Thai authorities to reclaim over 700,000 rai of rubber plantations nationwide

The Thai authorities revealed a plan to reclaim over 715,066 rai of rubber plantations allegedly growing in protected areas to serve the Thai junta’s forest protection policy.  

According to Thairath News, Nipon Chotiban, Director-General of Thailand’s Department of National Parks (DNP), told the media in early May that the DNP plans to reclaim over 715,066 rai (1,144 sq.km) of rubber farms which were allegedly planted in protected areas nationwide.

Most areas to be reclaimed are rubber plantations which have allegedly encroached into 215 protected areas, most of which are located along the Banthat Mountain Range in the southern part of Thailand.

The DNP policy to cut down rubber trees in protected areas is a part of the Thai junta’s National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) Order No. 64/2014, a master plan to replant forests nationwide, which lays out strict legal measures against land encroachers and poachers of forest products.

At the same time, on 17 May, the Network of People’s Organisations for Banthat Mountain Range and the Community Organisations Development Institute of Trang, Satun, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phattalung, and Songkhla, the five southern provinces which will be most affected by the DNP’s policies, held a meeting to come up with plans to negotiate with the DNP.

At the meeting, which was attended by about 60 representatives of communities in affected areas, participants called on the DNP to halt the reclamation plan and to stop prosecuting alleged land encroachers.

The group will hold another meeting on 23 May to present to the DNP updated information about rubber plantations which overlap protected areas and a proposal for a community-based forest protection plan.

According to The Isaan Record, as of last November, over 500 forest encroachers had been prosecuted and 300,000 rai of land had been seized.

According to the NGO Coordinating Committee on Development (NGO-COD) of the Northeast, since last year, 103 small-scale farmers have already been accused of encroaching on protected areas and almost 1,800 in the Northeast have now been prohibited from using their farmland and are about to receive court summons for alleged encroachment.

NGO-COD added that if this trend is allowed to continue, approximately 1.2 million people who are living on land that overlaps protected areas could be affected.

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