AUTHORITIES have reached a deal with a landless community that will allow them to live in a mangrove forest if they help protect the area, a unique collaboration that could work across the country, land rights groups said.
Under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the government, human rights groups and about 45 families in the coastal town of Ranong, the community will not get ownership rights but will receive assistance in building homes and access to utilities.
The deal, which was struck earlier this month and includes indigenous people such as the sea gypsies, is now being replicated in the coastal cities of Phuket and Krabi.
“The communities have been fighting for land for a long time, and we have been trying to find a solution via numerous negotiations,” said Maitree Jongkraijug, a manager at Chumchonthai Foundation, an NGO that is a part of the MOU.
“This is a pilot project, the first of its kind – a model of cooperation between communities, civic organisations and the government that can work for landless people in protected areas,” he said yesterday.
About a third of Thailand’s 69 million people depend on land for a living, but nearly 80% of private land is formally owned by less than a fifth of the population, according to land rights groups who have long called for reforms.
Coastal communities are particularly vulnerable as a tourism boom has pitted them against developers keen on land that their boats, homes and shrines sit on, while the government’s conservation efforts limits their access to the sea for fishing.
Mangroves protect coastlines against storms, rising seas and tsunamis.
They also absorb planet-heating carbon from the atmosphere and provide nurseries for young fish, which supports the livelihoods of coastal communities. — Reuters
Under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the government, human rights groups and about 45 families in the coastal town of Ranong, the community will not get ownership rights but will receive assistance in building homes and access to utilities.
The deal, which was struck earlier this month and includes indigenous people such as the sea gypsies, is now being replicated in the coastal cities of Phuket and Krabi.
“The communities have been fighting for land for a long time, and we have been trying to find a solution via numerous negotiations,” said Maitree Jongkraijug, a manager at Chumchonthai Foundation, an NGO that is a part of the MOU.
“This is a pilot project, the first of its kind – a model of cooperation between communities, civic organisations and the government that can work for landless people in protected areas,” he said yesterday.
About a third of Thailand’s 69 million people depend on land for a living, but nearly 80% of private land is formally owned by less than a fifth of the population, according to land rights groups who have long called for reforms.
Coastal communities are particularly vulnerable as a tourism boom has pitted them against developers keen on land that their boats, homes and shrines sit on, while the government’s conservation efforts limits their access to the sea for fishing.
Mangroves protect coastlines against storms, rising seas and tsunamis.
They also absorb planet-heating carbon from the atmosphere and provide nurseries for young fish, which supports the livelihoods of coastal communities. — Reuters
Already a subscriber? Log in
Get 20% OFF The Star Digital Access
Cancel anytime. Ad-free. Unlimited access with perks.
