Groups vow to fight NCPO order

MORE THAN 40 environmental groups have joined forces in a fight against the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO)’s order, which they claim threatens to push state projects at the expense of the environment. 

While many other countries in the region such as China recently strengthened their environment projection laws, the latest move by the junta likely lowers the guard to attract investment.

The joint statement by 46 environmental organisations – including the Stop Global Warming Association (SGWA) and the Seub Nakhasathien Foundation – yesterday demanded the scrapping of the controversial NCPO order. On Tuesday, the NCPO issued the order permitting state enterprises/government agencies to select private firms to initiate their projects, even before an environmental impact assessment (EIA) gets a green light.

[Click to read about NCPO's power provided by Article 44]

“Even though this order does not bypass the EIA, it looks set to heap pressure on parties involved in the EIA review process,” SGWA president Srisuwan Janya said. 

The NCPO move would destroy the precautionary principles needed for environmental protection, he said.

The National Environmental Quality Promotion and Protection Act requires EIA for 35 types of projects to minimise their adverse environmental impacts. For example, projects to build expressways or set up power plants with 10-megawatt capacity upwards will need an EIA. 

The Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning conducted 1,568 EIAs in 2011 and 1,635 EIAs the following year. A panel of specialists also review the EIAs before the projects can be effectively cleared in the EIA process. 

Buntoon Srethasirote, a former member of the National Reform Council (NRC) and the former Constitution Drafting Committee that worked on reforming natural resources management, said the NRC had attempted to reform the whole EIA/EHIA system to answer challenges concerning businesses, as the civil as well as the academic sectors are affected by the flawed system. 

The order apparently addresses only the lengthy process of the EIA/EHIA process which affects the business sector, which he said, would in turn stir further conflicts with other sectors as it does not tackle the challenges in a balanced manner.

Government Spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said the decision aimed to enhance investment for economic growth. The current EIA/EHIA for state projects is lengthy. “The government will not allow the economy to override the environment, and we will not take the EIA/ EHIA as a ritual to rubber-stamp projects. The PM as such has stressed that if the EIA/ EHIA has failed, the concerned projects must be dropped accordingly,” said Sansern.

Srisuwan said that if the NCPO refused to revoke the order, the SGWA and its allied networks would petition either the Central Administrative Court or the Constitutional Court. 

Pianporn Deetes, Thailand and Myanmar campaigns director for International Rivers, campaigning for river management in the region, said this order had raised many questions about governance, and how our country was governed. Pianporn said this order would undermine the entire system of decision-making. Local communities, she said, could be affected and would be completely shut out from now on. “It is shameful how industry would benefit at the expense of the Thai people and the country’s natural resources,” she said.

Another group, Friends of River, suspected that the NCPO had issued the recent order in a bid to push ahead its Chao Phraya Landmark project. 

If the NCPO order remains in place, not just the Chao Phraya Landmark but also many other state projects will be involved, such as the Bang Yai-Ban Pong-Kanchanaburi motorway, various mass-transit projects, and the Nakhon Pathom-Hua Hin train project. 

Kasemsan Chinawaso, permanent secretary to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, and a former member of the NRC, tried to downplay concerns about the NCPO order, saying it would not exempt any project from the EIA clauses in the National Environmental Quality Promotion and Protection Act.