No plans to lift the restrictions on teak

Posted by admin on January 29th, 2008 filed in Politics

As the forests in the country keep shrinking every year, calls to change the way growing areas are managed are falling on deaf ears

The Forestry Department has no plans to lift restrictions on teak growing areas to prevent more teak from being lost to poachers, ignoring repeated calls from locals in the northern region that the tough measure be eased. Logging in natural teak forests are completely banned because of the high market demand for the wood. Under the current forestry law, state permission is required for the use of teak, even if it is planted on private land, while teak in natural forests is off-limits to loggers. Also, registration must be made before individual land owners can plant any teak trees.

A senior forestry official said calls to ease the restrictions on the use of teak have been made from time to time, but the department could not bow to pressure as it believes relaxing the ban would do more harm than good to the country’s teak forests. He said the registration process allows state authorities to differentiate privately-grown wood from wood coming from a natural forest.

Even with such a strict regulation in place, 1,970 illegal logging cases were reported in 2006, with more than 6,400 illegally felled teak logs seized in raids. Teak forests have largely dwindled in the country and now mainly remain in some upper northern provinces, including Phrae.

The department’s statistics show that the country’s total forest cover has also shrunk from more than 53% of the total land area in 1961 to about 32% in 2004, or about 167,590 square kilometers. “People have been complaining that we have limited their rights to use teak, but this measure is necessary if we want to protect what little is left of the forests,” said the official. “The country’s forests have generally been destroyed extensively, and we can’t allow this to continue. “At least the registration of privately grown teak will help us identify the illegal logs better”.

Surapon Duangkhae, a member of the National Park Committee, said the regulation was good in principle, but often failed when being implemented. Under the law, it is specified that teak owners in non-commercial plantations must prove that the trees would environmentally pose no threat to other nearby properties if they are grown or they will not be granted permission. This leaves much to the judgement of forestry authorities to grant the permission. He said the regulation is causing problems for people occupying land without ownership documents. As a result, he said, these people tend to sneak into the forest and cut down the trees, thus complicating illegal logging, problems all the more.

Apart from the small forest dwellers, large-scale illegal logging has also continued. Mr Surapon said although the country stopped issuing logging concessions in the past several years, many sawmills still hold wood processing licences. “They are also the people who line up to buy logs, seized in raids, through auctions. “This may be one of the reasons why illegal logging is still continuing. “The auction of illegal logs in a way legalises the use of illegal wood from the forest,” he said. He said only when the local community is granted the right to manage its forest resources will the problem go away. He said changes are needed to old beliefs that management of forests should only be kept in the hands of forestry officials.

“Locals should be allowed to participate in the decision-making process, from protecting the forests to making use of the resources. “The process will likely encourage balanced negotiations, and that is where the importance of a community forest comes in,” said Mr Surapon.

Story by Piyaporn Wongruang (Bangkok Post January 2008)