The Northern Peasant Federation (NPF) on Tuesday submitted a petition to the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation (Apec) Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Forestry, in a bid to reclaim property use rights designed for forest-dependent ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples.
Regarding 20 representatives of the NPF affected by the government’s land plus forest management given to their demands in order to Natural Resources and Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa via the ministry’s permanent secretary Jatuporn Buruspat at Le Meridien Chiang Mai where the meeting is being held from Tuesday to Thursday.
Thaworn Laklaem, the NPF consultant, said the conference was only advertising the government’s plan and did not have the participation of the general public, especially those affected by the policy.
“The federal government has announced its forest management policy and conservation tasks that violate our right to use the forest. Many of us lived in the forest long before the announcement of the forest conservation policy, however some of us are being required to move out and have been accused of causing deforestation, ” he said.
The federation is usually demanding the government offer their community the perfect to manage the property and resources in accordance with the constitution and regulations regarding property title deeds, he said.
The federation also demanded the government expedite the amnesty regulation for those involved in woodland encroachment cases resulting from the government’s conservation approach, as well as drop forest-related charges towards locals to allow them to curriculum vitae their livelihoods on their land.
The government must end seizing land beneath the pretext of reforestation, he said. The girls also demanded revisions to the Community Woodland Act 2019, National Park Act 2019 and Wildlife Preservation and Protection Take action 2019, and demanded that civil modern society participates in the redrafting of such laws to benefit forest-dependent people and forest conservation.
The government should set up a land bank and use a modern land tax, he or she said.