The Department of Marine and Coastal Resources will allocate 10,000 rai of land to poor families in Nakhon Si Thammarat province for farming in the next few months.
Chonlathid Suraswadi, the department director-general, recently unveiled the plan initiated by the Prayut government which expected to give out about two or three million rai of land nationwide to the poor for agricultural use.
Mr Chonlathid said the land allocation as a pilot project will be done immediately after his department finishes a household data survey on the Laem Taloom Pook peninsula in Nakhon Si Thammarat’s Muang district. The survey is due for completion in the next few months.
Mr Chonlathid said the Laem Taloom Pook peninsula has been occupied by local fishing communities. Shrimp farming businesses have encroached on the area as well, leading to serious coastal erosion problems.
“We found that the area is suitable for land management. We met the locals and introduced the policy to them.
“They said they understood it as they want the security of land rights,” he said.
Regarding such coastal land, there are 2.73 million rai of mangrove swamps countrywide, and 1.52 million rai is considered fertile.
Meanwhile, the rest are occupied and many have been turned into shrimp farms, according to department data.
Mr Chonlathid said the department is expected to complete a survey of the 1.52 million rai of mangrove areas by next June and it is the Interior Ministry’s duty to consider how to grant land rights to the poor.
The government has assigned agencies under the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry to find public land nationwide for the allocation scheme.
However, the government insisted land rights will not go to individuals but will be overseen by their community committee out of fear the rights will be sold to the rich.
The department is also drawing up a plan to prevent coastline erosion and will focus on 44 critical areas with a length of 169km along the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea, he said.
The plan will offer several solutions, including building a sea wall, “sand sausage” bags, and T-groin barriers. The plan will be submitted to the National Environment Board next month, he said.