National park in South hardest hit
By Assawin Pakkawan & Waedao Harai
The Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre (SBPAC) has stepped up its work to stop land encroachment in the Budo-Sungai Padi national park. The Natural Resources and Environment, Agriculture and Cooperatives and the Interior ministries are working with Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat provincial authorities to tackle the problem.
The cooperation was launched after a meeting of a committee on a southern special economic development zone on June 8, said SBPAC director Pranai Suwannarat.
The Budo-Sungai Padi national park covers 213,125 rai of the three strife-plagued southern provinces of Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani.
''According to the survey on the land ownership between 2001 and 2004, a total of 6,985 households in nine districts of the three provinces were found to have settled on 96,216 rai of land in the forest reserves,'' Mr Pranai said.
A peace-building advisory council earlier discussed the issue with the Natural Resources and Environment ministry and Community Organisations Development Institute and invited relevant state agencies to devise a plan to solve the problem early in April.
Of the encroached land, 2,570 rai was occupied by 216 families in Pattani, each holding more than 11 rai of land on average. Another 4,608 rai of land was occupied by 272 families in Yala.
The largest encroachment was in Narathiwat, where 96,216 rai of land was occupied by 6,497 families, or an average of 14 rai per family, Mr Pranai said.
According to aerial evidence, the villagers have owned the land and used it for agricultural purposes for more than 25 years.
The encroachment by creating more fields for agricultural development is still rare due to the geographical disadvantages.
Also, the land use for agricultural purpose has already reached saturation point, Mr Pranai said.
He said the Pattani forest office, which supervises the Budo-Sungai Padi national park, opposed an idea to allow villagers to make a living in the forest reserves for fear of possible exploitation by influential local figures.
In Narathiwat, a pickup truck was set ablaze by masked men in a rubber plantation in Rueso district yesterday.
Three rubber tappers were left unharmed by the attackers.
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