PUBLISHED: 6 Sep 2024 at 07: 44
Local Samut Songkhram residents filed a lawsuit against Charoen Pokphand Foods ( CPF ) in Samut Songkhram, asking for compensation for the harm caused by the province’s unchecked spread of blackchin tilapia.
On Thursday, Panya Tokthong, a part of the Upper Gulf of Thailand Preservation Network and Mae Klong Community Lovers Network, led the group to the Bangkok South Civil Court to file a complaint against CPF and its nine committee members for the economic losses caused by the spread of the invasive types.
He said the team represented 1, 400 local sailors from Amphawa, Bang Khonthi and Muang regions.
According to a cause, the CPF is accused of failing to stop the blackchin fish fish, which the corporation imported from Ghana in 2010 for breeding studies in its development center in Amphawa region, from envading local waterways.
According to the lawsuit, the invasive species was first discovered in the Amphawa district in 2012 before spreading to several waterways in 13 provinces along the Gulf of Thailand coast.
According to the “polluter pays” principle, the plaintiffs requested that CPF be ordered to rehabilitate the affected waterways at their own expense.
The compensation is broken up into two parts.
The first is claimed by a network of neighborhood fish farmers, which has more than 1, 000 members, to make up for the annual income loss at a rate of 10,000 baht per rai for seven years ( 2017-2024 ).
The second is claimed by a group of about 380 local fishermen to compensate for lost income, at a rate of 500 baht per day, or 182, 500 baht per year, for seven years from 2017.
Members of both groups are also requesting an additional 50, 000 baht per person for the violation of their natural resource rights.
Both organizations demand about 2.48 billion baht in compensation.
The Lawyers Council also filed a lawsuit against 18 government organizations and their top officials for allegedly abusing their duties on behalf of 54 individual fish farmers and fishermen in front of the Central Administrative Court.
They are the Department of Fisheries, the National Fisheries Policy Committee, the Fisheries Safety and Biodiversity Committee, the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, the Marine and Coastal Resources Management Policy and Planning Committee, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the National Environment Board, the National Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Committee, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, the Ministry of Interior, and Ministry of Finance.
According to the source, they also requested that the organizations designate the affected area as a disaster zone so that emergency funds can be released and the CPF can start the compensation process.