Concerns have been expressed by a former senior official, famous for his crackdowns on poachers and forest encroachers, and an environmentally conscious senator over two bills seeking amnesty for those convicted of forest encroachment.
Colonel Pongpetch Ketsupha, former head of the forest protection task force of the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC), said that the claim that the bills are meant for the poor landless people was simply untrue.
He pointed out that the bills do not specify that only the poor would be granted amnesty, but merely state “a person”, who could be rich, influential or a politician. So, they would also benefit from the legislation.
He warned that the parties which support the bills could face dissolution, if the case is taken to the Constitutional Court.
One of the amnesty bills was initiated by Sukarno Matha, an MP of the Prachachart party. The other was proposed by Laopang Banditthoedsakul, of the People’s party. Both bills have passed their first readings in the House of Representatives.
On Friday, Senator Chivaparb Chivatham warned that, if the bills are passed into law, all the efforts by law enforcement officers to protect the country’s forests and to arrest poachers, both landless people and the rich, would have been pointless, because all the culprits would be set free.
He cited the cases of forest encroachments in the Sirinat National Park in Phuket, Khao Khor in Phetchabun province, Khao Yai National Park, as well as in Chachoengsao province, allegedly by local people funding by Chinese investors, with plans to turn the land into durian plantations.
These people would be granted amnesty under the proposed laws, said the senator, who is also chair of the Senate Environmental Affairs Committee.
The senator also doubted Sukarno’s argument that the bills are intended to help landless and impoverished people, so they would be able to make a living on the encroached forest land, noting that there are already a law and cabinet resolutions allowing the forest encroachers and their children to make a living from the forest land, on the conditions that they do not encroach on more land, sell the land to others or use the land for a hotel or resort.
Currently, about half a million people are living on more than 640,000 hectares of encroached national forest reserves and conserved forests. More than 6,000 of them have been sent to prison and about 3,000 are still serving time.
Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Suchart Chomklin says that he has instructed his permanent secretary to prepare a report on which groups of people would benefit from the amnesty bills.
