<p>The Supreme Court has handed five year jail terms to an elderly couple for picking mushrooms in a protected forest in Isaan.</p> <p>On 2 May 2017, the Supreme Court&nbsp;<a href="http://news.voicetv.co.th/thailand/485979.html">sentenced&nbsp;</a>Udom Sirisorn, 51, and Daeng Sirisorn, 48, a couple from the northeastern province of Kalasin, to five years’ imprisonment for picking wild mushrooms in Dong Ranang National Park.</p> <p>They were arrested in July 2010 and quickly sentenced to 30 years imprisonment on the accusation of illegal logging and entering a protected forest.</p>

<p>An environmental conservation group in Isan, Thailand’s Northeast, says that the Thai junta are siding with an oil and gas corporation to plunder resources and urges the US government to take action against the multinational petroleum company.</p>

<p>The police have prevented a local conservation group from showing a documentary film on controversial petroleum concessions in the region, saying it might breach the Copyright Act. &nbsp;</p>

<p><em>Eight months after the implementation of the Thai government’s Master Plan to reforest the country, villagers in Isaan bear the burden of a flawed policy at the cost of their livelihood and health.</em></p> <p></p>