notes

The purpose of the 1964 National Forest Reserve Act was to legalize 'permanent' forests' mapped on paper and to accelerate demarcation by the state. This law allowed forests to be designated as 'reserves' without royal decree. The latest statistics show that forest reserves (45% of total land) represent almost twice the area covered by actual forest, making it clear that the word 'reserves' is void of meaning.

Jin Sato, Public Land for the People: The Institutional Basis of Community Forestry in Thailand

Approximately 1.5-8 million people (from about 2 - 13 percent of total population respectively) live on uncertain lands.

Usufruct rights vs. full ownership title

"Land reform, on the hand, allowed farmers to obtain their own land with certain restrictions; in other words, it was a mechanism for farmers to reclaim rights over ambiguous public lands... With the decline in economic growth from the late 1990s, and the increasing difficulty of finding jobs in the cities, the problem of rural landlessness is re-emerging as one of the key items on the development agenda."

ALRO (Agricultural Land Reform Office) & Plantation and forest village
*many of this programs began in the 60s and 70s (near forest reserves) and were often tied to national security concerns, particularly Communist insurgency. Conservation and restoration of forests merely served as a pretexts for mobilizing local villagers to counter insurgents who were often hiding in the remote forest areas. As a result, many of the forest village projects took place along the borders of Laos and Cambodia.