Land Governance, Everyday Politics and the Wind Energy Project on Lands under the ALRO in Chaiyaphum Province
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Abstract
The disagreement between Thailand’s Agricultural Land Reform Office (ALRO) and judicial institutions in allowing wind energy companies to access lands under the ALRO stirs new debates on the righteousness of the ‘green energy’ enterprises’ use of the lands that the state has originally allocated for ‘agricultural uses’. In exploring how, in the first place, the company accessed the lands without encountering any overt protest, I draw on three approaches – land governance, powers of exclusion, and everyday politics. Based on qualitative research, I propose that from 2015 to 2016 a private company gained accesses to the ALRO lands in a village in Chaiyaphum province under two conditions. The first condition was changes in regulations that do not really contradict practices at local level and the reinterpretation of what should be counted as ‘farmer’s benefits’. Another condition was everyday negotiation between villagers and the company. The negotiation was underpinned by an ever-expanding ALRO land market, ‘intimate exclusion’ and the villagers’ hope, anxiety and understanding towards the wind power project.
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