Thailand

The Appeal Court has upheld a lower court's ruling ordering Lead Concentrates Co to pay 36 million baht in compensation to Karen villagers suffering from lead contamination. The court said yesterday it agreed with the Kanchanaburi Provincial Court which ruled in 2010 that the lead-mining firm was responsible for polluting the Klity Creek in Lower Klity village in Thong Pha Phum district. Altogether 151 villagers, including Jisa Nasuansuwan, 64, who died of cancer in 2008, were exposed to toxic substances in the creek, the sole water supply for the village for 14 years.

On November 29-30, 2011, Vietnam hosted a regional consultation meeting in Hanoi joined by counterpart officials from Korea, Malaysia and Thailand to share ideas on a draft technical guideline on contaminated soil monitoring. At the consultation meeting, experts shared lessons learned and recommendations based on implementation challenges and success in their respective countries. As for the next steps, Vietnam’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment will finalized the technical guidelines and explore opportunities to continue their twinning partnership with Korea.

Villagers accused of causing global warming through forest encroachment intend to ask the Administrative Court to revoke a regulation that allows a government agency to file a civil case against them. Boon Saejoong of the Land Reform Network said the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department (DNP) model for calculating the cost of damage caused by deforestation was unreasonable.

Read full article: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/256410/villagers-dispute-agency-ec...

West Bengal establishes compliance assistance center based on experience from the Philippines, Thailand and U.S.

Challenge

The new divisions are intended to speed up the legal proceedings involving environment-related cases to better ensure justice and solve problems more quickly, said Supreme Administrative Court president Hassawut Withitwiriyakul.The divisions were inaugurated at the Supreme Administrative Court, the Central Administrative Court and nine regional administrative courts across the country.

Read full story: http://www.bangkokpost.com/lite/news/250008/administrative-courts-launch...

AECEN worked with PCD to establish centers that promote compliance with environmental regulations in the swine sector.

Challenge

As is usual when a new government comes in, there has been a lot of talk of grand and expensive projects to move the country forward. An example of this is the Pheu Thai Party's proposal to ''reclaim'' land along the coast of Thailand by filling in mangrove forests and mudflats and building a dam 10km from the shoreline in Samut Prakan and Samut Sakhon provinces.

The wife of slain protester Thongnak Sawekchinda said her husband's murder was likely a result of a drop in profits caused by the movement to stop coal being transported through Samut Sakhon.

Jomkwan Sawekchinda, 46, said coal-related companies, and in particular the transport sector, will have been angered by Thongnak's disruption of their business.

She said her husband was a key leader in the fight against the coal business in tambon Tha Sai in Muang district.

Klity is only a small creek. The lead mine that poisoned it with toxic waste water is a relatively small mine. The village of the indigenous Karen forest dwellers who have been suffering from lead poisoning is also a small village of only about 80 families. Here is a straight-forward and relatively limited case of industrial pollution, and the Kanchanaburi Court has already ordered the company to pay compensation to sick villagers and to clean up the creek.

Read full story: http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/249286/no-end-to-the-klity-ho...

In 2008, Thailand generated over 1.8 million tons of hazardous waste, and imported or produced nearly 30 million tons of hazardous chemicals

Challenge