The government says it will heed His Majesty the King's advice on reforestation, but the three billion baht budget allocated to reforest seven million rai of land over five years is so small that it is questionable the project can be carried out effectively.
Photo by Pichaya Svasti
So it seems there is good and not so good news about the government’s reforestation scheme.
The good news is that the government has put forest rehabilitation and preservation on the national agenda, which means it is serious about the project. The rather disappointing news is that only three billion baht will be allocated to reforest seven million rai of land over the next five years.
Three billion baht is not at all a small amount of money, but for seven million rai of land over five years this boils down to a mere 85.7 baht per rai per year.
The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation will receive two billion baht to reforest four million rai and the Royal Forest Department will take care with the other three million rai with just one billion baht in funding allocated.
I wonder how the two departments can do much with an average of just 85.7 baht per rai to be spent over a year? I just cannot figure out how land can be reforested for chicken feed money, not even how they could buy enough saplings.
Perhaps, the two departments can enlighten me and other members of the public on just how they plan to do this.
Then there the issue of the seven million rai of land, which could be very problematic. The trouble is, most of the deforested land targeted for replanting is inhabitated. So what the government will do with these people encroachers or illegal settlers? Will all of them be forced off the land in order to allow reforestation? Or will they be allowed to stay on and be employed to care for the replanted forest?
Interestingly, It was reported that the Strategic Formulation Committee for Water Resources Management recently endorsed a proposal by committee member Virabongsa Ramangura to set up one or more corporations to undertake reforestation in watershed and upstream areas as part of the flood prevention master plan.
Under the proposal, the corporations would be a joint venture comprising four partners -- the government, the people’s sector, the local government and the private sector -- each of which would hold a 25 per cent stake in the corporation.
The public could subscribe to a corporation’s shares. In the initial stage, the government would provide subsidies. Eventually, it was hoped the corporations would turn a profit.
Virabongsa Ramangura (Photo by Somchai Poomlard)
Given this corporate reforestation idea, it could be surmised that the government’s role in the reforestation project may be just as a supporter, and that the real players will be the corporations to be set up.
To reforest seven million rai of land is a huge undertaking and requires a huge investment that the government seems unwilling to make, given that only three billion baht funding was committed to the project over the next five years.
So, it is very possible that the key player will be the private sector, which has both the money and know-how -- but the know-how is in the form of commercial tree farms, not regeneration of natural forest cover.
So, there is a high likelihood that Dr Virabongsa’s idea of corporationas to do the reforestration will serve the interests of the private sector, which is readily equipped to do the job, rather than the two remaining partners, namely the people’s sector and the local governments such as tambon administration councils or provincial administration councils.
Does the people’s sector, such as the NGOs, even have the money or manpower to undertake reforestation on a massive scale even though they are supposed to hold a 25 per cent stake in a reforesting corporation?
And if the private sector, ie the businessmen, are the real players in the reforestration project, I wonder if any of them will be interested in reforestation in its real sense – that is to revive the forest cover so it serves as a natural sponge to prevent flooding and help ease drought.
Instead of regenerated forests, it seems likely we will end up with more commercial tree farms. But at least this cut-over land will again be covered with trees.