"Farmers pay the price for EEC", 16 October 2018

AN INCREASING number of people in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) provinces are finding themselves victims of unjust expropriation and land-grabbing, as developers hunt for sites to facilitate investment and industrial development.

...According to Sarayuth Sonraksa, coordinator of the Klong Luang Watershed Council...more than 10 farming families in tambon Khao Din that are the victims of unjust land expropriation. ...[L]and broker bought about 4,000 rai (640 hectares) of land in the area from different landlords to resell at a higher price to a developer who wants to establish an industrial estate specialising in battery manufacturing.

Development of the new battery industrial park violates the current Chachoengsao city plan that has designated the area an agricultural zone, says Sarayuth. The project developer has also failed so far to conduct public hearings and an environmental impact assessment of the project, he adds.... 

...The situation is severe in Chachoengsao, where 94 per cent of local farmers in the province are tenants and do not hold ownership of their ancestral lands, said Pornpana Kuaycharoen, Land Watch Working Group coordinator.

“Due to the lack of land ownership, the local farmers in Chachoengsao are more prone to be victims of land-grabbing, especially when the demand for land is rising within the province to develop industrial parks and new EEC development projects,” Pornpana said.