Illegal land deeds issued for Mae Hong Son forestland: DSI

Pol Lt-Colonel Prawut Wongseenin, DSI deputy director-general, said on Tuesday that the DSI and local authorities had conducted an inspection at the Mae Yuam National Reserve Forest and Pai River Basin Wildlife Sanctuary in Mae Hong Son and found that 10 plantations had encroached on forestland.
The DSI conducted the inspection after it received a petition from a retired high-ranking officer in Mae Hong Son about illegal activity involving the registration of land deeds for plantations in protected forestland. The owners of the plantations are then entitled to cut down trees grown in the area and sell the wood on the open market legally.
Typically forestry plantation land deeds can only be registered on private land to grow valuable trees such as teak for timber.
Prawut said 278 rai of plantations had encroached on protected forestland with 111,100 trees registered in the plots.
He said many of the trees had already been cut down, a clear violation of the National Forest Reserve Act, adding that the DSI was treating it as a special case.