Forests and forestry
Forest protection
Are banteng making a comeback in Cambodia? Researchers find new population
Researchers have discovered a new population of banteng (Bos javanicus), a species of wild cattle, in northwestern Cambodia. The discovery was announced June 4, 2014 by Fauna and Flora International (FFI), and efforts are underway to implement conservation initiatives to protect the area and its newfound banteng, ...
Janaki Lenin
http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0623-gfrn-lenin-banteng.html
New wolf snake discovered in Cambodia
A distinctive new wolf snake species discovered in Cambodia has been named in honour of Zoos Victoria, recognising their support provided to Fauna & Flora International’s (FFI) studies in the Cardamom Mountains over the last few years. The wolf snake is the latest species to be ...
AsianScientist News Staff
http://www.asianscientist.com/in-the-lab/wolf-snake-discovered-cambodia-2014/
Police end Prey Lang event
Police in Kampong Thom province shut down a forest-protection training session yesterday, citing fears that it was encouraging residents to protest against logging in Prey Lang, activists and residents have said. Sar Mory, a deputy of the Cambodian Youth Network (CYN), said that his group organised ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/police-end-prey-lang-event
When trees are cut down, Angkor’s temples begin to crumble
The temples of Angkor in Cambodia are known for their lost-world feel, thanks in part to trees and vegetation that have colonized the structures. While giant roots and trunks pouring over ancient blocks and carvings look cool, the trees are actually a destructive force acting on ...
Rachel Nuwer
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/when-trees-are-cut-down-angkors-temples-begin-crumble-180951798/?no-ist
‘Tiger’ falls prey to linguistics
Tigers and black bears look nothing alike, but their identical names in some Khmer dialects left some thinking that one of Cambodia’s most endangered species may be attacking people in the Cardamom Mountains. Sitting outside his Santre commune home in Pursat province’s Kravanh district, with bandages ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98tiger%E2%80%99-falls-prey-linguistics
Activists put blame on local police
Activists working in Prey Lang forest have accused military and police officers of being behind two illegal timber hauls they have intercepted. In the first case, an estimated 50 cubic metres of timber being transported through Kampong Thom’s Sandan district on homemade tractors was found last ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/activists-put-blame-local-police
Tiger claim to be probed
Conservationists Fauna and Flora International was to send a team to Pursat province today to investigate a man’s claim that he was attacked by a tiger. Ngem Nget, a 51-year-old farmer in Phnom Kravanh district’s Santre commune, reported that while foraging in the Cardamom Mountains on ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/tiger-claim-be-probed
Living on a dwindling trade
In Samrong Leu village, a picturesque community nestled deep in the verdant fields of Kors Kralor district, the acrid smell of smoke fills the air. Outside almost every house in this community, billows of smoke continuously emerge from the domes of homemade mud kilns, drifting around ...
Kevin Ponniah and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/living-dwindling-trade
‘Tiger’ attacks man in forest
A Pursat man’s reported encounter with a tiger in the Cardamom Mountains has left him injured and in fear, but it has left experts in doubt. On Sunday afternoon, Ngem Nget, a 51-year-old farmer in Phnom Kravanh district’s Santre commune, walked into the woods to forage ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98tiger%E2%80%99-attacks-man-forest
Six Arrested For Bulldozing Flooded Forest Area
Military police joined forces with the Fisheries Administration in Kompong Thom province on Friday to arrest six men and confiscate four bulldozers being used to clear protected flooded forest in Stong district’s fisheries conservation area, officials said Sunday. District military police commander Khun Bunho said that ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/six-arrested-for-bulldozing-flooded-forest-area-61453/
Timber seized during bust
Mixed security forces led by Kratie province’s court prosecutor yesterday arrested six people in a huge illegal logging bust, confiscating more than 100 cubic metres of protected luxury-grade timber. The arrests of both Cambodian and Vietnamese nationals were the culmination of a three-day crackdown by prosecutor ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/timber-seized-during-bust
Illegal logging forum banned in Preah Vihear
Preah Vihear officials abruptly barred environmental activists from holding a planned public forum Wednesday, with the activists claiming it was for political reasons and officials saying the group had failed to go through the proper channels. Seng Sokheng, secretariat coordinator of Community Peace Building Network, said ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/illegal-logging-forum-banned-in-preah-vihear-61218/
Back on timber patrol
When Cambodia’s most prominent forest activist, Chut Wutty, was gunned down in April 2012, the community network he created to sabotage the rampant deforestation of this vast forest fragmented. The forest patrols that he organised nearly ground to a halt. Without money to fund large-scale expeditions, ...
May Titthara and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/back-timber-patrol
Thai border shooting wounds man: officials
A 21-year-old Cambodian man was allegedly shot by Thai soldiers on Thursday after crossing the border to illegally log rosewood, officials in Oddar Meanchey province said yesterday. Nhan Sarom, O’Smach deputy commune chief, told the Post> that border soldiers opened fire on a group of more than ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/thai-border-shooting-wounds-man-officials
Sambo’s return to city nixed
Sambo the elephant will not be allowed to return to work in Phnom Penh, because both City Hall and the Forestry Administration oppose the idea, the FA’s director-general said yesterday. The 54-year-old Sambo left the city in 2012 after decades of entertaining and giving rides to ...
Kevin Ponniah and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sambo%E2%80%99s-return-city-nixed
Cambodia to diversify
Cambodia Ministry of Tourism hopes to encourage international tourists to visit coastal areas and ecotourism destinations to take pressure off Siem Reap. The ministry’s marketing & promotion department representative, Hou Sokhom, told TTR Weekly that the country needs to encourage tourists to travel more to other ...
Wanwisa Ngamsangchaikit
http://www.ttrweekly.com/site/2014/06/cambodia-to-diversify/
Endangered wild cattle discovered in northwest Cambodia
A British conservation group says its hidden cameras have taken photos of a wild cattle species in an area in Siem Reap province where it was previously thought to be extinct. In a statement released Wednesday, Fauna and Flora International said the cameras recorded six individual ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=15&token=YTczNGU3YzIzOGN
Cambodian PM vows to protect environment for sustainable development
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Thursday that environmental protection is the most important measure to ensure the sustainable development of economy and society. In his message on the 42nd International Environment Day that falls on June 5, Hun Sen said the government is committed to ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=15&token=NDc1ZjhjNDQ2MzF
March for the Environment Halted by Police
Some 400 students, monks and activists were stopped from a peaceful march for Environmental Day on Thursday, as they sought to deliver petitions to the Ministry of Environment and other institutions calling for an end to deforestation. Cambodia’s forests provide many services to the rural poor, ...
Suy Heimkhemra
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/march-for-the-environment-halted-by-police/1930290.html
Flying squirrel and eyeless spider discovered in Greater Mekong
A series of high-flying creatures, including giant flying frogs and squirrels and a parachute gecko, are among the hundreds of exotic new species recently discovered in the greater Mekong region in southeast Asia. A new eyeless spider and a fish that mates head-to-head are also highlighted ...
Damian Carrington
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/04/flying-squirrel-and-eyeless-spider-discovered-in-greater-mekong?CMP=fb_gu
New Zealand provides Cambodia with 3.7 mln USD to preserve Angkor Wat
The government of New Zealand on Wednesday signed up to provide Cambodia with 3.7 million U.S. dollars for the preservation and protection of Angkor Wat Temple, one of the world heritage sites, said a news statement from the Cambodian government. Bun Narith, director general of Apsara ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-06/04/c_133383466.htm
Cambodian Villagers Express Helplessness to Protect Forest
Prey Lang is one of Cambodia’s few remaining large forests, covering approximately 3,600 square kilometers across four northern provinces. The forest is home to about 200,000 mostly indigenous people, who depend on it for their livelihoods, according to the Prey Lang Community Network. But, the ...
Say Mony
http://www.voanews.com/content/illegal-logging-in-cambodian-forest-worries-natives/1928013.html
Short-lived retirement for Sambo?
Two years after she was walked out of the city in the middle of the night to a quiet life of retirement on the outskirts of the capital, Sambo, Phnom Penh’s iconic and much-beloved elephant, might soon be back at work entertaining tourists. With funding for ...
Kevin Ponniah and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/short-lived-retirement-sambo
Sanctuary ‘protected’
More than 2,000 hectares of the decimated Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary in Ratanakkiri province have been classified by the Ministry of Environment (MOE) as the sanctuary’s first community protected area. Surrounded by three economic land concessions in Kon Mom district, the protected area is populated by a ...
Phak Seangly and Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sanctuary-%E2%80%98protected%E2%80%99