Some 10 environmental groups in Thailand have warned the prime minister to consider carefully an attempt to grant mining companies concessions covering more than 2,000 rai of forest classified as first-class watershed. The groups said several cabinet resolutions had been issued over the past 20 years reiterating the importance of conserving watershed areas and prohibiting attempts to exploit them. In spite of this, successive governments had violated the spirit and the letter of the resolutions, they said in a statement.