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these changes have contributed to ambiguity about land rights for ethnic tribes livingwithin forest reserves. Changes in legislations are summarized inBox 8.1. Arguably ambiguity in the type of land titles has had important implications for crop choice and agricultural decisions. Box8.1:Chronologyof ImportantEvents forForest-RelatedLegislation inThailand (Note:Relevant important legislation are starred) 1874:LocalGovernor’sActof1874andRoyalOrderonTaxationofTeakandother logs. Central government/Kingbecomes involved inmanaging logging concessions 1896:RoyalForestDepartment (RFD) founded 1897: Forest PreservationOrder of 1897 regulates size ofTeak tobe logged 1901: Forestmanagement completely under the control of the central government 1913: Forest PreservationAct controls species ofTeak andothers.Act legally defines a ‘forest’.Givesaminister theauthority todesignatenon-loggingareas and issueorders to prohibit land clearing 1916:Draft of ForestConservationAct. “First attempt” at introducing spatial conserva- tion.Regional forest offices begin to select forests to conserve anddesignate as ‘forest reserves’.Draft is not approvedbut temporary designations of ‘forests’ continue 1938: Forest Preservation andConservationAct of 1938;Divides forests into two categories – ‘PreservedForests’ and ‘ForestReserves’ *1941: ForestAct of 1941. ForestReserves are promulgated 1952: ForestRanger service for control andpolicing forests.HoweverRangers only monitor commercial logging concessions and are not assigned to particular Forest Reserves orPreserves 1953: Forest Preservation andConservationAct is revises. Forest ‘designating’ committeemust nowcontain a sub-district head as amember.Recognizing reality, temporary residence anduse of forest start to be granted after investigation 1954: Forest Preservation andConservationAct ismade aministerial order. 240PreservedForests and8ReservedForests are counted in the country 1960: Forest Police founded as a department of thePoliceDepartment 1961:National ParkAct passed. FistNESDP (1961–1965) provides for 50%of the country tobe forested land.Forest rangersorganized in ‘forestprotectionunits’aremade responsible for forest protection 1963:Department ofLandDevelopment (DLD) established *1964:NationalForestReserveActof1964passed.TheActrecognizedthatproceduresfor designatingprocedures are too timeconsuming.Therefore it omits thehithertomandatory investigationofusufruct rights beforedesignatinganareaa ‘Reserve’ora ‘Preserve’ 1965:Rural Forest developmentUnits established, to provide services additional to protectionunits such as extension services,while protecting forests 1966:Committee established to investigate local people’s landuse inNational Forest Reserves 1967:RFDstarts to designate ‘project forests’ for logging 1973:Ministry of Interior sponsors the ‘Landdistributionpromotionproject’, conducted byRFD *1975:Cabinet approves legislation for establishing ‘Forest villages’ 1979: The ‘CultivationRights Project’ in forest villages commences 134 J. Puri