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Bangkok Post – Thai Parks Department submits controversial forestry bills to cabinet
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Bangkok Post – Thai Parks Department submits controversial forestry bills to cabinet

The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) will submit two bills to the cabinet next week, despite opposition from the People’s Movement for a Just Society (P-Move), which fears that local communities do not lose their rights to their ancestral lands. lands.

DNP leader Attapon Charoenchansa said the drafting of the bills, focused on the conservation and protection of natural resources in national parks and wildlife reserves, has now been completed.

Both measures were prepared under the mandate of the DNP in accordance with the National Parks Act and the Wildlife Preservation and Protection Act.

These laws require authorities to establish guidelines and regulations governing activities in these areas.

Mr. Attapon said the bills aim to protect the rights of people living in forest areas by ensuring their fundamental right to reside there.

The bills also address the rights of local communities to access basic infrastructure provided by state agencies, to receive compensation for low crop yields, and to cut down trees they have planted.

The DNP leader said that although a June 30, 1998 cabinet resolution and a 2014 order of the National Council for Peace and Order recognize the existence of these communities in forest areas, no law currently guarantees their rights.

Accordingly, the DNP introduced these measures to complement the 2019 National Parks and Wildlife Preservation and Protection Acts.

The proposed bills will expire on November 27 if not passed.

The DNP is now pushing for the passage of these bills, which they say follow detailed planning and surveying work.

As part of the drafting process, the DNP studied 224 conserved forest areas, approximately 4.25 million rai of land, to establish the boundaries of approximately 4,042 communities to be included in the decrees’ annexes.

P-Move fears the bills will deprive residents of their land rights, arguing that they should have the constitutional right to live and use their ancestral lands.

The measures place restrictions on farming, limiting it to 20 rai of land for only 20 years, and specify the qualifications of those eligible, including Thai nationality, lack of land elsewhere and lack of criminal prosecution.

Additionally, the bills also recognize individual rights but do not guarantee community rights.

P-Move urged the government to end its support for the bills, warning it would take legal action against the cabinet if the process continued.