The Royal Forestry Department (RFD) will set up an investigative
committee to determine whether park chief, Jaen Thafong,
is guilty
of participating in the illegal timber trade.
On Wednesday, Jaen received a transfer order to the position
of
deputy chief of Doi Suthep-Pui National Park in Chiang
Mai. The
move, considered a demotion, serves as ''light punishment",
said RFD
Director General Sathit Sawintorn. The illegally-felled
timber
seized by forestry officials consisted of 195 teak logs,
or about
200 cubic metres of wood. They also found another 500
teak logs
lying along the Salween River bank, awaiting shipment
to Burma.
Officials cannot immediately remove the logs because of
ongoing
military conflict across the border, but according to
government
policy, they will eventually become the property of the
Forest
Industry Organisation (FIO).
Information about the illegal scheme was reported to the
RFD by a
forestry officer who identified himself only as ''C5 Paa
Mai" a
reference to a civil service level. The source also supplied
the
names of the companies involved.
The RFD said that once the trees were felled they would
be floated
across the Salween River which forms the border
in that area and
stamped to indicate that the logs came from Burma. They
were then
brought back to Thailand at Tha Sam Lap port in Mae Sariang
district, processed in a saw mill there and sent to Bangkok.
Four companies are still allowed to import timber from
Burma through
Salween National Park and the adjacent Salween Wildlife
Sanctuary:
Ska Bee Co Ltd, SC Co Ltd, STP Co Ltd and Sor Prapakarn
Co Ltd.
The whistle-blower also claimed that many influential businessmen
and officials involved are in the scam, including police
and customs
officers, FIO officers, district RFD officers, as well
as kamnan and
village headmen in the province's Mae Sariang district.
Agriculture Minister Chucheep Harnsawat said that should
Jaen be
found guilty, legal action would be taken against him,
and added
that as there are too few forestry officials to monitor
the
situation, local people should be enlisted to help out.
''We must implement measures to screen logs and make sure
they come
from Burma," Sathit said.