspaper and cardboard. I also have a bucket I put all my leftover food in. This goes to a grateful pot belly pig that lives 2 doors down from me.

 

Many people do their bit for the environment these days. We're not all like Donald Trump.

" I've seen many foreigners cleaning rubbish off beaches." - I'm sure this is very meritorious but it has little to do with the topic in hand and might even show a lack of appreciation for the real issues that threaten the environment and how Thailand is sadly failing to address them.

[Alan Deer]

11 hours ago, billd766 said:

I live in rural Khampeang Phet about 2 km from the gate to the eastern part of the Mae Wong National Park. The back of our land is separated from the park by a rusty wire fence. Nobody on this side is illegally logging that I have seen or heard of and we have lived here for 13 years.

Could this be a case of not being able to see the wood for the trees? - I hardly think what you notice over your garden fence is a representative view of what is happening in the WFC or has been happening over the past 2 to 4 decades.

Edited February 18, 2017 by Alan Deer

[PatOngo]

Seems there's been a Chinese guy with Thai ID cutting down trees for twenty years.

[Alan Deer]

In the case of particular species of flora and fauna, it is not simply acase of replanting or re-stocking as removal of old trees and some species of wildlife actually can cause the collapse of the whole ecosystem. 

A minister promised to "replant" trees for all that the Mae Wong dam destroyed - but this merely shows he had no idea of how complex a major rainforest system is - it takes years - centuries even - to develop and  removing bits is like taking the od cog out od a watch - quite rapidly the instrument will fail - it is similar for rainforest and just about any eco-system.

 

Thailand's main problem is that there are so many people in positions of authority who through ignorance, greed or plain incompetence just don't take environmental problems of the nation seriously.

[Alan Deer]

36 minutes ago, PatOngo said:

Seems there's been a Chinese guy with Thai ID cutting down trees for twenty years.

That's a little too cryptic for me - is that because you are not sure of your facts? - The main culprits for encroachment have always been the military claiming land for military use or for purely commercial purposes - e.g. logging. In the 80s the military systematically deforested thousands of hectares of forest to prevent it being used as "cover by the communists" - of course the concomitant logging was highly profitable too.

Encroachment can take many forms - building of resorts, farms etc, but also "commandeering of land for military purposes, the illegal logging and poaching.

building within a National Park etc needs roads for access of plant - these have a profound affect on wildlife and then give easy access to people like poachers who get trees and wildlife from even deeper in the forest.

oce a dam has been completed it requires good metalled service roads and the subsequent body of water is then a target for developers who wish to build resorts etc along the shores. 

It isn't just small tracks either - the new planned road through Kanchanaburi to Burma is a major threat to the integrity of the WFC

Edited February 18, 2017 by Alan Deer

[ddavidovsky]

Locusts.

[Alan Deer]

2 minutes ago, ddavidovsky said:

Locusts.

Would you like to expound your theory on that? ...or is it just the first word that came into your head?

Edited February 18, 2017 by Alan Deer

[ddavidovsky]

13 minutes ago, Alan Deer said:

Would you like to expound your theory on that? ...or is it just the first word that came into your head?

http://www.livescience.com/26473-david-attenborough-humanity-plague.html

I'm with him.

[Alan Deer]

8 minutes ago, ddavidovsky said:

http://www.livescience.com/26473-david-attenborough-humanity-plague.html

I'm with him.

So you are stating an overview? How would you relate this to the current situation and proposals for reform in Thailand? Attenborough and the BBC have made several programs that include the ecology of Thailand and included people who spend their lives preserving bio-systems. Are you suggesting this is a waste of time or that the government should put more effort into it...or?

Edited February 18, 2017 by Alan Deer

[ddavidovsky]

It's an insight into the

6 minutes ago, Alan Deer said:

So you are stating an overview? How would you relate this to the current situation and proposals for reform in Thailand?

It's an insight into the root cause, as well as a conclusion that the 'proposals for reform' need to apprehend the anthropocentric issue before being able to tackle anything. To my mind, all that was implicit in the word locusts.

Edited February 18, 2017 by ddavidovsky

[Alan Deer]

16 minutes ago, ddavidovsky said:

It's an insight into the

It's an insight into the root cause, as well as a conclusion that the 'proposals for reform' need to apprehend the anthropocentric issue before being able to tackle anything. To my mind, all that was implicit in the word locusts.

 

The root cause is humans behaving as locusts?

I don't think that is the root - you would have to look deeper than simply a symptom. Anthropocentricity is not a universal belief and I think that it doesn't even require the decimation of the environment - it is more a case of defining our relationship with the environment.

 

I don't see that there isa conclusion here re the  proposals for reform either. I would have thought it is down to government action or lack of action in the particular areas identified - encroachment.

 

i think a general statement on the world situation isn't tat helpful when it comes to Thailand as they are not in line with most of the world's thinking or actions on this problem and to do so might imply the any action is useless.

Edited February 18, 2017 by Alan Deer

[ddavidovsky]

46 minutes ago, Alan Deer said:

 

The root cause is humans behaving as locusts?

I don't think that is the root - you would have to look deeper than simply a symptom. Anthropocentricity is not a universal belief and I think that it doesn't even require the decimation of the environment - it is more a case of defining our relationship with the environment.

 

I don't see that there isa conclusion here re the  proposals for reform either. I would have thought it is down to government action or lack of action in the particular areas identified - encroachment.

 

i think a general statement on the world situation isn't tat helpful when it comes to Thailand as they are not in line with most of the world's thinking or actions on this problem and to do so might imply the any action is useless.

You remind me of that Monty Python sketch: "is this the right room for an argument?"

 

Thailand is in line with the world because Thais are human. You and me can define our relationship with the environment because we are intelligent and sensitive. The vast majority of humanity are not and are driven by the current and continuing political obsession with economic growth that extends right down to every individual clamouring for more.

 

You and me know where to draw the line because we have got enough and our ancestors did enough (also by stripping the forests) to make our lives comfortable. They don't yet have enough and nothing will stop them gradually, surreptitiously if necessary, stripping the land bare.

 

Thailand is already left with just pockets of original forest. Even precious remnants like Khao nor Chuchi where one of the world's most stunning birds, Gurney's Pitta, is now as good as extinct, has not been saved from encroachment.

It's not adequate just to plant trees back in spots. These reforms are just wallpaper to cover the  ongoing steady erosion that we as yet have no means to prevent, because doing so means curbing economic growth.

I have plans for that if anyone will listen, but I would be accused of being misanthropic.

[billd766]

13 hours ago, spiderorchid said:

Difficult to know how to reply to you billd766. Have you ever heard of the rosewood tree. Maybe there is no commercial value in the National Park you live close too. Or too much bother. The fact that forest reserves are declining is no doubt due to your vigilance. Or it is happening out of eyesight.

 

Yes I have heard of the rosewood tree and there probably are quite a few on the other side of the park. We do have quite a few friends who work in the park on this side and they have never mentioned any illegal loggers. That is as close to what is happening here in the news and we see our friends once a week or more.

 

Where do you get your forest news from? Direct from the government, the Forestry Department, local sources or the newspaper?

[billd766]

3 hours ago, Alan Deer said:

Could this be a case of not being able to see the wood for the trees? - I hardly think what you notice over your garden fence is a representative view of what is happening in the WFC or has been happening over the past 2 to 4 decades.

 

Could it also be that I live close to the park and have quite a few Thai friends who work there. From what I have seen over the years on this side there is no clearing of the land in the park and no illegal logging. I go up there 3 or 4 times a year all the way to the end of the road at Chong Yen some 40 km inside the park. There is only the one road in and out of our side of Mae Wong. You may not think of my view of representational but when was the last time that you were in a national park?

Some 20 years ago when I used to work in Issan the Khao Yai area WAS being stripped and burnt off, what it is like now I have no idea.

[mtls2005]

Most forest reformers end up missing, usually in shallow graves, probably after suffering from a rare blood disorder (bleeding out) or lead poisoning.

 

I might steer clear of this profession and activity?

 

You'd be better off providing medical attention to protesters in the temple grounds....Oops, never mind.

[Wilsonandson]

7 hours ago, Alan Deer said:

" I've seen many foreigners cleaning rubbish off beaches." - I'm sure this is very meritorious but it has little to do with the topic in hand and might even show a lack of appreciation for the real issues that threaten the environment and how Thailand is sadly failing to address them.

This is a real issue on topic as deforestation and trash washed up on the beach both come under 'threats to our environment'. I'm suprised by your reply, I am recycling and doing my bit for the environment, why are you saying I don't appreciate envirionmental issues. What can I do to stop someone cutting down a tree as a foreigner in Thailand. Tell me that and then I can help. Don't put me down, negative attitudes don't help the environment. Go ask Al Gore. His documentary 'An Inconvienient Truth' started the environmental awareness age. Inspired the next generation. Your inspiring no one.