Local fishermen in Samut Songkhram filed a lawsuit with Bangkok South Civil Court against Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF), seeking over 2.4 billion baht in compensation for the damage caused by the unchecked spread of blackchin tilapia in the province.
Panya Tokthong, a member of the Upper Gulf of Thailand Preservation Network and Mae Klong Community Lovers Network, on Thursday led the group to the Bangkok South Civil Court to file a lawsuit against CPF and its nine board members for the environmental damages caused by the spread of the invasive species.
He said the group represented 1,400 local fishermen from Amphawa, Bang Khonthi and Muang districts.
The lawsuit accuses the CPF of failing to prevent the blackchin tilapia fish, which the company imported from Ghana in 2010 for breeding research in its development centre in Amphawa district, from invading local waterways, according to a source.
The invasive species was first reported in Amphawa district in 2012, before spreading to several waterways in 13 provinces on the Gulf of Thailand coast, according to the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs requested that CPF be ordered to rehabilitate the affected waterways at their own expense under the "polluter pays" principle.
The compensation is divided into two parts.
The first is claimed by a network of local fish farmers with more than 1,000 members to compensate for the annual loss of income at a rate of 10,000 baht per rai for seven years (2017-2024).
The second is claimed by a group of about 380 local fishermen to compensate for lost income, at a rate of 500 baht per day, or 182,500 baht per year, for seven years from 2017.
Members of both groups are also demanding an additional 50,000 baht per person for the violation of their rights to a natural resource.
The compensation demanded by both groups comes to about 2.48 billion baht.
In addition, the Lawyers Council, on behalf of 54 individual fish farmers and fishermen, also filed a lawsuit with the Central Administrative Court against 18 government agencies and their top officials for neglecting their duties.
They are the Department of Fisheries, the National Fisheries Policy Committee, the Fisheries Safety and Biodiversity Committee, the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, the Marine and Coastal Resources Management Policy and Planning Committee, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the National Environment Board, the National Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Committee, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, the Ministry of Interior, and Ministry of Finance.
According to the source, they also asked the agencies to declare the affected area a disaster zone to enable the release of emergency funds and pursue the compensation process from the CPF.
