BASELINE STUDY 5, Thailand - Forest Trends

Office of the Rubber Replanting Aid Fund (ORRAF) is involved in the promotion, financing and control of the
development of rubber plantations. ORRAF provides rubber plantation technology to farmers and subsidizes
the cost of replanting rubber. Recently, other crops (including teak, dipterocarps and oil palm) have been included
in the support program (FAO 2009:44). ORRAF is aware of the importance of wood revenue for farmers,
but this is seen as a complementary element in the replanting phase. There is little coordination with Thailand’s
rubberwood processing industry although information on plantation areas has been made available to the
wood industry.
Ministry of Interior
The policy of the Royal Thai Government is to promote decentralization 25 by strengthening lines of representation
and downward accountability from provincial governors to districts (amphoe), sub-districts (tambon) and
villages (baan). Many levels of decentralised state administration fall under the authority of the Ministry of Interior.
For example, the Ministry of Interior’s Local Administration Department includes the office of the Governor
of the different provinces, who is responsible for the actions of provincial and district RFD forest officers.
There is also a Forest Policy Unit of the Police Department who assists in forest protection and patrolling for
illegal forest activities. Historically, there has been much bureaucratic competition between natural resource
agencies such as the RFD and the Ministry of the Interior (Vandergeest and Peluso 1995).
The following levels of state administration which fall under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior are also
relevant for the forest-land sector:
Department of Special Investigation – has the jurisdiction and has investigated illegal timber smuggling operations,
sometimes in cooperation with National Anti-Corruption Commission that probes smuggling cases.
Provincial Administrative Organizations (PAO): There are 75 provinces in Thailand, each with a PAO that includes
representatives from the MONRE and provincial representatives of the RFD.
District Authorities (Amphoe) 26 : Along with the Provincial Forestry Offices, District Offices should be involved in
approving local forest management plans. According to ITTO (2006:112) there has been little guidance on these
matters, however. In terms of environmental governance, key local representatives of the Ministry of the Interior,
such as the Provincial Governors or the District Heads (nai Amphoe), are often the key actors who adjudicate
conflicts over natural resources (Garden et al. 2011:151).
Sub-District Authorities (Tambon Administrative Organization, TAO) 27 : The TAO Council is the lowest level of
the local government administrative structure. It is made up of the tambon chief (kamnan), the village headmen
from each village in the tambon and the tambon health officer, and two elected members from each village
in the tambon (ITTO 2006:89). There are more than 7,000 sub-districts in Thailand, and the capacities and
resources available to different TAOs vary significantly. The sub-district heads (kamnan) and the village leaders
(phu yai ban) are the key “local officials” that play key roles in natural resource management issues (Garden et
al. 2011).
25 Recent moves towards local decentralisation have at times been resisted by powerful state bureaucracies, and the decentralisation
process in Thailand can be best described as an incomplete and ongoing process. Nevertheless the powerful
National Decentralization Committee continues to push reforms forward, and Garden et al (2011:156) state that while
decentralization has not been a panacea for more effective and accountable governance in Thailand, the empowered subdistrict
administrative councils (TAOs) have emerged as “a viable form of local government and an arena for relevant politics.”
26 There are 876 districts in Thailand, about 10 per province.
27 Approximately ten tambons comprise an amphoe.
© EU FLEGT Facility, BASELINE STUDY 5, Thailand: Overview of Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade, July 2011
This Action is funded by the European Union and the governments of Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. The views expressed herein
can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union.
www.euflegt.efi.int
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