Bkk Post-Forestry chief says there'

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Subject: Bkk Post-Forestry chief says there'll be no new Salween scandal

Bangkok Post June 7, 1999.
LOGGING
Forestry chief says there'll be no new Salween scandal
But conservation is still an 'uphill battle'

Uamdao Noikorn

Forestry chief Plodprasop Suraswadi is confident that conditions imposed on
new log imports from Burma will prevent further illegal logging in Salween
National Park.

But he admitted yesterday that despite his best efforts he may not be able
to properly conserve the country's remaining 83 million rai of forest.

He blamed it on the government's land reform policy and forest encroachment
by villagers and businessmen.

"I've done my best, but it's an uphill task," Mr Plodprasop said. A meeting
between the department and four Thai companies two weeks ago resulted in the
firms agreeing to Mr Plodprasop's conditions concerning their applications
to import more than 1.5 million cubic metres of logs from Burma.

These included the department and other agencies having the right to inspect
each shipment before it crossed the border into Thailand, that this occur
30-40 kilometres inside Burma to prove the logs were genuinely Burmese, and
the use of bar-coding to identify the timber.

The logs were supposedly left over when the border was closed in April last
year following exposure of an illegal logging scandal involving a deputy
forestry chief and several senior forestry officials.

The forestry chief has since sacked six officials involved in issuing fake
receipts and border passes which enabled timber traders to bring in the
logs.uPlodprasop's profile page 10