Authorities have agreed to draft a master plan for zoning the Phuttubberk forest in Phetchabun's Lom Kao district to allow hill tribe minorities to live and work there.
The plan is also designed to keep resort business operators away.
Royal Forest Department chief Chonlatid Suraswadi said the agencies will draft the plan to manage the land at Phuttubberk, which is classified as a protected "permanent forest" where resorts cannot be built. He was speaking after a meeting with the Department of Social Development and Welfare.
However, Hmong hill tribe people have long been living there and resort business operators had illegally bought land from them to set up their resorts in the protected forest.
Mr Chonlatid said while business operators have to leave, the master plan will set up clear zones that extend land use privileges to the hill tribes.
These include a service zone where the Hmong can operate and run small resorts, a living zone, an agricultural zone, and a buffer zone where the forest boundary connects with national parks.
Mr Chonlatid said the master plan should be finished in the next two months and the problem of forest encroachment by resort businesses in the mountainous area will be resolved shortly.
The cabinet in 1966 allocated 47,000 rai of the forest to 3,500 Hmong families living there as a way of tackling the communist insurgency by improving their quality of life.
The Department of Public Welfare at the Interior Ministry at that time was in charge of the effort.
The government allowed them to stay there on condition they would not cut down trees or plant narcotic plants, but help to preserve and protect the watershed area. Land transfers were also not allowed, and nor was any activity that might destroy the forest's ecological system.
In 2013, the Department of Social Development and Welfare filed a suit with the Criminal Court against 27 resorts that encroached on the hill tribe land. They were accused of buying them out.
However, the court said the department had no jurisdiction over the forest, and the Department of Royal Forest, which had jurisdiction, later took the cases to court.
The court recently issued an order that the owners and personnel of 10 resorts at Phutubberk must vacate.
Some resorts are also run by the Hmong themselves.
"We will verify which resort belongs to the Hmong and which ones do not. We'll stick to the principle that the land is allocated to the minorities who should work with us to protect the forest," Mr Chonlatid said.
Puttipat Lertchaowasit, chief of the Department of Social Development and Welfare, said the two departments will survey the 47,000 rai allocated to the Hmong people and come up with the land management plan that will adhere to the principle of improving their quality of life and economic sufficiency.
"There should not be outside investors who benefit from forest land. But we will consider what needs to be done to help the Hmong people," Mr Puttipat said.