Concerns over Karen as govt pushes Kaeng Krachan for World Heritage Site

If the effort at the Istanbul meeting is successful, the number of World Heritage sites in Thailand will rise to six. 

The World Heritage Committee will review the qualifications of the KKFC, which has been on its tentative list since 2013. The meeting starts tomorrow and runs until July 20.

Last year, the committee asked that Thailand update the natural-resource information on the KKFC. 

In response to the concerns of the United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights about an ethnic-Karen community living inside the KKFC, the committee also instructed Thailand to submit a proposal on how to manage the community and protect its identity. 

Deputy Government Spokesman Maj-General Werachon Sukondhap-atipak yesterday said Thai authorities had not harmed the minority group living in the zone. “We have ensured that they enjoy fundamental rights,” he said. 

Thanya Netithammakun, chief of the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department, said earlier the authorities had organised forums so they could listened to the Karen community and explain their plan for the complex.

“The minority group understands our plan. They don’t have any objection to the inscription of KKFC as a World Heritage site,” he said.

He also disclosed that Thailand had updated information and submitted a new report on the KKFC to the World Heritage Committee.

The complex spans forest zones in three provinces of Thailand, namely Ratchaburi, Phetchaburi, and Prachuap Khiri Khan. These zones connect with Myanmar’s Tanintharyi National Park. 

Thanya said the overlapping zone on the Myanmar border was not so clear. 

“But it’s not a big issue. The World Heritage Committee has not raised this point,” he said. Werachon said the government had informed Myanmar that the inscription of the KKFC as a World Heritage site would not affect demarcation in any way. Thailand and Myanmar share a land boundary of more than 2,000 kilometres, with most of it not demarcated. 

“During the recent visit to Thailand by Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha assured her that we won’t include any area in dispute in the KKFC inscription,” Werachon said. 

Asked about reports that Myanmar had sent a letter to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) recently objecting to Thailand’s efforts to have the KKFC inscribed as a World Heritage site, Werachon said he had not seen an official protest. 

In 2008, Thailand raised an objection to Cambodia’s proposal to list the Hindu temple of Preah Vihear, claiming Phnom Penh had included Thai territory in the proposal. Unesco turned down the objection, noting that a World Heritage inscription had nothing to do with national sovereignty. 

At present, there are 37 World Heritage sites in the Asean region. Along with Thailand’s five sites, Cambodia has two and Myanmar one. 

Werachon said that at the Istanbul meeting Thai representatives would object to the World Heritage Committee’s move to list the Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai Forest Complex – a World Heritage Site in Thailand – as threatened.