For the owners of luxury holiday resorts in national parks” 2012 has been a nightmare. But now they can heave a deep sigh of relief and look forward to 2013 as a year in which they can return to business as usual.
Although their properties encroach on forest land” they no longer have to fear arrest and watch their properties destroyed as happened when the controversial Damrong Pidech was top boss at the National Parks” Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department. His successor as national park chief” Manophat Huamuangkaew” has made it clear that” under his leadership” the crackdowns will stop. He also promised to adopt a less “aggressive” approach” and to consider allowing the resort operators to rent forest land so they can continue their business.
There's no question that Mr Manophat's policy comes from the government. He said it had asked him to strike a balance between natural resources management and economic and social development. To do so” one of the options includes renting out forest land to resort operators. The goal” he said” is to do what will “benefit the country”. It's clear he was talking about tourism cash to energise the local economy.
Mr Manophat's plan is certainly music to resort operators' ears. For the landless poor” however” this is just more evidence of blatant policy injustice. How can they think otherwise? When the rich who encroach on forest land have a chance to legitimise their properties” the landless' demands for the opportunity to rent degraded forests for farming have been consistently turned down.
As a result” countless forest communities nationwide have been subjected to violent forced evictions even though many of them have been living in these areas for generations. Often” their lands were rented out at a very cheap rate of 10 baht a rai to tree plantation investors. Many of these investors – through collusion with corrupt land and forest officials – can eventually turn rented land into their own legal properties while villagers stand by and watch helplessly.
The landless farmers' bitterness is further fuelled by the fact that their proposals to restore forest ecology in exchange for the right to rent forest land are brushed aside when oil palm and resort investors are embraced by forest authorities without being required to do anything to rehabilitate degraded forests.
In Krabi province” the anger of the landless recently became explosive. When their forest rental proposal was refused yet again” they occupied oil palm plantations where forest concessions had already expired. The authorities responded with a crackdown. In Surat Thani” two landless leaders were killed” prompting a protest in Bangkok this week to pressure the government into fulfilling its promise to solve land rights conflicts in forest zones through community land ownership.
As if to underscore land policy injustice” these incidents in Krabi and Surat Thani occurred about the same time forest authorities considered caving in to resort operators encroaching on national parks.
Similar land rights conflicts are brewing across the country. To prevent them from blowing up” the government must overhaul not only forest and land use laws and regulations” but also the taxation system to bring about more equitable land ownership distribution. One immediate measure” however” is that the government must ensure the forest rental policy does not discriminate against the poor. For a government which came to power on the back of an election promise to bridge disparity and social injustice” anything less is unacceptable.