This information is for reference only and is not legal advice. Consult a licensed lawyer before any transaction.
National Park Act
National Park Act B.E. 2562 (2019)
The information is reviewed and updated monthly against official sources.
In short
Thailand's National Park Act B.E. 2562 (2019) governs protected conservation land, criminalises occupying, clearing or building inside parks with severe penalties, and is the reason many Samui and Phuket plots carry defective, frozen or revoked title.
Section 4: Key definitions (national park, protected area)
Sets out the core terms used throughout the Act. A national park is state land formally designated for conservation, while related categories cover forest parks, botanical gardens and arboretums. These definitions fix the legal boundary inside which private occupation, building and ordinary land dealings are forbidden.
Section 8: Designation of a national park by Royal Decree
A national park is established by Royal Decree with an attached boundary map. Once an area is so designated, it becomes inalienable state conservation land. Plots that fall inside the drawn boundary lose any basis for private ownership, which is how previously sold land can later turn out to sit within a park.
Section 19: Core prohibitions on park land (occupying, clearing, building)
The central prohibition. Inside a national park no one may hold or occupy land, clear or burn vegetation, fell trees, degrade the soil, alter the terrain or erect structures. This single rule converts most building and land-clearing on park territory into a serious criminal offence rather than a mere administrative breach.
Section 20: Further prohibited conduct inside parks
Bans a second tier of activities such as removing soil, rock, gravel, minerals or natural objects, blocking or diverting watercourses, and other acts that damage the protected ecosystem. These rules restrict landscaping, excavation and infrastructure works that a buyer might assume are routine on a private plot.
Section 26: Permitted activities only by official authorisation
Certain uses, research, study, tourism services and limited collection, may proceed only under a permit issued by park authorities and on stated conditions. There is no permit route to legalise private residential ownership or development inside a park, so a permit never cures a defective title.
Section 35: Removal of structures and restoration at offender's cost
Officials may order an offender to demolish buildings, clear improvements and restore the land to its prior state. If the order is ignored or the occupier is unknown, the authorities may carry out the works themselves and recover the expense, meaning a house built on park land can be lawfully demolished.
Section 41: Penalties for occupying or building on park land
Breaching the core land prohibitions carries imprisonment from four to twenty years, a fine from 400,000 to 2,000,000 baht, or both. Penalties rise where larger areas are involved. These figures replaced far milder 1961 sanctions and signal how aggressively occupation of park land is now prosecuted.
Section 42: Enhanced penalties and confiscation
Aggravated cases, large-scale clearing, commercial exploitation or repeat offences, attract heavier punishment, and tools, vehicles and produce used in the offence may be confiscated. The court can also order forfeiture of any benefit gained, which exposes a developer who built and sold units on park land to compounding liability.
Section 64: Survey of people living in protected areas before designation
Authorities must survey households that were already settled or farming inside areas declared before the Act took effect, completing the work within a fixed period (240 days). Recorded occupants may be allowed limited continued use under regulations, but this is a tolerated occupancy, not a grant of ownership or transferable title.
Section 65: Conditional continued use for registered occupants
Occupants identified under the survey may keep using a defined plot for subsistence under a project approved by the Cabinet and park rules, subject to time limits and conditions. The right cannot be sold, mortgaged or inherited freely, so such land is unsuitable for purchase by a foreign or investment buyer.
title-revocation: Title deeds within park boundaries are void or revocable
Because designation makes park land inalienable state property, any title deed wrongly issued over land inside the boundary has no valid legal foundation. The Land Department can revoke or downgrade such deeds, which is why audits in Sirinath (Phuket) and similar Samui cases have led to plots losing their titles.
boundary-overlap-risk: Boundary overlaps and defective titles on Samui and Phuket
On hillsides and coastal fringes of Samui and Phuket, park, forest reserve and private boundaries often overlap or were mapped imprecisely. A plot may hold an apparently clean Chanote yet partly fall inside a park, leaving it frozen, partly unbuildable or exposed to later revocation once boundaries are re-verified.
due-diligence: Buyer due diligence against park and forest layers
Before buying near protected zones, a purchaser should obtain the land office boundary check and overlay the plot against current park and forest-reserve maps, confirm the deed class and its issuance history, and review any pending revocation. Skipping this is the main route to acquiring land that cannot be lawfully built on or transferred.