Water panel plans 1m-rai reforestation project

After the WFMC meeting yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister and commission chair Plodprasop Suraswadi said the panel approved a master plan to rehabilitate and conserve forests and ecosystems in 25 river basins by growing trees on one million rai of land. It also agreed to establish an administrative office for the reforestation project with two national-level committees. Firstly, an executive and policymaking committee chaired by Plodprasop, and secondly a project-management committee chaired by Prime Minister’s Office Minister Nivatthamrong Boonsongpaisal. A ministry-level committee for project management (overseen by the Interior Ministry and the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry) and another committee to follow through and assess project results in the provinces were also planned, Plodprasop said.
Aimed at increasing forestland, preventing soil erosion and boosting the land’s capacity to absorb and retain rainwater, thereby slowing down flooding, the five-year project (2013-2017) would grow trees on 200,000 rai of land per year and needed a budget of Bt2 billion a year, Plodprasop said.
Plodprasop said the project wouldn’t overlap with projects by the Royal Forestry Department and the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plants because the two agencies focused on deteriorated forests in forest reserves and national parks, while the WFMC project would focus on river-basin forestland, coastal forestland and river-mouth areas.