Academics and grassroots advocates have urged forestry officials to abandon the idea of filing civil charges against forest encroachers for causing global warming.
The petition came after the National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department filed civil charges against a group of 68 villagers in Trang, Phatthalung and Krabi provinces for encroaching on forest land in the Bantad mountains.
The court earlier this year ordered 26 forest dwellers to pay more than 37 million baht, or 150,000 baht per rai, in compensation for causing damage to the forest and for contributing to global warming.
The department's damage claims were based on assessed financial losses caused by forest destruction, such as damage caused by rising temperatures, reduced rainfall and soil erosion.
Khunying Suthawan Sathirathai, president of the Good Governance Institute for Social Development and the Environment Foundation, said the department should crack down on giant industrial operators, who are major emitters of greenhouse gases, rather than going after villagers who have relied on the forest to make their living for decades.
The move to press charges against forest encroachers for causing global warming could also send a wrong signal to the international community that Thailand agrees with the concept of paying for activities that contribute to global warming.Climate change expert Anond Snidvongs, of the Southeast Asia START Regional Centre, Chulalongkorn University, questioned the department's method of calculating financial losses caused by forest destruction.
"Calculating economic values of the forest needs more complicated tools and well-rounded information, such as forest and soil types. This kind of calculation should be suspended until we develop reliable models to evaluate the forest's economic value," he said.
Kamchai Chaithong, a villager who was ordered to pay 1.6 million baht in compensation for having encroached on a watershed area, said her family had settled in the area for generations, and that her livelihood had nothing to do with global warming.
Pongsak Witthawatchutikul, a watershed research division director who calculated the compensation figure model, said forestry experts had set the economic cost of a fertile watershed area at 150,000 baht per rai, while the cost of a degraded forest area varied from 35,200 to 82,500 baht per rai.
Writer: APINYA WIPATAYOTIN
Published: 15 /08/2009 Newspaper section: News
