Srettha brings ministries, agencies together to discuss disputed Khao Yai forest land

The agreement was reached at an urgent meeting called by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin on Wednesday.

This urgent meeting was called in response to an outcry raised on social media and among environmentalists that land reform officials had allocated up to 2,900 rai (464 hectares) of the Khao Yai forest to farmers.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Srettha said the agricultural minister, the environment minister, the permanent secretary for Natural Resources and Environment Ministry, the director-general of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation and the secretary-general of the Agricultural Land Reform Office had been summoned for a meeting.

Srettha’s X post further said that the Royal Thai Survey Department would take three weeks to survey the disputed area, and the park department and land reform office backed it.

The PM said the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry has also put all land allocation along the buffer zone between the forest reserves and areas designated for reform on hold.

After the meeting, Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Thamanat Prompao called a press conference to elaborate. Also present were Jatuporn Burutphat, permanent secretary of the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry, Athapol Charoenshunsa, director-general of the park department, Royal Survey Department chief Lt-Genera Chakhon Boonphakdee and Winaroj Supsongsuk, secretary-general of the land reform office.

Thamanat said the meeting agreed that affected agencies would no longer engage in public disputes over the overlapping land.

Plus, he said, Srettha had instructed the Royal Survey Department to complete the survey within three weeks.

Thamanat also promised to ensure that no areas designated as buffer zones would be allocated to farmers, while title deeds issued for the areas would be revoked. He also warned legal action against anyone who is not a farmer found to be holding the land.

The land reform office and park department will later sign a memorandum of understanding on future land allocations, and from now on, there will be representatives from nine government agencies to consider areas to be allocated for agricultural land reform, he said.

As for the 2,900 rai in question, he said the land had been designated in July 5 last year, well before the current government took office.

So far, he said, five farmers have been given Sor Por Kor documents for plots in the disputed areas, and his ministry would try to talk them into giving the land up if it is found to be fertile forested land.

Thamanat added that the land reform officials should have used their common sense and not allocated forest reserve land for farming.

Separately, Jatuporn said the issue would be dealt in line with law once the survey is complete, while Winaroj said he has transferred seven land reform officials from Nakhon Ratchasima province to pave the way for a clean and fair investigation into the case.

Surin Sinrat, who leads the network of environmentalists in Rayong, wrote to the House committee on natural resources and environment, asking for a investigation into the allocation of the plots. He said his group was against the fact that the Korat Land reform office had designated part of the Khao Yai National Park as farmland, when the area is still a fertile habitat for wildlife.