The Northern Peasant Federation (NPF) on Tuesday submitted a petition to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Forestry, in a bid to reclaim land use rights for forest-dependent ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples.
About 20 representatives of the NPF affected by the government's land and forest management passed on their demands to Natural Resources and Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa via the ministry's permanent secretary Jatuporn Buruspat at Le Meridien Chiang Mai where the meeting is being held from Tuesday to Thursday.
Thaworn Laklaem, the NPF representative, said the meeting was only promoting the government's agenda and did not have the participation of the public, especially those affected by the policy.
"The government has announced its forest management policy and conservation projects that violate our right to use the forest. Many of us lived in the forest long before the announcement of the forest conservation policy, yet some of us are being forced to move out and have been accused of causing deforestation," he said.
The federation is demanding the government grant their community the right to manage the land and resources in accordance with the constitution and regulations regarding land title deeds, he said.
The federation also demanded the government expedite the amnesty law for those involved in forest encroachment cases resulting from the government's conservation approach, as well as drop forest-related charges against locals to allow them to resume their livelihoods on their land.
The government must stop seizing land under the pretext of reforestation, he said. The group also demanded revisions to the Community Forest Act 2019, National Park Act 2019 and Wildlife Conservation and Protection Act 2019, and demanded that civil society participates in the redrafting of such laws to benefit forest-dependent people and forest conservation.
The government should set up a land bank and use a progressive land tax, he said.
