If Sunday’s decision regarding the controversial residential estate for judges on Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai proves to be final, it will represent a lesson learned – that forestry resource management is badly in need of revision. The minister could only say that construction would be completed, but no one would be allowed to occupy the residences. The government will have to demonstrate its belief in the importance of citizen participation by calling public hearings, if only in regard to forest rehabilitation plans. Public hearings should be a basic requirement for all projects of this kind, and by this we mean genuine public hearings, not rigged assemblies of citizens where voices and votes don’t count. We need to prevent such situations from recurring, not passing the guilt and the greed forward or backward.

Source: The Nation Bangkok May 07, 2018 17:48 UTC