Chada Chuthing, 54, came away from the Administrative Court in July facing almost certain bankruptcy. And she thinks she has an inflexible bureaucracy, and the climate, to blame.
Her face paled and palms started to sweat when the court read out its decision. It found she is liable to pay the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation 1.5 million baht for encroaching on the forest and re-planting trees in the forestland in her native Yan Takhao district of Trang.
She is being punished financially for wiping out native, naturally-grown forest trees, and replacing them with cash crops.
The practice robs the forest of its richness and worsens global warming, a main reason cited by the department to justify demanding "compensation'' from her, according to the forestry authorities.
- Question of justice: Land encroachment lawsuits target the poor
However, the encroachers, many of whom have no land of their own for farming, argued the forest was already in a deteriorated state with few precious trees left standing when they moved in.
Still, Ms Chada has wound up facing the same fate as most other forest encroachers nationwide. They face prosecution on encroachment charges and were also hit by notices to pay compensation.
They insist they will pay as long as the compensation rate is fair. But they argue this is not the case.
Ms Chada and a dozen other villagers accused of encroachment went to the Administrative Court armed with a class petition.
They argued the compensation claims were grossly exaggerated and asked the court to order the department to come up with a standard method of calculation based on academic research.
Ms Chada and other encroachers had hoped a favourable ruling from the Administration Court would at least lessen the steep amounts of compensation demanded from them by the parks department.
However, the Administrative Court in July did not order the department's method of calculation to be changed, meaning the encroachers are still liable to meet the compensation demand.
The financial penalty imposed on forest encroachers, also known as "climate change compensation'', was first introduced in 2004.
It calculates in monetary terms the damage and loss resulting from deforestation which forest encroachment causes to the ecological system.
More than 100 cases of forest encroachment, including those involving influential persons, have been readied for prosecution with demands issued for the climate change compensation.
An encroacher, once ruled guilty by the court, must pay a penalty fee to the department as compensation for ruining the forest ecology and the climate.
Pongsak Witwatthanachutikul, a retired national parks official who played a part in adjusting the compensation model in 1997, said the change was intended to create justice.
The compensation had been around long before he came to work at the national parks agency. But the previous calculation method had been criticised as inflated as the encroachers were slapped with a blanket compensation rate of 150,000 baht per rai, regardless of what type of forest they encroached on and whether there were trees on the land.
He conceded some of the forest land had been bare before the encroachers came to occupy it.
The reality on the ground prompted the method of calculation for compensation to be revised. Three criteria were subsequently introduced to make for a more precise, and fair, calculation, Mr Pongsak said.
The first criteria is whether the encroachment has jeopardised the natural richness of the forest, lessened or wiped out precious trees and wildlife animals in specific areas, or damaged the soil quality or depleted the ground water.
The second is whether the poaching has altered for the worse the ecological balance between the forest trees and the ground temperature and the amount of precipitation as well as the soil's capacity to absorb water. A third criteria is whether the encroachment has incurred the "cost of forest services to humans'' such as the forest's ability to mitigate destruction from water runoff that threatens people's lives, and leads to a decrease in native, edible wild plants.
Critics of the compensation questioned the second criteria, arguing it is not practical or even possible to put a price on the relationship between the temperature and rainfall. However, the parks department has come up with compensation figures for losses or destruction to specific types of forest with damage to the climate also factored in.
The compensation amount for damage to the pa dib khao (montane forest or evergreen hill forest), the pa dib chuen (tropical rain forest) and the pa dib lang (dry evergreen or semi-evergreen forest) ranges between 64,848–94,402 baht per rai.
For damage to the pa benjapan (mixed deciduous forest), the compensation is between 23,847-74,760 baht per rai and for the pa teng rung (dry dipterocarp forest), the compensation falls to between 24,058-32,847 baht per rai.
How much the encroachers are charged depends on the extent of destruction they have made to the density of the forest and the value of the forest trees, as well as how much the deliberate acts of depleting the trees raised the heat above the soil which fuels global warming.
When trees are cut down there is nothing to absorb carbon dioxide. As more carbon dioxide goes into the atmosphere, it worsens the greenhouse effect.
Many forests with the highest compensation price tags are also prime watersheds and the origins of major rivers. It is noted the compensation amounts do not correspond so much to the elevation of the forests above sea level as what precious or rare trees there are.
Mr Pongsak said slashing and burning forest land, including rare trees, to grow maize and farm rubber trees, for example, has caused extensive damage to forest ecology.
He said a study confirmed that rubber trees, if farmed in high-forest mountains, can lead to a sharp drop in groundwater.
He also explained that before the changed calculation method was adopted, it was tested at 16 different watershed stations nationwide to ensure its accuracy and reliability.
"Every step of the calculation is scientific and measurable. That is why the court is willing to listen to our reasons. In fact, the court applied the method as a reference in arriving at compensation rates that are not much different from one encroachment case to another," he said.
Many developed countries follow a principle in which wrongdoers are obliged to replant trees. But in Thailand, importance is attached to legal means of seeking restitution rather than making the wrongdoers restore what they have destroyed.
Mr Pongsak insisted forestry officials do not pull compensation amounts "from the air''. They conduct an on-site survey of encroached forest areas and collect the data needed to appraise the damage, taking into account fairness to the department and the encroachers.
Meanwhile, national parks deputy chief Adisorn Noochdumrong said the compensation assessment was viable and here to stay.
The Administrative Court found the department has the right to adopt the model as the basis for assessing compensation, supported by academic study, he said.