The government's proposal to allow foreigners to invest in forestry plantation programmes will lead to a massive land grab, civic groups representatives say.
The representatives expressed concern about a land grab Wednesday and demanded the government review the plan when its subcommittee - responsible for preparing Thailand for the commencement of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) later this year - meets Thursday.
The subcommittee, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister MR Pridiyathorn Devakula, gave the plan the green light at last month's meeting, said Witoon Lienchamroon, director of BioThai, a non-profit organisation working for farmers' rights and bio-diversity protection.
Representatives of civic groups were not invited to attend the meeting. Only representatives from the military, business sector and ministries attended, Mr Witoon said.
The forest plantation programme proposed under the Asean Comprehensive Investment Agreement aims to attract major foreign investors to rent land for large-scale monoculture plantations in Thailand.
"There are attempts to encourage foreign private investment in forest plantations by state authorities, even though this will cause damage," said Prapat Panyachatrak, chairman of the National Farmers Council (NFC).
"Investment in forest plantations will allow [foreign investors] to rent or have rights over large areas of land. I believe this is a threat to the country's security in terms of sovereignty and people's land rights."
Several civic groups are concerned the plan will allow Thai business groups to buy huge plots of land from local people and let foreign investors rent them.
Mr Prapat insisted this is a sensitive issue because it involves appropriation of land and natural resources which should be reserved for farmers.
"Past governments were cautious, with restrictions on investment in expanding crop varieties, fish farming and forestation," Mr Prapat said.
"The NFC hopes the government will be more concerned about the impact on millions of households of landless farmers than foreign investors," Mr Prapat said.
He said he will attend the subcommittee's meeting today.
The NFC called on the government to review the forest plantation programme.
It also urged the subcommittee to organise a public hearing on the programme to sound out people's opinions before deciding whether to pass it on to the cabinet.
"This is a sensitive issue. Giving forest plantations [to foreign investors] will aggravate Thailand's land rights and deforestation problems," Mr Witoon said.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's government promised to solve land rights problems for Thais, Mr Witoon said, but allowing foreign investors to have rights over forest plantations will make the goal hard to achieve.
Influential Thai figures with connections to foreign investors would put pressure on local people to abandon their land and lose their land rights, he said.
Large-scale land rental will cause conflicts between the private sector and local communities, Mr Witoon said, giving the example of palm oil concessions in the South which led to local protests and land grabs.
The BioThai director raised concerns about environmental damage from large-scale monoculture farms.
"I don't think forest plantations are necessary. We have a lot of alternative ways to make our land productive using sustainable methods such as agroforestry, traditional agriculture and tree bank schemes — where tree planting is encouraged on a massive scale so that locals can generate income from the valuable trees," Mr Witoon said.
Theerapat Prayurasiddhi, chief of the Royal Forest Department, confirmed there would be a project to let foreigners invest in forest plantations in the country.
The work is aimed at increasing green areas. Only two types of trees - teak and hairy-leafed apitong (yangna) - will be grown.
"In the project, a lot of the two types of tree are planted and it will take 20-30 years before they can be felled," he said.
Mr Theerapat insisted the scheme will not put the country at a disadvantage since investments will not involve natural forests or national parks, but land owned by people with title deeds.