Trees Uprooted for Gas Pipeline
12/7/97
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Headline: Trees Uprooted for Gas Pipeline
Source: Bangkok Post
Date: 12/7/97
Copyright: The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd. All rights reserved 1997
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Trees make way for pipeline
Small trees will be replanted nearby
Chakrit Ridmontri
Kanchanaburi
Wrist-sized trees scattered along the foot of Pi
Teu mountain are being uprooted from their
habitat, which is classified as first and second
class watershed forests, to make way for a gas
pipeline.
The removed trees will be transplanted
elsewhere. But for trees with a circumference
larger than 60 centimetres, they will be axed
and hauled away for sale.
Then bulldozers will clear remaining shrubs and
bamboo clumps to make way for the 20-metre width
corridor. At the middle of the passage, a
three-metre ditch will be dug to allow the gas
pipeline to be laid.
The Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT) is to
lay the gas pipeline through forests from the
border of Thailand and Burma at I-tong village
to Pi Teu mountain at Kui Yae village, Thong Pha
Phum district.
The PTT which signed contracts to buy natural
gas from the Yadana and Yetagun fields in
Burma's Andaman sea is responsible for laying
the 260-km long pipeline in Thailand.
It starts from I-tong village, which is the
connection point with the Burmese portion, and
ends at a gas power plant of the Electricity
Generating Authority of Thailand in Ratchaburi.
The pipe-laying operation began early this year
after the National Environment Board approved
the project's environmental impact study (EIA).
Most of the work has been done except for the
first 50-kilometer route which passes through
forests. The areas are home to rare species of
animals such as wild elephants, hog-nose bat and
queen crab. The latter two species are found
only in the forests along the designated gas
pipeline route.
The project's EIA study requires the PTT to lay
the pipeline through the forests in one dry
season so as to avoid harming wildlife.
Songkiet Tansamrit, PTT's director of public
relations, said that about 600 rai of forests
will be cleared to lay the pipeline in the
forest section.
The pipeline will pass through watershed
forests, Sai Yok national park, forest reserved
areas, forest plantations, communities and
mines.
He said only a six-kilometer stretch - between
20th to 26th kilometres of the forest section -
is lush forest, while the remaining areas are
degraded.
Despite cabinet approval that the PTT cut all
the trees in the 20-metre corridor along the
50-kilometre forest section, Mr Songkiat said
for the sake of nature, the PTT would remove and
transplant valuable trees such as hardwood to
other areas that are appropriate for them.
Lert Chanthanaphap, a forestry lecturer at
Kasetsart University who is hired by the PTT to
oversee the transplant work, said trees with
circumferences less than 60 centimetres would be
removed and transplanted immediately.
However, there are two options for bigger trees:
axe them or reroute the gas pipeline away from
those trees. He said: "We should praise the PTT
for trying to transplant trees. We have to
accept that the mission will not be one hundred
percent successful but this shows that the PTT
listens to the public and is committed to do the
best for social good and the environment."
Mr Lert said that about 80 teak trees were
removed from the plantations and more than 2,000
trees have been marked for further removal. He
declined to reveal the number of big trees to be
axed.
The transplant operation started on December 5
to celebrate the King's birthday. Initially, the
PTT hired villagers from tambon Lin Thin and
Huey Kha Yeng to dig the trees in the 20-metre
corridor between pipeline kilometre 43rd to 47th
which is the first and second class watershed
forests.
The forests are covered with bamboo clumps and
shrubs that are dotted with saplings of hardwood
trees. Forestry teams marked the designated
trees to be removed with colourful ribbons.
The border line between transplanting and axing
trees being conducted by the PTT remains
questionable for Kanchanaburi conservation
groups and other NGOs which are jointly
protesting against the project.
They submitted a petition to Prime Minister
Chuan Leekpai last week asking him to order the
PTT to reroute the pipeline away from the
forests and told Mr Chuan to answer within five
days, otherwise they said would block the PTT
from laying the pipeline through the forests by
laying their bodies across the ditch.
"The PTT's activities are ambiguous over whether
it is conserving or destroying nature.
Therefore, we can't allow it to lay the gas
pipeline in the forests," said Phinan
Chotirosseranee, leader of the group.
The deadline will be met this Sunday.