Activists have urged the government to suspend compensation lawsuits against forest encroachers and consider a more humane formula to address "climate change justice".
About 3,500 people are facing civil suits filed by the national parks department and the Royal Forest Department, Land Reform Network coordinator Arewan Kusanthia said.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said the government's policy to address deforestation represents a major concern for community rights.
They say it has no precedent overseas where forest encroachment cases occur, and unfairly targets the poor.
NHRC member Niran Pitakwatchara said the National Council for Peace and Order's Order No. 64/2014 -- which allows authorities to retrieve forested and state-owned land which have been encroached upon and prosecute encroachers, who are mostly underprivileged or poor people -- should end.
"If the government and the cabinet ministers don't intend to suck money out of the penniless villagers by slapping them with the 'climate change justice' lawsuits, they should say so," said Boon Sae Jung, core member of the Bantad Mountain Range Land Network.
Some residents find themselves facing a triple whammy -- served with an eviction order, charged criminally for encroachment and embroiled in civil suits over climate change damage, Mr Boon said.
However, some critics say not every encroacher invaded the forests to seek land for farming. Some hold the forest land illegally on behalf of rich people, who manage to escape the law.
Orapan Nabangchang, Sukothaithammatirat University's deputy director of the Economy and Environment Programme for Southeast Asia, said applying a single climate damage-compensation formula to all forest encroachment cases was impractical.
"In theory it might sound like a good idea [to get the offenders to pay], but adopting the current compensation assessment method is problematic," Ms Orapan said.
She argued there are several ways to evaluate the economic impact brought on by acts of forest degradation.
But authorities tend to often follow a compensation calculation method which overlooks the actual condition in which the forest land was left before or after the encroachment.
In reality, some forest land was almost barren when it was encroached upon. However, compensation was demanded from villagers as though they had abused a pristine forest.
The economist insisted the climate change-related portion in the compensation demand should be flexible because the encroachment conditions vary.
The penalty for hurting the climate should be made "more justifiable", Ms Orapan said, citing a court ruling in Australia in which forest encroachers were ordered to plant trees in lieu of compensation to promote a healthy ecological system.
She said such a ruling could be a guideline for deciding on punitive action against offenders in Thailand where they may be ordered to plant trees several times the size of land they had illegally taken.
Siriwan Vongkietpaisan, of the Social Responsibility Law Office, said if the government can go after the villagers for the compensation, it must do the same with state agencies which launch projects that damage the climate as well.