Natural Resources and Environment Minister General Surasak Kanchanarat has transformed the government’s intention into an ambitious plan to steer reform of the country’s management of natural resources, which includes the forest sector. He talked to The Nation’s Piyaporn Wongruang about his reform policy and plan, and what would be achieved if they were successfully implemented.
IT SEEMS NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT IS ALSO GOING THROUGH MAJOR REFORM LIKE OTHER SECTORS AS YOU ARE WORKING ON THE STRATEGIC-REFORM STEERING PLAN FOR NATURAL RESOURCES. IS THIS THE RESULT OF YOUR CONCLUSION BASED ON YOUR LENGTHY EXPERIENCE IN REFORM WORK?
When we, the NCPO [National Council for Peace and Order], first arrived in politics, our work was divided and, yes, I helped take care of the reform work. This is partly because I had worked extensively with the civil sector and thus had experience in dealing with politics while I was at the Defence Ministry.
If you remember, the 11 prime reform agendas were from us, the Defence Ministry. We had invited people as well as politicians to talk with us to see what areas they wanted to reform before developing the proposals, which were then forwarded to the NRC (National Reform Council).
Following our meetings, we came up with the conclusion that we wished to see corruption, bureaucratic administration, and in particular politics reformed the most. However, this had something to do with the fundamental problem that we had, which was inequity - where decentralisation of power and access to resources was needed.
It was impossible for the country to move on with wealth being in the hands of a few like this. We needed redistribution of wealth so that we can get out of this trap. That's the reason why reforming natural resources management was one of its [the junta's] top agendas.
SO, IT [NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT REFORM) HAS BEEN PART OF THE GOVERNMENT'S AGENDA FROM THE BEGINNING. HOW DID YOU TRANSLATE THIS INTO POLICY?
To help reduce inequity via natural resources management, we have a critical challenge, which is how we can access the resources equally while using them in a sustainable manner so that we will not cause any impact on the resources that are actually part of the public domain.
So, I looked at this challenge two dimensionally and transformed them into my key policies or missions to accomplish at the ministry and to respond to the government's intention. First, it's about conservation as fundamentally natural resources are part of the public domain. And second, it's about how to use it in a sustainable manner to strike a balance between conservation, sustainable uses, and last but not least, equal access to these resources or equity.
That was where I started before rearranging the work at the ministry and dividing it into four main sub-groups, ranging from natural resources, under which forests and land are under, to water resources, environmental management, and administration.
IT SEEMS THE NCPO AND GOVERNMENT GAVE IMPORTANCE TO FOREST AND LAND PROBLEMS, AS IT IMMEDIATELY ISSUED AT LEAST TWO ORDERS TO TACKLE IT. ON YOUR SIDE, HOW HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING ON THIS?
To come up with a solution, we had to learn the situation first. You may know that our forests have long and extensively been encroached upon, but I can say that after the NCPO took office the recent results of satellite data have shown that the rate of encroachment has ceased.
People with selfishness are definitely part of the problem but we cannot blame them alone. There are actually some other factors, which have contributed to the problem. These are flaws in our regulations and concerned agencies, as well as a degree of public awareness and cooperation.
So, it needs quite a holistic approach and that's the reason why we are developing that strategic plan under which our forests will be re-managed with clear goals set in line with the government's strategic 20-year plan.
WHAT IS THE PLAN ABOUT?
The plan lined up strategies and measures for all natural resources plus the goals for every five years until 2035. In the past, we didn't have such a long-term plan to guide our work direction. It's largely about politics and cronyism. With such a framework, although it was still corrupted, we trust that they will not be able to do that much. But more importantly, they must follow it [the plan] and accomplish it as this comes with the goals they must be accountable for.
For our forests, we need to review what we want to achieve and how to get there. Forest experts have agreed that the country needs forest areas up to 49 per cent [of the country] in the next 20 years. So we have set the target. To increase the pristine forest area at present, which is around 32 per cent [of the country], we need around 25 million rai [four million hectares] more.
The main obstacle is we still have unsettled conflicts with people living in the forests. So, we have decided to reinterpr