Forests and forestry
Forest protection
Forest felled illegally, trio tells court
Three villagers in Mondulkiri’s Sen Monorom district appeared in court yesterday after filing a complaint against a land concessionaire for illegally bulldozing community forest. The three represented more than 160 Phnong villagers in allegations that the provincial deputy governor’s company cleared 30 hectares of community forest ...
Phak Seangly
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:www.phnompenhpost.com/national/forest-felled-illegally-trio-tells-court
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
Waiting for the deluge
The Lower Sesan II dam project is a microcosm of the carving up of Cambodia. In one of the world’s most diverse river ecosystems, the ground burns. Whole forests are felled with scant regard for the law, while the project is backed by the country’s ...
Daniel Pye and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/waiting-deluge
Dam ‘dire for dolphins’
Construction of the Don Sahong hydropower project in southern Laos is likely to decimate an already dwindling population of critically endangered Mekong dolphins, according to a World Wildlife Fund science brief published today. About 85 dolphins inhabit a deep-water pool restricted to a stretch of the ...
Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/dam-%E2%80%98dire-dolphins%E2%80%99
Villagers nab logging truck
In the latest case involving illegal logging in Mondulkiri’s Sen Monorom district, two indigenous communities filed a lawsuit against three unidentified illegal loggers after confiscating a truck laden with luxury wood on Saturday, a rights monitor and villagers said yesterday. About 50 villagers turned over the ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/villagers-nab-logging-truck
Irrawaddy dolphin found dead
Villagers along the Mekong river found a dead freshwater Irrawaddy dolphin floating with the current yesterday near Prek Chik village in Kratie province’s Prek Presap district. Fishery officials said the male dolphin weighs about 100kg. Sean Kin, a fishery official in Kratie province, said his team took ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/irrawaddy-dolphin-found-dead
Chainsaws snatched in Mondulkiri
Mondulkiri villagers seized seven chainsaws on Tuesday from illegal loggers claiming to be selling timber to logging tycoon Try Pheap’s company. A group of ethnic Pnong villagers came across the three illegal loggers during a patrol of their community forest on Tuesday, according to Bil Vanthy, ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/chainsaws-snatched-mondulkiri
Dam site still logged: NGOs
NGOS have accused logging tycoon Try Pheap’s MDS Import-Export Company – which had a licence to clear forest during the construction of the Stung Atai hydropower dam in Pursat – of continuing to log the area despite the dam being finished. Ouch Leng, director of the ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/dam-site-still-logged-ngos
Forest almost gone: Adhoc
About 200 families from Mondulkiri’s Keo Seima district filed a complaint on Sunday against a Vietnamese-owned company alleged to have razed more than 3,500 hectares of community forest since 2010, villagers and a rights group said yesterday. A rubber concessionaire identified as Sovan Reachsey has been ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/forest-almost-gone-adhoc
Koh Kong dam online since late last year
Cambodia’s largest hydropower plant to date, the Stung Russey Chrum, is operational. The 338-megawatt dam, located in Koh Kong’s Mondul Sima district forest, produced and transmitted electricity to Phnom Penh last month, according to its developer, China Huadian Corporation. “It is the biggest and best dam we ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/koh-kong-dam-online-late-last-year
Not going without a fight
Teng Khorn’s living room is under a tree, his bedroom in a boat hauled up on a slipway for caulking beside the mangroves that lead to his source of income: the sea. His choice of abode is also his act of defiance against the monolithic Chinese ...
May Titthara and David Boyle
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/not-going-without-fight
A burden to bear
Among the exotic wildlife that prowls Cambodia’s forests are large furry creatures that may be far more familiar to European and North American visitors than the ever-dwindling populations of large cats and beastly elephants. The Kingdom’s bears climb trees and devour honey just like their ...
Bennett Murray
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/7days/burden-bear
Villagers say community forest at risk
More than 100 families in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadav district are seeking government intervention against an economic land concessionaire they allege has razed over 1,000 hectares of community forest, village leaders said yesterday. Five representatives for the 144 families departed yesterday to file a complaint at the provincial ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/villagers-say-community-forest-risk
Reforestry Claim ‘A Stretch’
The government reforested 80,693 hectares of land between 2008 and 2012 as part of its efforts to combat deforestation, a recent agriculture ministry report says, but these seemingly impressive statistics were reached by counting rubber trees and other agricultural crops as adequate replacements for forests. The ...
May Titthara and Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/reforestry-claim-%E2%80%98-stretch%E2%80%99
Village chief ‘threatens’ over logging complaint
Villagers in Ratanakkiri’s Lumphat district have filed a complaint with rights group Adhoc, claiming their village chief has threatened them with arrest over a petition accusing officials of illegally logging a community forest. Sven Vev, 40, said he and three other representatives of the ethnic Tumpoun ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/village-chief-%E2%80%98threatens%E2%80%99-over-logging-complaint
Sanctuary bridge ‘Torched’
The burning of a bridge that provided access to the Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary in Ratanakkiri is the handiwork of two oknhas and local environment officers, villagers have claimed. In a complaint to rights group Adhoc, members of the ethnic Lao community in Kon Mom district say ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sanctuary-bridge-%E2%80%98torched%E2%80%99
New protection for giant ibis
A newly demarcated wildlife and forest protection zone designed to safeguard Cambodia’s national bird, the giant ibis, along with a number of other endangered species, has been approved after more than 10 years in the making. A government sub-decree approving a protection zone spanning 66,932 hectares ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-protection-giant-ibis
Chainsaws confiscated by villagers
Ethnic Phnong villagers in Mondulkiri province’s Sen Monorom district will file a complaint with rights group Adhoc today against three men who allegedly illegally logged 10 cubic metres of timber from their forest. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/chainsaws-confiscated-villagers
Military Continues to Cut Down Forest–And Carbon Credits
Cambodian soldiers are continuing to cut into community forests in Oddar Meanchey province that are meant to anchor what is intended to be the country’s first forest-based carbon credit trading scheme, local villagers and NGOs said Wednesday. ...
Phorn Bopha and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/military-continues-to-cut-down-forest-and-carbon-credits-50964/
Try Pheap loggers sued
More than 200 families filed a complaint with the Preah Vihear provincial court yesterday against two employees of logging tycoon Try Pheap who allegedly cleared 15 hectares of community forest late last year before being stopped by villagers. Huon Kino, 39, a representative of the 203 ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/try-pheap-loggers-sued
Muddy Waters Have Authorities Singing the Blues
Authorities in Kratie and Stung Treng provinces on Thursday said that they were investigating an unusual change of color in the Mekong River to a muddy, dark brown that was unnatural for this time of the year and was worrying residents. Since the beginning of this ...
Ben Sokhean and Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/muddy-waters-have-authorities-singing-the-blues-50792/
Villagers seek $275k payout
Villagers living in Mondulkiri’s Sen Monorom district are demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation for the loss of thousands of protected resin trees, alleging that a land concessionaire company has been illegally razing community forest since 2012. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/villagers-seek-275k-payout
Activists to be questioned in meddling suit
Ten land activists are set to be questioned today by Preah Vihear provincial court over their involvement in halting the drilling of a well in a community forest in November last year, rights monitors said yesterday. Lor Chhan, provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc, told the Post the ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/activists-be-questioned-meddling-suit
Truck ban for bamboo collectors
More than 50 villagers who collect bamboo and rattan in the forests of Kampot’s Teuk Chhou district called on Kampot provincial hall for intervention yesterday after their trucks were banned from the area. ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/truck-ban-bamboo-collectors