BKK Post, March 21, 1998.SALWEEN SC

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March 21, 1998.SALWEEN SCANDAL

Dept aims to push through forestry bill
Local administration to have bigger role
Lampang

The Forestry Department will push for passage of the Community Forestry 
Bill in which the local administration will have more say in forestry 
resources management, a deputy chief said yesterday.

Chatchai Ratanopa said that he considered that greater participation by 
tambon administration organisations in forestry resources management was 
a first step in curbing deforestation and illegal logging.

He said he felt the Forestry Department has so far worked alone in the 
crusade against illegal loggers.

"This is the only way we can stop deforestation, apart from building 
awareness among the general public," said the deputy director-general.

Mr Chatchai was speaking after discussions about the future of forestry 
resources at Yonok College.

The deputy director-general also said that the process of wood 
laundering, like the one in Salween National Park, is nothing new.

He said that without the Salween illegal logging scandal, it would be 
difficult to bring deforestation problems into public focus.

Meanwhile, Nithi Aiewsriwong, of Chiang Mai University, has urged the 
Forestry Department to revamp its agency and distribute authority in 
management to local people.

"It is the department's mistake. It is time to change management and 
decentralise," he said.

The academic also suggested that the Forest Industry Organisation be 
disbanded, saying the agency has been encouraging deforestation.

Mr Nithi also said illegal logging alone can describe social and 
economic problems faced by local people there.

"It is clear local people have to rely on investors. Their own economic 
problems forced them to take up the job. Together with centralisation of 
power, the problems have worsened," he said.

The academic added that apart from deforestation, the North is faced 
with drugs, pollution and weakening family institutions.

Meanwhile, a military division has revealed massive deforestation on 
over 300 rai in the Thung Yai Naresuan wildlife sanctuary and the Khao 
Chang Phuak forest reserve in Sangkhla Buri district of Kanchanaburi 
province.

A local inspection team led by Maj-Gen Pornchai Dejawong na Ayutthaya, 
commander of the Ninth Infantry Division's Kanchanaburi camp, found 63 
felled trees in the wildlife sanctuary and 200 more in the forest 
reserve.

"I will immediately report the deforestation to the Interior Ministry so 
that the culprits can be brought to justice. These forests are the 
habitat of endangered species of mountain goats, tapirs, mountain deer 
and two-horn rhinos," he said.

Villagers told Maj-Gen Pornchai's team that some influential figures had 
hired Thai, Karen and Mon villagers to fell trees in the two forests.

The felled logs were then sent to Burma to be processed and imported 
into Thailand as wooden planks and furniture items through normal 
customs procedures at the Jedi Sarm Ong border pass.

Maj-Gen Pornchai insisted that the military would not let the forests be 
further destroyed and announced them as off-limits to visitors.

"Border patrol police, volunteers, and soldiers will block outsiders 
from entering the two forests," he said.

Meanwhile, two district chiefs have been transferred for alleged 
involvement in illegal logging in the North, Interior Ministry officials 
said yesterday.

Thaworn Choeyphan, Tak's Ban Tak district chief, has been reassigned to 
Phitsanulok, and Narongrit Sukhatungkha, Mae Hong Son's Mae Sariang 
district chief, to Chiang Rai.

Their transfer orders will take effect on April 1.

According to an initial investigation, there are grounds to believe the 
two have been involved in illegal logging activities in the Salween 
National Park.

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