Logging and timber

More than 400 families in Preah Vihear province submitted a petition to a group of NGOs and the UN yesterday, seeking assistance in their battle with the government over 3,555 hectares of protected land that sits within the Kulen Prom-Tep Wildlife Sanctuary. According to Sokha, ...

The government issued a statement yesterday allowing Lim Royal Joint Stock Company to create a temporary wood and furniture manufacturing plant in Trapeang Srae village in Kratie province.According to an announcement signed by Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Veng Sakhon last Thursday, Lim Royal will ...

The director of Mondulkiri’s rural development department stands accused of clearing about 50 hectares of state-owned forest for his own farming purposes, authorities said yesterday. ...

Nine Phnong ethnic community representatives and a senior Adhoc officer jointly filed a lawsuit yesterday at the Mondulkiri Provincial Court against eight local officials they allege have turned a blind eye to illegal logging in the Phnom Nam Lyr wildlife sanctuary.The suit follows their inspection ...

Communities in Preah Vihear’s Choam Ksan district have alleged that soldiers are involved in the transportation of illegal timber in the protected forests of Kulen Prum Tep Wildlife Sanctuary, an allegation denied yesterday by a local military official. ...

Forestry officials in Stung Treng province arrested two people and confiscated three SUVs loaded with timber on Saturday night during a raid in Siem Pang district. ...

A year ago on Sunday, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced the start of what sounded like a muscular new crackdown on the illegal timber trade running rampant across eastern Cambodia.   ...

Two separate timber busts in recent days netted some 300 pieces of illegally transported wood in Stung Treng belonging to a prominent businessman, and several hidden timber stockpiles at a military officer’s Kampong Speu lumberyard. ...

The number of illegal logging sites discovered within Prey Lang forest between April and July was 14 percent higher than the previous four-month period, according to a report released yesterday by the Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN) based on data collected with a novel smartphone ...

Alleged illegal logging and timber exports continue to happen in the Prey Lang forest, while drug trafficking in the area is also on the rise, according to the latest Prey Lang Com-munity Network (PLCN) report yesterday. The fifth monitoring report on the forest’s status from April ...

Cambodia’s illegal loggers will soon have a potentially powerful new foe: a pair of NASA satellites with a keen interest in what they’re up to. Researchers at the University of Maryland in the U.S. say an innovative new system that picks up signs of forest loss ...

Despite the presence of a blanket ban by the Cambodian government on all trade in Siamese rosewood since 2013, exports of the precious timber to Vietnam increased in the third quarter of this year, according to Vietnamese customs data compiled by US-based NGO Forest Trends. ...

After returning to parliament and ending a six-month boycott, members of the opposition asked the government to cooperate with Vietnam to close border crossings to stop the illegal export of luxury rosewood and other timber to stop deforestation which leads to climate change. ...

Vietnamese customs data showing that Cambodia exported at least $121 million of woodthis year are currently being investigated by government officials, according to Environment Ministry Undersecretary of State Eang Sophalleth. ...

Two Apsara Authority officials were arrested yesterday morning after it was discovered they were in charge of felling a centuries-old spirit tree in Siem Reap province’s Kauk Chak commune on Saturday, enraging residents who had worshipped it for years, according to the provincial governor. ...

A mixed group of nearly 40 officials based at the Cambodian-Thai border in Pailin province seized first-class timber on Wednesday, but failed to catch the suspects who illegally entered Thailand to log it, according to police yesterday. ...

Five men accused of illegal logging in the Prey Preah Roka Wildlife Sanctuary after being caught by a joint patrol of authorities, villagers and monks should be charged with deforestation, a Preah Vihear provincial prosecutor said on Tuesday. ...

Stung Treng provincial military police discovered four separate stockpiles of illegal timber over the past two days amounting to thousands of cubic meters, but have yet to report any arrests. ...

Three members of the Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN) were attacked in Kratie province on Thursday by men believed to be involved in illegal logging, PLCN activists said yesterday.​ ...

Authorities in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadav district were thwarted in their attempt to inspect an ethnic Jarai community’s timber stocks on Tuesday, with some officials and observers ascribing the incident to a clash of cultures. ...

Mondulkiri’s provincial governor yesterday said officials are investigating allegations of the clearing of 200 to 300 hectares of protected forestland in Keo Seima district. ...

A recent government report on protecting the country’s natural resources reveals that a total of 1,166 crimes were recorded, but only 873 ended up in court and only 293 of those cases resulted in small fines being issued. The report from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry ...

Illegal forest clearing is taking place at about three times the rate it did last year, but fines for forestry and wildlife crimes have fallen dramatically, according to a progress report released last week by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forests and Fisheries (MAFF). ...

Suspected timber smugglers have gotten off the hook in the vast majority of busts that have followed Prime Minister Hun Sen’s January call for a crackdown on the illegal timber trade, a Post analysis has revealed. In the wake of the prime minister’s creation of ...