Environment and natural resources
Forests and forestry
Asian Governments Banking On Social Forestry To Sustain Reforestation Efforts
A village group in Indonensia’s Kalimantan Island plants a small community fuelwood plantation. A Vietnamese landowner plants trees along her field as a living fence and as source of fuelwood. Filipino farmers plant trees that they will sell later to a local paer mill, for ...
Dr. Michael A. Bengwayan
Two more Thai marine parks declared ASEAN heritage parks
Two southern Thailand national parks have been recognised as ASEAN heritage parks at this week’s 15th ASEAN environment ministers’ meeting in Siem Reap, Cambodia, the home of Angkor Wat. Warawut Silpa-archa, Thailand’s Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, told reporters the ASEAN environment ministers voted ...
Khao Yai elephant carcass dismembered
The corpse of one wild elephant has been dismembered and removed from Haew Narok waterfall as the operation to clear the area was battered by heavy rains over Khao Yai National Park on Friday.Park officials, with help from veterinarians and volunteers of the Disaster Response ...
Bangkok Post Reporter
No land, no fish: Mekong community in northeast Thailand struggles against a double-threat
Ubon Ratchathani locals in northeast Thailand are wondering why they are being prosecuted for farming on land passed on to them by their parents.“If I lost my land, I would want to die. I wouldn’t want to live,” said 50-year-old Rit Chansuk, his voice quivering ...
Land grabbers implicated in peat swamp blazes
The Crime Suppression Division (CSD) has launched an investigation into the burning of peat swamps in Nakhon Si Thammarat’s Chalerm Prakiat district with a land acquisition motive suspected to be behind the blazes.Keep reading ...
Bangkok Post Reporter
ASEAN SMART Patrol, a hope for the region’s forests
As a park chief himself, Soeung Khemarak, the deputy director of the Oyadav National Park in Rattanakiri province, fully understands the problems faced by Cambodia’s Kulen Prum Tep Wildlife Sanctuary and adjacent parks near the border with Thailand where bombs, illegal logging and poaching are ...
Piyaporn Wongruang
Forest rangers promised better equipment, welfare
National Resources and Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa on Wednesday promised to improve welfare benefits and working conditions for the 20,000 forest rangers nationwide.He was speaking at a ceremony at Khao Yai National Park headquarters, attended by 650 rangers from national parks nationwide, to mark the ...
Dumrongkiat Mala
Villagers face greater threat under new national parks law
New national parks will impose stricter penalties to further limit the rights of farmers and indigenous people, land rights activists and analysts said on Friday, after a series of convictions highlighted their vulnerability.Under the National Parks Act, which was unveiled by the government last week ...
Relief for forest dwellers
New law allows use of resources without the fear of being accused of encroachment.Under the new National Parks Act, local communities may stay in a forest reserve and use its renewable resources. Article 65 of this law opens a clear channel for mutual co-existence for ...
Chularat Saengpassa
New forestry law has harsher penalties for encroachers and illegal loggers
Forest encroachers caught clearing land or burning trees, in any of Thailand’s national parks or gardens, in order to occupy the land, will soon face jail terms of up to 20 years and/or a fine of as much as two million baht under the new ...
