Agriculture and fishing

Seoung Sarat survived several bloody Cambodian regimes and civil wars. But only when his country was at peace was he shot and lost a leg. The indigenous Tompuon man, now living in a borrowed home in the forest of Ratanakiri province, says he lost his right ...

More than 100 ethnic Phnong families embroiled in a land dispute with Vietnamese firm Binh Phuoc Kratie Co in Mondulkiri’s Keo Seima district yesterday refused authorities’ requests to submit thumbprints as part of a suggested resolution to the issue, out of fear they would be ...

Botum Sakor national park is one of Cambodia’s biodiversity hotspots, where indigenous tribes have long lived in harmony with the forest and its wildlife, writes Rod Harbinson. But now they are being violently evicted as the park is being sold off piecemeal to developers for ...

Villagers in Koh Kong province involved in a land dispute with a Chinese company received notice on Saturday that the local government will soon implement a court order kicking them off their land, officials and a villager said. ...

Some 200 monks, villagers and land rights activists came together in Siem Reap province’s Chi Kreng district on Saturday to mark the six-year anniversary of the day that police opened fire on a group of farmers protesting their impending eviction. ...

City Hall announced Friday that the vast majority of remaining evictees from Phnom Penh’s Borei Keila neighborhood—who were left landless after a development firm failed to provide adequate housing for hundreds in the community—will not be rehoused in the area. ...

A visiting delegation from the European Union met with the Cambodia Rice Federation yesterday to discuss concerns raised by Italian rice producers, who say duty-free Cambodian rice imports are undercutting the Italian market. Sok Puthyvuth, president of the Cambodia Rice Federation, said yesterday that the purpose ...

The president of Kampong Thom Cashew Nut Association has urged government officials to implement a policy to increase cashew production, as a huge opportunity was being wasted by both the government and farmers he said.​ ...

A year after some 2,000 families filed a complaint with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) for financing rubber plantations they accuse of grabbing their farms and logging their sacred forests, all sides have finally agreed to a set of ground rules for negotiations and hope ...

Vietnam has gained a substantial share of Hong Kong’s rice market at the expense of Thailand, resulting from fierce competition over the past 10 years. Thailand’s market share in the first month of this year was up to 65.1 per cent versus Vietnam’s 26.3 per ...

The Stung Treng Provincial Court on Tuesday charged a 25-year-old man with illegal fishing after he allegedly used a grenade to kill fish in a protected stretch of the Mekong River in Thala Barivat district. ...

Vietnam has agreed to join Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia in a regional trading network aimed at shoring up rubber prices. Thailand has lobbied other rubber-producing countries in the region, including Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, to form the council. Officials are expected to meet on April ...

Two soldiers in northwest Cambodia’s Battambang province fired assault rifles at two local forestry officials on Friday after the officials reported them to a local opposition party lawmaker for illegal fishing. ...

More than 160 families in Banteay Meanchey province’s O’Chrou district filed a complaint on Monday with local officials calling for the removal of their village chief, whom they blame for the loss of 835 hectares of farmland to a rubber plantation. ...

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries yesterday cancelled an import permit for a Cambodian company after it came to light that “natural fertilizer” it had ordered from Ukraine was composed largely of cigarette butts, a ministry statement said. ...

About 70 villagers representing hundreds of families living in Battambang City’s Prek Preah Sdech commune protested outside the provincial hall Tuesday over fears that local authorities intend to evict them to make way for military families. ...

A man hired by a purported representative of a fertiliser company to haul 30 tonnes of “natural fertiliser” from Thbong Khmum province to Oddar Meanchey province some three months ago was surprised to learn this week that the load actually consisted entirely of cigarette butts. ...

A plantation company with its sights set on a community forest long used by local ethnic minority Jarai in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadav district arranged a meeting with more than 200 villagers this week to try to persuade them to sign over the woodland. Representatives of the Heng ...

Environment Minister Say Sam Al on Monday said that more than 9,000 hectares granted to companies as economic land concessions (ELCs) were recently taken back from the owners because local villagers had been farming the land first, and announced that 14 companies had been put ...

Fourteen companies have been added to a Ministry of Environment watchlist for purportedly failing to live up to their investment promises. The companies include firms owned by some of the country’s wealthiest and most politically connected land barons, such as Mong Reththy and Sok Kong. ...

Families in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district have been protesting since Friday against wealthy businessman Khun Sear’s plan to build a brick wall that will effectively block access to their village. ...

Neighbors Vietnam and Thailand have bagged contracts to supply a total of 500,000 metric tons (MT) of rice to boost the Philippines’ buffer stock in time for this year’s lean months, an official from the National Food Authority (NFA) said yesterday. Existing bilateral rice agreements ...

Environment Minister, Say Sam Al, said on Monday that the Royal Government of Cambodia has cut off over 14,000 hectares of land and handed over to citizens, and military forces. ...

Villagers in Koh Kong province’s Areng Valley, the site of a proposed hydropower dam opposed by most of the local ethnic minority Chong, say police deleted their photos and video of a visit by CPP lawmaker Ay Khorn on Friday to promote the project’s potential ...