Thailand Law Forum Law Journal - Public Participation in Environmental Protection in Environmental Protection and Thai Folk Wisdom

Two things here deserve attention. Public participation in deciding environmental issues include studies, evaluations and opinions of representatives from private environmental organisations and from higher education institutions. Although this constitutional provision is set apparently only for big environmental projects, it may have far-reaching results for the administrative process in Thailand.

The Act does not mention any participation of the higher education institutions and NGO’s in accordance with the Section 56 of the Thai Constitution. Apart from this constitutional provision, there is another reason which deserves to be taken seriously. If one has to consider participation in protecting the environment not only as a right but also as a duty, then it is reasonable to impose such duty in accordance with the ability to contribute to the protection of the environment. Scientific expertise is vital for the environmental protection. In Thailand, as in the USA and the UK, the universities and other educational institutions take a lion’s share of the research related to environmental issues. Therefore, taking into account the importance of scientific knowledge, it is natural to oblige educational and other research institutions to provide scientific expertise. The advantage of educational institutions over other research institutions is that they stand in closer proximity to the needs of the locality where those institutions are situated, while the centralized research institutions are normally in a more detached position.

It is true that the provisions of the Enhancement and Conservation of National Environmental Quality Act require scientific expertise as a part of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). An expert in Thai law on public participation, Somchai Prichasilapogun shared in his discussion with the author that the Thai public does not trust those assessments. Some of them are written in the English language, and are too technical. It is difficult for an interested person to get a copy of it. Moreover, the EIA is often made when the political decision by the government or an authoritative body is already taken. It was often asserted that EIAs prepared for the pacification of the public contained a lot of false and inaccurate information. Even though there is sanction for the submission of such information, it was said that it has never been exercised. Perhaps, the weakest point of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedure as described in Enhancement and Conservation of National Environmental Quality Act, is a lack of safeguards of public participation(23). In many countries, it is a duty of the competent organs to place copies of the EIA report on public display before a license or permission is granted, and to invite the public to comment, before public hearings take place(24).

Thus, the analysis of major Thai legislation on the environmental protection and the role of public participation shows significant faults from a purely legal point of view. In addition, the legislation lacks any affirmation of moral values which can be seen in Thai folktales: the values of the harmony with nature and the community, the duty of mutual care, and social solidarity. It seems that the legislation is elaborated to suit the interests of economic development and of those who profit from it.