Legal Issues in the Conservation, Restoration, Management, and Sustainable Use of Community Forests

Narong Saethep, Julapathana Kiratiphumtam , Wuttikon Detkawinlerd — Sat, 01 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0700

Background and Aims: This academic article on Legal Problems in the Conservation, Restoration, Management and Sustainable Use of Community Forests aims to 1) study legal problems in the conservation, restoration, management and utilization of community forests sustainably; 2) study and analyze legal problems in the conservation, restoration, management and utilization of community forests sustainably; and 3) determine guidelines for amending laws and methods for the conservation, restoration, management and utilization of community forests sustainably.

Methodology: This study is a study of documents and related research, analyzed and presented according to the educational objectives.

Results: The results of the study found that 1) Community forests are very important in creating a balance for the ecosystem, including effectively reducing global temperatures. In addition to being important for reducing global warming, forests are also a natural environment that is closely related to the way of life and livelihood of local communities. Important legal issues that require the development of environmental rights in Thailand include the right to participate in environmental management, which is not consistent with international environmental law, as well as the problem of local community participation in the conservation, restoration, management and sustainable use of community forests. 2) Local community rights or original local community rights are very important for the preservation and restoration of community forests because local communities or original local communities are groups of people who live and are close to community forests. However, the constitution, which is the parent law, revokes and revokes such rights, which will affect the restoration and preservation of community forests. The problem of local community participation in the restoration and preservation of community forests according to the Community Forest Act of 2019 is that there is still a lack of mechanisms based on the principle of true local community participation, and the role of local administrative organizations has not been defined. For the clear restoration and preservation of community forests 3) Amend the 2017 Constitution in the Fundamental Rights Chapter by proposing to amend Section 66 of the 2017 Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand and amend the Community Forest Act of 2019 by amending Section 3, the objectives of community forests, amending Section 4, the definition of “community forest”, amending Section 4, the definition of “community” to be “local community”, amending Section 6 to enable local communities to participate, amending Section 9, “Community Forest Policy Committee”, amending Section 23, “Provincial Community Forest Committee”, and stipulating the methods for conservation, restoration, management and utilization of community forests sustainably, regarding the roles and duties of communities, the roles and duties of local administrative organizations, the roles and duties of related government units, the use of local cultural mechanisms, the use of mechanisms for participating in carbon credit projects, the utilization of community forests, the promotion of local wisdom from community forest products and the promotion of eco-tourism.

Conclusion: The amendment of the law and methods for the conservation, restoration, management and sustainable use of community forests has 2 parts: 1) Amending the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand section on fundamental rights, proposing to amend Section 66 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand, B.E. 2560; 2) Community Forest Act B.E. 2562, Section 3, Section 4, Section 9 and Section 23, along with specifying methods for the sustainable management of community forests in 8 aspects.

Interdisciplinary Academic and Research Journal

Legal Issues in the Conservation, Restoration, Management, and Sustainable Use of Community Forests