An independent committee examining a land dispute between Karen villagers and authorities has granted approval for the villagers to return to Bang Kloy Bon if they wish.
Last week, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) announced that the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) is violating the basic human rights of Karen ethnic minorities living deep in the forest in Bang Kloy Bon in Kaeng Krachan National Park. The NHRC reportedly stated the DNP cannot invoke the National Park Act to kick out the Karen residents living there, despite the forest having been made a national park a few decades ago.
Karen villagers evicted from Bang Kloy Bon, and Chai Phaendin forest villages in part of Kaeng Krachan National Park in Phetchaburi in 1996 are threatening to return to the villages.
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.
Exactly a year ago this month, a group of indigenous Karen forest dwellers left their resettlement village in Kaeng Krachan National Park to go back to Bang Kloy Bon and Jai Paen Din, their ancestral homes deep in the jungle. They were immediately arrested and sent to jail.