In a move to oppose the resolution, they will also collect 50,000 signatures nationwide to pressure politicians to reconsider the policy.

"The resolution violates Articles 46 and 56 of the new constitution. It is a very retrograde step as it does not respect people's capacity to manage natural resources," said Professor Saneh Chamarik in a seminar titled Community Rights and Natural Resource Management under the New Constitution held at Chulalongkorn University.

About 80 people participated in the forum, including academics, government officials, NGO workers, and villagers who fear the new policy may soon result in mass evictions.

On June 30, the Chuan Leekpai government passed the resolution which cancelled the Chavalit Yongchaiyudh cabinet's three resolutions on April 17, 22, and 29 last year. The June 30 resolution specifies measures to verify forest occupation, including the use of aerial or satellite pictures. Villagers who fail to prove that they lived on forest land before the Royal Forestry Department declared the area a conservation forest will have to move out.

Villagers who have occupied sensitive watershed areas, however, will have to relocate to another area even if they can prove that they lived there before promulgation of the national forest status.

On the other hand, the three resolutions issued by the Chavalit government accepted villagers' rights to live in the forest. The April 17 and 29 resolutions came after negotiations between the government and the Forum of the Poor, while the April 22 resolution was initiated by the department. In particular, the April 22 resolution, also dubbed the Wang Nam Khieu resolution, was heavily attacked for encouraging further forest encroachment as it does not stipulate the criteria for villagers who might be granted the right to live in the forest.

Krissana Plueksuwan, a senior department officer, said the resolution was not his agency's initiative. He said a certain environment conservation group submitted a petition to the National Forestry Policy Committee, urging the government to evacuate forest dwellers out of watershed forests.

"As long as villagers can prove they have lived in the forest before it was declared part of national forests, they will be allowed to stay. I think the claim that the resolution is against human rights is an exaggeration," he said.

However, Chaiyaphant Praphasawasdi, an adviser to the Forum of the Poor, said in many instances, aerial satellite images are too crude and put villagers at a disadvantage. For example, many villagers have been following traditional cultivation methods, by growing crops under big trees. Such human activities may not have been recorded by modern techniques, Mr Chaiyaphant said.

Academics expressed concern the resolution may incur similar outbursts of violence as a programme to move villagers out of the forest in 1990. The Land Allocation for the Poor Project (Khor Jor Kor) ended abruptly after mass protests by northeastern farmers. Thongdee Boonsaen, from Sakon Nakhon province, said he and his village peers will try every possible means - peaceful or violent - in order to continue living in the same place.