Dispossession of the commons: the Chaiya community forest and the creation of special economic zones

Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is a spatial model for promoting industrial economic growth globally and in the Greater Mekong Subregion. Under Thailand’s military regime from 2014 to 2023, the processes of acquiring public and communal lands for SEZs were often ambiguous and contested. This paper examines the Nongkhai SEZ at the border between Thailand and Lao PDR, exploring why local villagers were either unable or unwilling to resist dispossession and protect their commons from state-driven territorialization. Three key factors are identified: (1) pre-existing state-imposed community forest regime, (2) alternative resource and tenure benefits, and (3) dominant state control over village life and civil society alliances. These factors have collectively crippled grassroots resistance to SEZs. Contrary to conventional views that communal resource governance offers protection against dispossession, this paper demonstrates how state-imposed modalities of commons management, private gains from converting commons, and state's hegemonic control over rural life, can facilitate dispossession.

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