Cultural Survival Quarterly, Volume 12, Issue 1 (1988). pp. 79-82.
Language:
English
Abstract:
In 1982 the government of Thailand proposed a new highly structured program to bring hill tribes under political control, and at the same time the Royal Forest Department began to express concern over the presence of tribal people in protected areas such as wildlife sanctuaries. In Thailand, as all land technically belongs to the state, these protected areas cannot be owned or occupied by anyone and so the hill tribes are seen as illegal squatters who must be moved. In 1986 the Royal Forest Department released a report outlining a resettlement program for tribal peoples, the first of which to be moved were some Hmong peoples. The author discusses the resettlement plan and the involvement of the army in the plan; the implementation of the relocation; and theoretical issues, including a discussion of the impact of tribal peoples on the environment in these protected areas. -after Author