<p>87 members of the Bang Kloi indigenous Karen community, who travelled back to the location of their former village in the Kaeng Krachan forest, have been forcibly taken out of the forest and arrested by park officials, police, and military officers.</p>

<p>After being forcibly evacuated from their ancestral homeland in the Kaeng Krachan forest twice, the Bang Kloi indigenous Karen community has been facing community rights issues, which remain unresolved. The community is now at risk of another forced evacuation, while Thailand still has no legislation protecting indigenous rights.</p>

<p>Members of the Bang Kloi indigenous Karen community and the activist Save Bang Kloi Coalition have gathered at the Chamai Maruchet Bridge for the past three days to demand protection for members of the Bang Kloi Community who returned to their ancestral home.</p>

<p>Following a report that&nbsp;members of the Bang Kloi Karen community have returned to their ancestral land at Chai Phaen Din, the remaining community members and a network of civil society organizations have issued a statement calling for the authorities to allow the community to stay at Chai Phaen Din until a resolution is reached, and must not conduct any operation that affects them.&nbsp;</p>

<p>After the boundary of the Kaeng Krachan National Park was re-drawn, Wansao Phungam, a Karen indigenous villager, was charged with encroaching on national park land for farming on a piece of land which has been passed down within her family.</p>

<p>Concern continues to rise among civil society for the safety of members of the Bang Kloi Karen indigenous community who returned to their ancestral land at Chai Phaen Din in the Kaeng Krachan forest, after reports of a possible military operation to evacuate them from the forest. &nbsp;</p>

<p>The Network of Indigenous Peoples in Thailand (NIPT) is calling for voters to back their Council of Indigenous Peoples in Thailand bill, which proposes to set up a formal indigenous peoples&rsquo; council to give Thailand&rsquo;s indigenous population the opportunity to resolve community rights issues in ways that are suitable to their way of life.</p>

<p>Members of the indigenous Karen communities living near the Kaeng Krachan Forest Complex have raised concerns over unresolved community rights issues ahead of the Thai government&rsquo;s 4th nomination of the forest for world heritage status in 2021.</p>

<p>Indigenous human rights defender Saw Paul Sein Twa,&nbsp;Kaw K&rsquo;sa&nbsp;of the Salween Peace Park and founding member of the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN), has been awarded the 2020 Goldman Environmental Prize, which recognizes&nbsp;individuals for their sustained and significant efforts to protect the natural environment.</p>

<p>Indigenous woman human rights defender Katima Leeja was visited by a plainclothe military officer around a week after she led a protest against alleged violence from forest authorities in a land dispute confrontation.&nbsp;</p>