SURIN, 8 August 2014 – Surin provincial authorities have launched an operation to reclaim forest land by removing plantations that encroach on national park reserve areas.
The operation, in line with the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO)’s policy, involves over 500 forest rangers, students and locals in the effort to destroy eucalyptus, pararubber and cassava plantations that illegally encroach on around 17,000 rai of forest land.
Officials used GPS trackers to pinpoint the exact perimeter of forest reserves. 10,000 rai of additional forest land converted to agriculture have also been found.
The NCPO recently unveiled a master plan to cut deforestation by 40% in the next decade. It hoped that most, if not all, of the illegally encroached land in national forest reserves or national parks would be reclaimed from the encroachers in the first year of the plan.
