,. - THAILAND: A royal battle to save the trees INDIA

BANGKOK, Nov 26 (IPS) - Almost a hundred years ago, Thai officials thought their South-east Asian kingdom had too many trees, and the main reason why they established the Royal Forestry Department (RFD) at all was to regulate the stumpage price.

But now Thailand has only 26 percent forest cover left and the RFD has gone from promoting cultivation to conservation of forests.

According to United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) surveys, Thailand loses five percent of its forests each year. If this continues, the country will have no forest left by 2010.

Much of this destruction has been caused by both legal and illegal loggers and village people clearing land for farming, says RFD director-general Pong Leng-ee.

"Most reforestation projects fail because of conflicts between the RFD and people over land," he adds. "The more democracy we have the more pressure we get from people."

People need land for cultivation and they also need fuel wood for cooking and eating, says the RFD head. Villagers near forest areas consume 1.23 cu m of fuel wood per person annually. Thailand's annual consumption of wood now totals 58 million cu m.

It has not been easy going for the present-day RFD, despite a budget of more than 400 million dollars for 1995 alone to manage a forest area divided into three zones that are measured in rais (one hectare is equivalent to 6.2 rais).

Conservation Zone C makes up the largest area of 88 million rai (14.2 million hectares), including 77 national parks, 34 wildlife sanctuaries, 25 watershed areas and 48 non-hunting zones.

Another 55 million rai of forest is set aside as an economic zone (Zone E) in which productive forest plantations can be grown. Then there are 7.2 million rai designated as an agricultural zone (Zone A) -- degraded areas which are given out to farmers under the land reform programme.

Likening the forest to a ship with many leaking holes, Pong says the RFD has plugged the main hole: concessionary logging. But a lot of other holes have to be watched, he says.

Previous attempts at sustainable logging and reforestation in Thailand have failed. In 1989, the government imposed a total ban on logging, but illegal logging continues under the protection of powerful political and economic interests.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service