Officials posted a Forestry Department removal order under Section 25 of the National Reserved Forest Act at Phuket’s Freedom Beach (หาดฟรีด้อม) on July 6, 2026. The order, reported by Phuket’s PRD provincial radio office and by the Thai News Agency (TNA), names 22 structures on roughly 9 rai, 1 ngan, 20 square wah — about 1.5 hectares — of the Nak Koet Mountain Range National Reserved Forest, the same reserved-forest block where the Nui Beach demolition was previously reported. Occupants have until August 5, 2026 to remove the structures themselves; if they do not, the Forestry Department says it will proceed with enforcement at the occupants’ expense.
This is a separate case from Nui Beach and from the Sirinat National Park hotel case reported separately. It should not be read as an update to either.
What the order establishes
- Legal basis and location. The order was posted by Forestry Department officials together with Phuket provincial administration and Karon subdistrict police, per Khaosod and Dailynews, both dated July 6. It covers land the government describes as national reserved forest at the upper part of Freedom Beach, Karon subdistrict, Mueang Phuket district — reserved-forest land under the National Reserved Forest Act B.E. 2507, not national-park land.
- Scale. Sources consistently report 22 structures across 9 rai 1 ngan 20 square wah. No source itemises what the 22 structures are (shops, decking, or other items), unlike the Nui Beach notice, which listed its items individually.
- Who ordered it. Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suchart Chomklin directed the Forest Department director to post the order, according to Khaosod and plewseengern’s report of the same date. Both describe the action as part of the government’s broader state-land reclamation policy.
- Appeal window. Occupants had the right to appeal to the Forest Department director-general within 15 days of receiving the order — by July 21, 2026 — per the PRD Phuket report. Dailynews separately reports that an appeal does not suspend enforcement unless another order provides otherwise. Whether an appeal was filed, and how it ended, has not been reported; see Unknown below.
A date discrepancy, reported as such. Five Thai-language sources — Khaosod, Dailynews, TNA, PRD Phuket, and plewseengern, all dated July 6 — put the self-demolition deadline at August 5, 2026. A French-language report on gavroche-thailande.com instead gives August 9. No source reconciles the two dates, so both appear here, each with its own attribution.
A separate, older dispute over the same beach
Freedom Beach has a longer-running land dispute that this order does not resolve and that the sources reviewed do not tie directly to these 22 structures:
- In May 2026, a man identified in Thai press only by the nickname “เสี่ยเล็ก” presented himself to Karon police to acknowledge charges over alleged encroachment on the Nak Koet reserved forest at Freedom Beach, in what press described as four separate cases; he denied being an “influential figure” and denied collecting beach-entry fees, according to Thai PBS. His legal name is unverified, and no source connects him to the 22 structures named in the July 6 order.
- Separately, The Phuket News has reported that lawyers for the heirs of a landowner named Panthong Na Ranong have petitioned over historic title claims to part of the Freedom Beach area. Where that claim now stands, and whether it overlaps the land named in the July 6 order, is unclear.
None of this is a conviction, and none of the primary reports reviewed name a specific person or company as the target of the July 6 order.
Context: the same forest as Nui Beach
The Nak Koet Mountain Range National Reserved Forest is the same reserved-forest block where officials demolished structures at Nui Beach after a Forestry Department deadline passed, as reported on July 20. An earlier ministry case page on the Nui Beach dispute documents a mid-May inspection and complaint, not the July 20 demolition itself. Current Freedom Beach reports describe a broader state-land reclamation policy, but No government release groups the two cases into one programme.
What it may mean for Phuket property
Freedom Beach is a well-known tourist access point, not a residential or resale development, so this order does not directly affect titled residential property. Its relevance to a Phuket buyer or owner is the pattern it confirms: reserved-forest boundaries near the coast are being actively re-surveyed and enforced under the current government programme, and land near a national reserved forest or national park boundary carries real, current legal risk if its title history has never been checked against the reserved-forest boundary. See our guide to the Thailand property due-diligence checklist and, for the kind of weak-title history that has featured in other Phuket forest-boundary cases, Nor Sor 3 Kor titles.
What remains unknown
- Whether any occupant filed an appeal by the July 21 deadline, and its outcome.
- The identity of whoever currently occupies or controls the 22 named structures, and whether that party is connected to the May 2026 “เสี่ยเล็ก” case or to the Na Ranong heirs’ claim — Neither link is established by any source.
- Which deadline is correct, August 5 or August 9, and why Thai and international coverage differ.
- Whether the structures were removed by the deadline, and if not, what enforcement action followed.
- The full text of the Section 25 order itself; this article relies on press and provincial-government accounts of it, not the order document.
