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Bangkok Post    27/04/2005 10:04:55

Kultida Samabuddhi

The Senate environment committee has called on the police to protect local villagers fighting against alleged coastal mangrove destruction by giant agribusiness firm Charoen Pokphand Group (CP) in Rayong province.

The villagers had received several threats after revealing the alleged encroachment recently, said committee chairman Senator Kaewsan Atipho.

He was afraid they could meet the same fate as almost 20 local villagers and environmentalists across the country who were killed for their role in protecting natural resources from unlawful activities over the past four years.

The senate committee last week accused Shrimp Farm Co Ltd, a sister company of CP, local land authorities, and a village headman, of forging title deeds to gain legal rights to more than 300 rai of public land and dense mangroves in Rayong's Klaeng district.

The committee yesterday filed a complaint with forestry police chief Maj-Gen Sawek Pinsinchai on behalf of the residents.

”We are worried about increased tension between the villagers and the company's contractor, who clearly has cut the mangroves to make a shrimp farm,'' said Mr Kaewsan.

”The situation could turn violent if the police fail to arrest the culprits and revoke the illegal title deeds soon,'' the senator said.

Mr Kaewsan claimed that the committee had strong evidence to nail at least three persons involved with the illegal land rights issuing process: a company representative, a former village headman, and a district land officer.

”Due to strong documentary evidence, more perpetrators are likely to be unmasked,'' said Mr Kaewsan, “However, we have no idea whether CP Group's owner Dhanin Cheravanont has anything to do with the case.''

The senator said the move to protect the mangroves from CP's shrimp farming business was the beginning of the Senate's campaign to reform the country's land rights-related laws as well as mangrove protection scheme.

Pol Maj-Gen Sawek, who was appointed by national police chief Kowit Wattana to handle the case, said he would not spare any persons implicated in the scam “no matter how powerful'' they were.

The public has questioned the effectiveness of the investigation into the case since CP Group is known to have close ties with the government and is one of Thai Rak Thai's largest financial supporters.

Meanwhile, Marine and Coastal Resources Department's Mangroves Conservation Office chief Paisarn Tanapermpool said a ground survey over the weekend found that about 150 rai of dense mangrove forest had been completely destroyed.

”The locals, who grew and protected the mangroves for over a decade, have already lost their major source of food,'' said Mr Paisarn. “Unfortunately, the department has no authority to stop the company [from clearing the mangroves] because they hold the deeds to the land.''

A former Rayong mayor will hold a public forum on mangrove forest encroachment in the province early next month to counter a move by some influential figures pushing for the issuing of title deeds on public land they had encroached.

Surapong Phuthanapibun, a former Ranong municipality mayor, said representatives from the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry, the provincial chamber of commerce, the provincial land office, prawn farm operators and local leaders have been invited to the forum to discuss mangrove forest encroachment in tambon Nern Phra and tambon Pak Nam. The forum will be held at the Wat Nern Phra temple in Rayong early next month.

The public forum was aimed at feeding the facts to the public that many areas of the mangrove forests in tambon Nern Phra and tambon Pak Nam had been encroached upon and turned into prawn farms, restaurants and housing estates. There had also been attempts by some encroachers, mostly influential figures, to push for the issuing of land ownership documents for the encroached plots.

Also among the encroachers was a former politician who had allegedly encroached on 50 rai of a mangrove forest and was now lobbying local land authorities to issue a title deed for the encroached plot, said Mr Surapong.

He criticised provincial authorities for failing to seriously tackle forest encroachment in the province.

Meanwhile, Sa-nguan Sornsakul, an affected villager, said the locals were living in fear after a contractor who had cleared vast areas of a mangrove forest in Rayong's Klaeng district for the Charoen Pokphand Group (CP) ordered their photos and names taken by his men.

Mr Sa-nguan challenged Dhanin Chearavanont, the group's chairman and chief executive officer, to meet the villagers face-to-face and tell them why CP had to take away their last mangrove forest.

”The forest was born at the same time as the earth, not after CP was founded,'' he said. He called on Rayong governor Chaijit Ratakhajorn not to abandon them in their fight to save the forest.

The CP had earlier said that it had observed all relevant laws and had no intention to circumvent any of them.

Kaewsan Atipho, chairman of the senate environment committee, said he did not want to make it look as if Mr Chaijit was taking the CP side when he recently said that the land in dispute belonged to CP long before mangroves were reafforested. However, he wanted the governor to help find out if the Nor Sor 3 land right paper held by CP over that land was issued and obtained legally. Mr Kaewsan said CP had filed for the land paper in 1991by claiming that it was already being used as a shrimp farm. But an aerial photo taken in 1996 showed that it was still a fertile mangrove forest.

His panel would have a report about the alleged encroachment ready soon for further investigation.