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Abstract
In the past, environmental management in Thailand was only the responsibility of the government. Citizens had to comply with all the related laws and regulations. After participating in Stockholm Conference in 1972, Thai government recognized the need for environmental management. The Enhancement and Conservation of National Environmental Quality Act 1975 was enacted and it changed the overview of environmental management in Thailand. Public participation has been continuously adopted into Thai regulatory framework since the government recognized its importance and capability for solving environmental conflicts in Thailand. Environmental laws and regulations relating to public participation practice in Thailand were reviewed and analyzed. Secondary data from articles, journals and books were evaluated. It was found that Thai government’s approach to handling the environmental problems and conflicts under the Thai laws and mechanisms was top-down management and obviously ineffective. In particular, decisions about environmental protection and management often fail to integrate the opinions of the public. Public participation practice was often avoided and limited. The decision-makers preferred to keep control over the decision and refused to share their authority. The public has few opportunities to influence the decisions. It could be said that Thai environmental laws and regulations are not effectively implemented and enforced. An ineffective implementation and enforcement of the regulations promulgating public participation was an important obstacle to achieve effective process and this could lead to more environmental problems and conflicts.
Highlights
The dramatic changes in the fundamental structures in Thailand have been a cause of environmental and social conflicts
Its main purpose is to set and follow the environmental policy, plan and standards to protect the environment by providing basic provisions for environmental protection in aspects of natural resources and pollution control, as well as aiming to be a comprehensive environmental law incorporating varied aspects of environmental management in Thailand
The National Environmental Quality (NEQA) has incorporated a number of initiatives, in particular a concept of public participation, aiming to implement effective environmental management and regulations
Summary
The dramatic changes in the fundamental structures in Thailand have been a cause of environmental and social conflicts. The National Environmental Board (NEB) and the Office of the National Environment Board (ONEB) which served as its Secretariat were established as a central authority to coordinate environmental management. These were the first government organisations responsible for handling environmental problems in the country (Reutergardh and Yen, 1997). Decentralisation of responsibility for environmental actions to the provincial governors was implemented (Reutergardh and Yen, 1997) At this early stage, this legal framework was unable to effectively solve the environmental problems and public participation was not well established
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