In an independent inquiry into land acquisition and encroachment in Wang Nam Kheo forest in Nakhon Ratchasima, Ombudsman SrirachaCharoenphanich offered a new solution to innocent encroachers at greatest number of 40,000 living in 80 villagers in the park compound among all violators allowing them to stay and farm on for another 15 years before they move away.
Those who acquire the land from unlawful ownership transfers, or with apparent intent to trespass after the end of latest legal deadlines will face legal actions. The time frame to verify their ownership and acquisition should end within three of six months from now. "Those benefiting from this extension will be required to grow trees and plants in 30 per cent of their areas," he added.
Villagers who purchased the land innocently should also benefit from the 15year extension, while it has not been decided on those who aquire the land before legal deadlines and do the farming together with doing resortrelated businesses should also benefit from this new solution, said Srirachai who received petitions from villagers living in the park.
The longstanding Wang Nam Kheo land encroachment issue has become even more controversial when the The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) lanuched a crackdown late last year, targetting many resorts for demolition while taking out two of them in December, which prompted protests from villagers and blockades of important Route 304.
During the sixmonth period, the DNP, the Royal Forest Department, will recheck maps and borders of protected areas in individual cases before deviding encroachers into various groups according to their intent, the time they trespassed. Those did the farming before 1978 before the first deadline associated with The Agricutural Land Reform Office regulations could stay on and do farming freely.
In 1998, the Chavalit government initiated a solution to solve the encroachment problem, and redrew protected areas two years later. But no legal actions had since been taken while encroachment and resort business have been expanding in the Wang Nam Kheo forest, which is part of Thab Lan national park, covering 1,397,375 rai or 2,235.8 squre kilometres, in four Nakhon Ratchasima districts and one district in neighbouring Prachin Buri.
Sriracha's inquiry also finds that a key factor of the problem is that the RFD and the ALRO, lacked coordination dealing with the issue after the latter was established in 1975 and tasked with assigning deserted RFDsupervised land to landless farmers. Both agencies have been working separately using different and independent regulations, resulting in expansion of encroachment and unregulated transfer of land onwership since.
