Protect people to save forests

The government says it wants people and forests to live in harmony to protect the natural environment, but its actions tell a different story.
Despite protests from over 300 people representing forest communities, the cabinet on Nov 12 approved the draft of two royal decrees proposed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment on regulating forest land use in national parks. The draft laws are expected to become effective soon after being gazetted. These decrees allow forest dwellers to stay in their communities for only 20 years, denying their children the right to remain on family homesteads. They are also limited to farming only 20 rai of land. If they have more than 20 rai, they must give the excess to the state. The government claims these decrees help protect forests. However, local communities and land rights activists argue they do more harm than good.
The decrees, sponsored by the Department of National Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation, follow a draconian national park law that grants park officials sole power to evict forest dwellers with heavy jail sentences and fines. Only those who meet the park’s strict criteria are allowed to stay, and even then, only for 20 years and on a maximum of 20 rai of land. They can be evicted anytime if forest officials unilaterally rule them unfit. The decrees cover 4,265 forest communities, 462,444 households, or 1,849,792 people across 4.27 million rai of land-protected forests.
The decrees exclude many hill tribe people who have lived in forests for generations. Many lack citizenship due to errors in official surveys. As a result, these people, whose way of life has coexisted with nature for centuries, will be labelled as forest encroachers and face eviction. Furthermore, people with small landholdings outside protected forests or those accused of past forest law violations are also excluded. The laws also prevent local communities from running small local businesses such as eco-tourism. This is because they are barred from building essential facilities. Local ethnic forest dwellers are banned from using traditional methods like rotational farming, which requires leaving the land to regenerate for several years. The result is that many ethnic people will join the bandwagon of adopting intensive farming on the same land. While mass and intensive farmland that the government has advocated appears to limit land use, the practice relies solely on chemical fertilisers and pesticides for planting similar cash crops that will eventually harm the soil and destroy biodiversity.
International studies show that empowering such communities to manage forests helps conservation efforts and mitigate global warming. Yet, Thailand’s policy increases state control while weakening these communities. Ironically, outsiders and big businesses are allowed to destroy forests for profit. Mountains are stripped bare to plant maize for livestock feed, leading to massive deforestation and environmental disasters, including toxic air from PM2.5 dust. This hypocrisy undermines the government’s claim of caring for the environment.
An elected government must listen to the people and protect the vulnerable, not strengthen the top-down power of officialdom. These two decrees also violate the constitution, which recognises the ethnic people’s rights and human dignity. To correct this injustice, the government should delay their enforcement. Better yet, it should amend the draconian national park law to respect human rights. If Thailand wants to protect its forests, it must first protect the people who call those forests home.