The military was given an earful early this month for using invasive alien species in their aerial reforestation mission, and rightly so. The blunder, however, is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Thailand's reforestation policy, which puts dictatorship and money before ecological health. To save the forest, this self-serving mindset must end.
The controversy arose when the Royal Thai Army posted to their Facebook page showing them "seed bombing" from a helicopter over Salween National Park in mountainous Mae Hong Son province. Among the seed balls were the notorious Leucaena leucocephala tree or krathin yak in Thai, one of the most invasive species in the world.
Krathin yak is environmentally harmful as it prevents natural forests from regenerating. The public immediately grilled the military for harming the forests. The army argued the seed varieties were approved and co-produced by forest authorities. They also vowed to continue their forest conservation efforts their way to protect "national security".
Despite the health of the forests being at stake, the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) has kept its mouth shut. This is not exactly a shock.
Following the logging ban in 1989, reforestation has become an opportunity for forestry agencies to gain more power and budget in protecting national forest land. But the forests are home to more than 10 million people. Many are indigenous forest dwellers with precious knowledge about tropical forest regeneration. Still, they face eviction to make way for large-scale reforestation.
The forest agencies need the military to evict forest communities. Hence the silence at the military's use of an invasive species for aerial seeding.
Deforestation in Thailand stems mainly from logging concessions, road construction in forest areas, forest clearance to destroy the communist strongholds during the insurgency in the 60s and 70s, and the state promotion of cash crop farming in national forests. In short, it is the government's own doing. Yet the government blames the forest dwellers.
After the logging ban, reforestation has become a big business. Forest land is rented out to eucalyptus plantations for the pulp and paper industry, even though they destroy forest biodiversity, wildlife habitats and the livelihoods of forest communities.
The forestry agencies also have their big-budget reforestation projects. Without external monitoring, corruption is rife. The same goes for the sapling growing programmes to supply the reforestation sprees.
Meanwhile, corporates, charities and the public join the reforestation campaigns without questioning the agencies' clear-cut policy; all remaining trees and bushes that can regenerate naturally are bulldozed to grow saplings in bare plots of land. Without proper care the saplings die, prompting a new budget for a new reforestation project.
The reforestation sprees entail forest evictions across the country. This state violence is possible due to the systematic stereotyping of the rural poor as forest villains and portraying of government officials as forest heroes. Both depictions support draconian forest laws that criminalise forest dwellers and entrust forest officials with dictatorial powers to manage national forests.
The military-forestry alliance for reforestation is a dangerous one. In 1990, the forestry agencies and the military joined forces in the Khor Jor Kor to relocate thousands of families in national forests to make way for eucalyptus plantations.
In 2011, Kaeng Krachan National Park officials set fire to over 100 homes of the indigenous Karen at Bang Kloy Bon forest in Phetchaburi. The park wanted to use the area for a 4,200-rai reforestation project to honour King Rama IX. The Supreme Administrative Court later ruled that arson was against the law.
Yet, after the 2014 coup, the junta intensified forest eviction with full support from forest authority chiefs.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the forest dwellers are effective forest guardians and the best way to increase the forest as a carbon sink is to give them land security, recognise their knowledge of the rainforests and involve local communities in forest management.
Not that the government does not know how best to help tropical rainforests regenerate. In 1995, the Forest Department let Wildlife Fund Thailand reforest the denuded Khao Paeng Ma mountain in Nakhon Ratchasima with the aid of local communities. Now, the once barren region is a lush Non-Hunting Area and home to hundreds of guars.
Yet the forest authorities refuse to adopt this model for other projects as it undermines their autocratic control.
The army's aerial seeding blunder requires a rebuke. But its harm to the forests cannot compare with the damage done by forest officials.
