VZCZCXRO9214
RR RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHCHI #0140/01 2540718
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 100718Z SEP 08
FM AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0840
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RUEHCHI/AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI 0912

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 CHIANG MAI 000140 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV ECON SOCI SNAR PHUM TH
SUBJECT: RELOCATIONS HURT HILL TRIBE AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY, 
SUSTAINABILITY 
 
CHIANG MAI 00000140  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
Sensitive but Unclassified; Please handle accordingly. 
 
 
 
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Summary 
 
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¶1.  (SBU) Agriculturally-dependent hill tribe or highland people 
in northern Thailand have become economically strained by forest 
conservation and drug control policies adopted by the Thai 
government in the last several decades.  These policies have had 
success in conservation and counternarcotics efforts, but in 
part by restricting land used for highland crops and relocating 
selected hill tribe villages to largely uncultivable lowlands. 
Officials say relocations rarely occur nowadays, but NGOs 
contend that up to 2,000 people have been moved since 2005 (out 
of a total hill tribe population of about 900,000 persons).  As 
a result, some hill tribe communities that were once 
self-sufficient can no longer subsist on what they produce.  In 
response, agriculturally-dependent highland people are turning 
toward economic alternatives in urban areas to compensate for 
lower crop yields, seek additional sources of income, and meet 
the rising costs of modern commodities and other expenses.  End 
Summary. 
 
 
 
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Relocation of Highland People Still Occurring 
 
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¶2.  (SBU) When forest conservation and drug control became major 
domestic priorities and matters of 
 
national security in the late 1980s, Thai government agencies 
targeted highland villages through relocation initiatives and 
land control policies that restricted the growth of hill tribe 
communities.  Efforts to preserve forest regions and to dissolve 
drug trade networks - which have met with some success - have 
largely come at the expense of hill tribe people, who have lived 
in Thailand's forest areas for decades and have developed a 
dependency on highland agriculture. 
 
 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Representatives of the Office of Narcotics Control 
Board and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment say 
that though land control policies still exist to prevent 
encroachment onto protected lands, they independently halted 
their own relocation policies in 1988 and 1998, respectively. 
They contend that resettlement rarely occurs nowadays, and only 
if the village being relocated is a threat to national security. 
 For example, narcotics officials allege that 300 hill tribe 
communities are currently involved with narcotics cultivation 
and that 1,000 are involved with smuggling. 
 
 
 
¶4.  (SBU) But NGOs (such as the Center for Redressing Problems 
for Highlanders and the Northern Development Foundation) and 
hill tribe community leaders contend that relocations are still 
occurring more often than officials admit.  They are also 
concerned that sometimes an entire community is relocated though 
only a few of its members are involved in illegal activities. 
The Center for Redressing Problems for Highlanders estimates 
that almost 2,000 highland people have been relocated since 2005 
(out of a total hill tribe population of about 900,000 persons). 
 According to National Security Council records, in 2006 there 
were 1,115 hill tribe villages that were still considered 
illegal occupants in protected areas.  NGOs assert that these 
villages have been and still are susceptible to relocation. 
Forest officials approved a plan this year to expand forest land 
by 128 million rai (51.2 million acres), a move which will 
likely affect the villages classified as illegal settlements. 
Without any deeds or papers claiming official ownership over 
their land, hill tribe people would have no choice but to 
relocate if required by officials. 
 
 
 
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CHIANG MAI 00000140  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
Land Control Heightens Highland Food Insecurities 
 
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¶5.  (SBU) In a 1998 forest conservation move, forest officials 
designated boundaries for national park and conservation areas 
that would be prohibited from encroachment, land clearings and 
agricultural use. This policy had a significant impact on 
agriculturally-dependent highland tribes by limiting the 
expansion of crop areas and reducing the amount of land 
available for cultivation.  In affected Karen tribes in the 
north, the number of land plots informally owned by each family 
was reduced from seven to one or two. As a result, food 
stability for these groups was endangered, necessitating a 
change in their agricultural production techniques. 
 
 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Tribes that had previously practiced crop rotation and 
subsistence farming were forced to change to intensive and 
commercial-led farming.  But it has proven difficult for 
highlanders to adjust, since intensive farming leaves a poorer 
soil quality and has a higher initial cost for fertilizers and 
pesticides.  Moreover, because highland people do not have 
titles or deeds formalizing their property rights, they have no 
means of attaining a loan to invest in factors of production to 
regenerate poor soil. Additionally, while highlanders had 
previously grown crops to eat, they now had to grow to sell to 
compensate for lower crop yields and reduced income from land 
reductions and to find funds to support intensive agriculture. 
Hill tribe people are also turning toward other economic 
alternatives, particularly in the city, as sources of income to 
provide for food and help sustain their lifestyle. 
 
 
 
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Hill Tribe Villages Relocated to Infertile Lowlands 
 
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¶7.  (SBU) Other relocation schemes over the years have 
transferred thousands of hill tribe people from fertile highland 
areas to depleted, uncultivable lowlands, and without financial 
compensation.  Though officials say relocation efforts have 
rarely occurred in recent years, NGOs point to cases suggesting 
otherwise.  Since 2006, resettlements cited by NGOs include 
villages in four districts of Chiang Mai province (Phrao, Wiang 
Haeng, Chiang Dao, and Mae Wang).  Additionally, in 2005 
officials in Lampang province moved a Lahu village that had been 
living in the same area for 30 years.  Narcotics officials 
asserted that its residents were acting as middlemen in a Chiang 
Rai-Lampang drug route, though ultimately only two people were 
found to have been involved in narcotics smuggling.  Officials 
say that drug charges were only one of several reasons for the 
resettlement, with illegal forest encroachment being another. 
Officials admit, however, to sometimes relocating a community 
based on charges that really only apply to a few of its members. 
 
 
 
¶8.  (SBU) While each family should receive about 20 rai (8 
acres) to maintain subsistence living, community hill tribe 
leaders estimate that on average relocated persons are given 10 
rai (4 acres), with only 2 rai (.8 acres) that are usable.  With 
a limited amount of fertile soil, these villages were forced to 
change their agricultural lifestyle - shifting from crop 
rotation and subsistence farming to intensive and commercial - 
and to find additional sources of income, particularly in the 
city. 
 
 
 
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Relocation with Responsibility 
 
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¶9. (SBU) Some relocation efforts are also occurring under the 
umbrella of the Queen's Initiative Projects, the overall aim of 
which is to conserve forest areas while promoting responsible 
agricultural development.  With seven of these projects 
currently underway, selected villages have been moved from their 
 
CHIANG MAI 00000140  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
original locations in the forest and given new land, with 
residents having the opportunity to be employed as contract 
farmers in crop fields overseen by the project.  Advocates of 
the project say it provides appropriate compensation while still 
conserving forests; others assert that families are not given 
enough land (4 rai, or 1.6 acres) and that not everyone is given 
employment.  On balance, NGOs commend efforts, such as the 
King's Royal Projects and the late Queen Mother-sponsored Mae 
Fah Luang Foundation, that seek to alter highland economic 
reliance on narcotic crops and logging, thereby making 
highlanders less susceptible to relocation.  (Note:  in 2003 the 
Mae Fah Luang Foundation was formally recognized by the UN 
Office of Drugs and Crime for its exceptional contribution to 
sustainable alternative development to eradicate opium and 
provide alternative livelihoods in the Golden Triangle). 
 
 
 
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A Search for Alternative Incomes, Sustainability 
 
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¶10. (SBU) With farming income falling, highlanders are turning 
to economic alternatives in the city to make up for a loss in 
sustainability.  There is also added pressure to earn more money 
because of increased expenses for education - such as the costs 
of travel from remote villages, lunches and uniforms - and the 
cost of modern appliances like television sets and DVD players. 
According to the Northern Development Foundation, the most 
common urban jobs for hill tribe members are as restaurants and 
karaoke bar workers, street vendors, construction workers, gas 
station attendants and domestic laborers.  Others engage in the 
sex industry and drug trade for income.  In 2003, the Institute 
of Ethnic Studies at Rajabhat University Chiang Rai studied the 
economic effects of resettlement on the Baan Wang Mai village in 
Lampang, which was relocated in 1995. Initially, to compensate 
for a drop in income, members first found work as contract 
farmers, but found wages to be too low and subsequently moved 
into the city.  Of those who moved outside the village, 61% 
worked as day laborers while 27% sold tofu drinks.  The same 
study also found rising numbers of female villagers turning to 
the sex industry. 
 
 
 
¶11. (SBU) By migrating to the city, highlanders - especially 
those without legal residence or citizenship status - are more 
at risk to develop health problems or be recruited into the sex 
trade.  Undocumented hill tribe members - who for certain 
reasons may not have citizenship - are more vulnerable at 
checkpoints on their way home from the city, with NGOs reporting 
cases of officials seizing their earnings.  Also, some 
undocumented highlanders in need of additional income apply to 
become (non-Thai) migrant workers, though at the cost of 
forfeiting the possibility of attaining citizenship benefits 
they may be eligible for if born on Thai soil. 
 
 
 
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Comment 
 
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¶12. (SBU) Agriculturally-dependent highland tribes are 
struggling with issues of sustainability.  As land 
 
limits become stricter and as hill tribe populations grow, 
highlanders encounter a resource problem causing migration to 
cities.  This in turn leads many to look toward illegal outlets 
of income, feeding an already significant drug problem and 
placing more individuals at risk for exploitation by human 
trafficking networks or other opportunistic criminals. 
 
 
 
¶13. (U) This cable was coordinated with Embassy Bangkok. 
MORROW