รัฐ ศาสนา และการอนุรักษ์: การเมืองของปัญหาสำนักสงฆ์บุกรุกป่าอุทยาน

State, Religion, and Conservation: The Politics of the Problem of Monasteries Encroaching on National Parks

Abstract

This article examines the relationship among the state, religion, and environmental conservation through the issue of monastic shelters and Buddhist monastic sites located in national park areas in Thailand. The issue is complex because it involves legal control over protected areas, religious legitimacy, and local community acceptance. In legal terms, national parks are protected areas established for the long-term conservation of natural resources and biodiversity. In social and cultural terms, however, some forest areas are also regarded as sacred and suitable for religious practice. As a result, the same area becomes a contested space in which multiple forms of authority, meaning, and legitimacy overlap. Under such conditions, the existence of monastic sites in protected forests should not be understood merely as a legal violation, but also as a political issue of competing legitimacy among the state, religion, and society.

This study employs documentary research by analyzing relevant laws, official documents, and academic literature through the concepts of state power, legitimacy, politics of space, and environmental governance. The analysis shows that the state possesses legal legitimacy to regulate and protect national park areas, yet religion and local communities also hold another kind of legitimacy that allows monastic sites to be accepted as spiritual spaces and moral institutions. Thai scholars such as Pattawee Satyawongthip (2018), Noppadol Inthrasena (2021), and Natthanon Jirakitnimit (2022) argue that Buddhist monks can play significant roles in forest conservation and environmental awareness at the community level. At the same time, Rungarun Norkham (2019) explains that conflicts in conservation areas often emerge when state-imposed boundaries overlap with spaces that communities have historically and culturally used and valued. The article argues that this issue should be addressed through participatory environmental governance rather than through a purely confrontational legal approach. Case-by-case assessment, adherence to the rule of law, respect for religious freedom, and carefully designed mechanisms for managing sacred spaces within protected areas are necessary for balancing ecological conservation with the continued existence of religious institutions in a sustainable manner.