The Formalization of Land Rights in State Forestlands Under the National Land Policy ( Kor Tor Chor ) Programme in Nan Province, Northern Thailand

ABSTRACT In rural Thailand, unclear and unregulated property rights of state forestlands have led, for decades, to conflicting land claims between state agencies and villagers. To solve this problem, on the one hand, grassroots activists proposed the communal land title bill so that local people could obtain formal recognition of their land rights and secure government support in the development of their land and livelihoods. On the other hand, the government, due to its opposition to any attempt to privatize public land, has offered usufruct rights to formalize farmers' occupation of state forestland without granting de jure property rights, a programme known as Kor Tor Chor (KTC). Viewing the issues through the lens of a property rights system, this paper contextualizes the conjuncture of state views and villager views regarding rights and the security of land tenure and livelihoods beyond the rigid spectrum of state, private and common property. We argue that the variant outcomes of the KTC programme have been influenced by multi‐party coalitions of state actors, non‐state actors and local communities' desires for development and environment integration in the backdrop of the historical specificity of locality. The paper utilizes cases in Nan Province, northern Thailand, to exemplify the potential for the bottom‐up formalization of land rights as an alternative to top‐down and across‐the‐board schemes implemented by national state agencies.