Community Involvement in Mining Permits under the Minerals Act, B.E. 2560 (2017)

Abstract

             The objectives of this thesis are : (1) To study the theoretical concept of community participation in mining permits; (2) to study legal measures on community participation in mining permits according to the mineral law of Thailand, Australia, Canada, and the Federal Republic of Germany; (3) to analyze the problem of community participation in permitting mining under the law on minerals; and  (4) to suggest guidelines for amending the Minerals Act, B.E. 2560 (2017) and related subordinates. The research method is qualitative research consists of researching Thai and foreign legal documents, including information from the internet.

          The findings of this study are as follows: (1) Community participation in mining permits is based on various theoretical concepts in terms of community rights, participation, legal committee, mining, and community participation in mineral management. (2) The National Mineral Management Policy Committee does not have a composition of qualified members drawn from community sector representatives. There is a greater proportion of government committee members than the private and community sectors, similar to the Minerals Committee. In addition, there is a statutory requirement that there should be one specialized member of the provincial mining committee, which leads to a shortage of candidates because there are few specialized persons to serve in the province where they are appointed. Moreover, community participation in the form of listening to opinions and holding a referendum is different for different groups of people. However, for the legal committees in policy setting and approval or permission to act in relation to the natural resources of the Commonwealth of Australia, Canada, and the Federal Republic of Germany, they appear that committee members are from the community sector and there are similar proportions of directors in the public sector and the private and community sectors. There was no shortage of experts in the said committee, including people who could participate in the hearing and the referendum as one group. (3) Community participation in granting mining permission in the form of committees and participation in public hearings and referendums in Thailand is not consistent with the concept of community rights and participation guaranteed in the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand. Principles of power balance between directors and mineral management principles . This is in contrast to the Commonwealth of Australia, Canada, and the Federal Republic of Germany which are consistent with the aforementioned principles and concepts to allow the community sector to participate throughout the process. This includes serving as a member of the board of directors and the person who can participate in the public hearing and referendum must be a person who has been or will be affected by mining and who is a real stakeholder. (4) The research proposal suggests increasing the representation of qualified committee members from community representatives in the National Mineral Management Policy Committee and increasing the number of private sector and community committee members to have a proportion close to that of government members in both the National Mineral Management Policy Committee and the Mineral Committee. Additionally, it proposes further amendments to regulations to specify individuals with the authority to resolve issues in case of a shortage of qualified committee members with specific expertise. Furthermore, adjustments to regulations regarding the eligible groups participating in providing feedback and voting should be made to ensure that they consist of the same group of individuals. All these proposals aim to align with the principles established in the constitution and enhance the fairness and effectiveness of public and community participation.