Agriculture
Agricultural production
Families file complaint over Pailin governor
The 19 families in Pailin province who were told by police and military police on Saturday to vacate their land filed a complaint with Adhoc on Monday, the provincial coordinator for the NGO said. Authorities told the families to move on Saturday from the 95-hectares they ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/families-file-complaint-over-pailin-governor-53443/
Pailin governor orders 19 families to move off his land
More than 60 police and military police informed 19 families farming on a plot of land in Pailin province’s Sala Krao district on Saturday that they would have to move as they were growing crops on state land. However, Prak Sophima, provincial coordinator for rights group ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/pailin-governor-orders-19-families-to-move-off-his-land-53397/
NGO declares Coca-Cola’s visit compromised by police
Auditors from the Coca-Cola Company visited Oddar Meanchey province on Friday to investigate allegations of land grabbing against sugar plantations that supply the global drinks giant, but called off a community meeting because of a heavy police presence, an NGO said Sunday. Chun Bora of the ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ngo-declares-coca-colas-visit-compromised-by-police-53395/
Rice prices continue to fall
As buyers swoop in to purchase Thai rice at garage-sale prices, Cambodian exporters are dealing with lower than usual rates, and the results are being felt all the way down the supply chain to the farmers themselves. New figures from rice industry publication Oryza show that ...
Chan Muy Hong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/rice-prices-continue-fall
Rare statue unearthed by Chinese developer
A Chinese-owned company in Preah Vihear’s Tbeng Meanchey district stumbled across an 8th-century sandstone carving of the Buddha while excavating land there on Wednesday, the provincial culture department said yesterday. Oug Vireak, a deputy with the culture department, said the firm Lan Feng had been bulldozing ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rare-statue-unearthed-chinese-developer
Complaints against rubber company to be assessed, World Bank Office says
The World Bank’s ombudsman office says it will assess a complaint from indigenous groups in Ratanakkiri province that a bank-supported company has damaged the forest and surrounding communities. Seventeen different groups joined in the complaint, claiming the Hoang Anh Gia Lai rubber company, which receives ...
Environment minister visits UDG; Villagers disappointed
Environment Minister Say Sam Al failed to meet the villagers locked in a long-running land dispute with the Chinese-owned company Union Development Group (UDG) on Wednesday, despite visiting company officials in Koh Kong province, according to a rights worker and a provincial official. Mr. Sam Al ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/environment-minister-visits-udg-villagers-disappointed-53277/
IFC accepts complaint over Ratanakkiri rubber plantations
The International Finance Corporation’s compliance ombudsman has officially accepted a complaint filed by ethnic minority families in Ratanakkiri province against the IFC for investing in rubber plantations accused of stealing land and clearing forests. In a letter sent to the families on Monday, the ombudsman deems ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ifc-accepts-complaint-over-ratanakkiri-rubber-plantations-53251/
Forest promises ‘unfulfilled’
As illegal logging continues to take a toll on the country’s woodlands, civil society groups yesterday called on the government to stay true to its commitment of providing an extra two million hectares of community forest by 2029. During a two-day conference in the capital, participants ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/forest-promises-%E2%80%98unfulfilled%E2%80%99
More pre-Angkorian temples found within land concessions
Seven pre-Angkorian temples have been discovered on two land concessions in Preah Vihear province, but while an Environment Ministry official said Tuesday that the ministry had no knowledge of the temples when they granted the concessions, the Culture Ministry said their existence had long been ...
Denise Hruby and Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/more-pre-angkorian-temples-found-within-land-concessions-53263/
UDG accused of farming instead of building
The Chinese-owned Union Development Group in Koh Kong province is bulldozing swaths of its land concession, originally intended for a massive tourist resort, to plant cassava and palm oil trees instead, a CNRP lawmaker-elect said Monday. Son Chhay, lawmaker-elect and CNRP chief whip, visited the area ...
Lauren Crothers and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/udg-accused-of-farming-instead-of-building-53164/
Grave sites cleared by rubber firms: NGOs
Four Vietnamese rubber firms are responsible for destroying an estimated 1,000 hectares of community forest, including an indigenous graveyard, in Ratanakkiri’s Andong Meas district, a group of NGOs have claimed. The land dispute involving 196 families living in Talav commune dates back to 2011, Chhay Thy, ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/grave-sites-cleared-rubber-firms-ngos
Kings of concessions
Vietnam and China lead the pack of foreign companies granted economic land concessions in Cambodia for agro-industrial development by a wide margin, new data released by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries show. According to the ministry’s annual report, released last month, since 1993 the ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/kings-concessions
Cambodia’s pepper takes off
Through a canopy of palm leaves, sunlight falls onto 1,000 four-month-old pepper plants, each one climbing about two feet up a wooden pole in the ground. “We will be ready to harvest pepper from here in about 18 to 20 months,” says one of Kep ...
Daniel de Carteret and Chan Muy Hong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/cambodia%E2%80%99s-pepper-takes
Government tries to solve land dispute by talking from others
Several dozen families in Banteay Meanchey province involved in land dispute were given 100 hectares of replacement land in O’Chrou district yesterday, but have refused to accept it because it is already claimed by more than 230 other families, two village chiefs said. The provincial government ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-tries-to-solve-land-dispute-by-taking-from-others-52614/
Court grills villagers on fence suit
Twelve Preah Vihear villagers were called to court this week regarding an ongoing land dispute they claim has resulted in the bulldozing of their family land and livelihood. The villagers are among some 67 families in Kulen district’s Srayong Cheung village who say the government sold ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/court-grills-villagers-fence-suit
More Wood Confiscations in Kampot, but Still No Arrests
The Forestry Administration in Kampot province on Tuesday confiscated about 2 cubic meters of illegal timber from a truck in Toek Chhou district’s Stung Keo commune, officials said. The bust is at least the third in a week, with forestry officials confiscating 200 pieces of illegal ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/more-wood-confiscations-in-kampot-but-still-no-arrests-52598/
Cambodia’s rice export in January down
Cambodia exported 21,536 tons of milled rice in January of 2014, down 4,190 tons (16%) compared to 25,726 tons exported in the same period of last year, according to a report on agriculture, forestry and fishery. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=15&token=Y2JjZWMwNzAwNDd
World Bank To Review Environmental Complaints Against Company
The World Bank says it will investigate reports from indigenous groups in Cambodia that a company funded by the bank’s International Finance Corporation is involved in deforestation and land grabs. The bank’s Office of the Compliance Adviser Ombudsman, or CAO, will first examine the credibility of ...
Sok Khemara
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/world-bank-to-review-environmental-complaints-against-company/1853122.html
Raids uncover 200 pieces of illegal luxury wood
The Forestry Administration in Preah Vihear province on Saturday raided a remote cabin in Choam Ksan district where they found 200 pieces of illegally felled luxury wood, police said Sunday. The 15 cubic meters of wood uncovered included the Thnong, Beng and Neang Noun varieties, and ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/raids-uncover-200-pieces-of-illegal-luxury-wood-52333/
Preah Vihear villagers continue to protest
More than 30 families continued to demonstrate in Preah Vihear province’s Chheb district on Friday and Saturday over what they say is the illegal clearing of land by a Chinese company, villagers said Sunday. The families accuse Rui Feng (Cambodia) International of clearing 500 hectares of ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/preah-vihear-villagers-continue-to-protest-52347/
Kratie villagers block road after officials torch homes
Police and military police in Kratie province’s Snuol district on Wednesday burned to the ground 56 homes they said were on protected land, causing displaced villagers to block National Road 76 in protest for four hours, officials said. Snuol district Governor Kong Kimny said Thursday that ...
Aun Pheap and Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/kratie-villagers-block-road-after-officials-torch-homes-52232/
Ministries to Help Farmers Hurt by Sugar Plantations
The government on Monday agreed to a comprehensive solution for rural families who have lost their land to well-connected agricultural plantations exporting sugar to the European Union (E.U.) duty free and will meet again early next month to discuss details. The decision was made at a ...
Hul Reaksmey and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ministries-to-help-farmers-hurt-by-sugar-plantations-51971/
Minorities complain to IFC over rubber farm funding
More than a dozen ethnic minority communities from Cambodia’s northeast filed a complaint with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) on Monday, accusing it of breaking its own safeguard policies by investing in rubber plantations they say are stealing their land and illegally logging their forests. The ...
Aun Pheap and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/minorities-complain-to-ifc-over-rubber-farm-funding-51868/