About 600,000 rai of forest land has been reclaimed from encroachers since 2014 under a government-led recovery drive, says a spokesman for the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc).
Maj Gen Peerawat Saengthong said that Gen Natthapol Nakpanit, the army chief-of-staff and Isoc secretary-general, has instructed officials to strictly follow the strategic plan for forest recovery.
Under the plan, Isoc and the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry were assigned to map out an action plan to tackle forest encroachment and sustainably manage natural resources. The goal is to increase forested areas to 128 million rai, or 40% of the country’s land area, within 10 years.
Forest cover accounted for 61% of the country's land area in 1945 but declined to 34% over the following three decades, mainly because of rapid agricultural expansion and commercial logging. The decline continued throughout the 1980s as forest cover shrank below 30%.
Following a rise in serious flooding linked to increased deforestation, the government finally banned all commercial logging in 1989. However, the process of reclaiming and rehabilitating forest land has been slow, and illegal occupation of land by connected and influential figures is a perennial problem.
Since Isoc began its campaign to reclaim forest areas in June 2014, about 600,000 rai had been seized as of September this year, said Maj Gen Peerawat.
As illegal cutting of endangered tree species was still rampant, the Isoc secretary-general has asked regional and provincial Isoc offices to keep a close watch on poachers and to increase green areas by planting trees in watershed areas, added the spokesman.