Forests and forestry
Forest protection
Six-tonne timber haul unearthed
Stung Treng province police are searching for suspects after authorities found more than six tonnes of luxury-grade timber buried near a remote home in Siem Pang district last week. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/six-tonne-timber-haul-unearthed
Chainsaws destroyed by M’kiri minorities
More than 100 villagers from eight ethnic communities in Mondulkiri province on Friday symbolically burned two chainsaws allegedly used to illegally log community forest before delivering four others they had confiscated to the provincial forestry administration, participants and Adhoc said yesterday. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/chainsaws-destroyed-m%E2%80%99kiri-minorities
Village patrol finds logs, no loggers
Villagers patrolling a protected community forest in Mondulkiri province yesterday morning found more than 100 logs of luxury timber, believed to be headed for Vietnam. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/village-patrol-finds-logs-no-loggers
Thais arrest 21 in border logging bust
In the latest series of arrests involving illegal logging on the Cambodian-Thai border, 21 Cambodians were picked up by Thai authorities on Friday while attempting to smuggle rosewood into Oddar Meanchey province, a rights group said yesterday. Srey Naren, provincial coordinator for rights groups Adhoc, ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/thais-arrest-21-border-logging-bust
NGOs ask PM to axe Koh Kong dam plans
A coalition of NGOs yesterday implored Prime Minister Hun Sen to shelve the government’s plans for the Stung Cheay Areng hydropower dam in Koh Kong province and instead turn the wilderness area in question into an eco-tourism site. ...
Shane Worrell
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ngos-ask-pm-axe-koh-kong-dam-plans
Memories of a land unspoiled
The constant hum of chainsaws almost drowned out Buddhist monk Sam Kim Sath, 65, as he stood this week in a wildlife sanctuary on Oral Mountain, Cambodia’s highest peak. Forest in the Phnom Oral Wildlife Sanctuary, in the eastern part of the Cardamoms, is being “obliterated” ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/memories-land-unspoiled
An unsettling prospect
Resettlement studies are being carried out at the site of the proposed Stung Cheay Areng hydropower dam in Koh Kong province, officials said yesterday, amid suggestions that yet another Chinese company is now involved in the controversial project.Tou Savuth, Thma Bang district governor, said staff ...
Shane Worrell and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/unsettling-prospect
Monks and Cash Rewards Save Softshell Turtles
SAMBOR DISTRICT, Kratie Province – A sharply dressed usher in a crisp black shirt, black pants and a shiny black tie escorted guests to one of several bungalow-style, private booths at the Mloub Dong restaurant on a recent evening. While the privacy the restaurant offers is ...
Khy Sovuthy and Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/monks-and-cash-rewards-save-softshell-turtles-49329/
Way of life vanishing: villagers
Since 2011, an estimated 3,000 resin trees have been illegally razed by rogue loggers and a land concessionaire operating in Mondulkiri’s Sen Monorom district, villagers claimed yesterday. Resin trees are a vital source of income for the Phnong ethnic community in Sokdom commune, according to Thleuk ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/way-life-vanishing-villagers
Cambodia Opposition Leader Urges Halt to Forest Land Concessions
Cambodia’s opposition leader called Wednesday for a halt to land concessions granted by the government to foreign companies in the country’s vast Prey Lang Forest, calling for greater protection of one of Southeast Asia’s last remaining lowland evergreen woodlands. Cambodia National Rescue Party President Sam ...
Radio Free Asia News Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/prey-lang-12112013181039.html
Forest Falls in Ratanakkiri to the Tune of Chainsaws, Trucks
LUMPHAT WILDLIFE SANCTUARY, Ratanakkiri Province – From behind the corrugated metal walls of Daun Penh Agrico’s wood depot, the raspy buzz of a chainsaw rattled through the surrounding forest on Monday afternoon. As the chainsaw revved and cut, a heavy-duty truck packed full of long, sawn ...
Zsombor Peter and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/forest-falls-in-ratanakkiri-to-the-tune-of-chainsaws-and-trucks-49134/
Gibbons to Be Reintroduced to Angkor Forest
A pair of endangered pileated gibbons will be released today into the forest in the Angkor Archaeological Park, the beginning of a project that could see the resettlement of many other animals that had been extirpated from the area, wildlife experts said. “We are hoping that ...
Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/gibbons-to-be-reintroduced-to-angkor-forest-49157/
Can’t see the forest …
The percentage of Cambodia covered in forest has fallen from about 72 per cent in 1973 to only about 46 per cent in 2013, satellite image data released yesterday shows. A series of animated maps that Open Development Cambodia (ODC) produced from NASA satellite images detail ...
Shane Worrell
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/can%E2%80%99t-see-forest-%E2%80%A6
Air Pollution—The Latest Threat to Angkor Park
Air pollution from vehicles and electric generators inside the Angkor Archeological Park and in Siem Reap City is soiling and darkening the monuments at the World Heritage Site, an official at the Apsara Authority, which is responsible for the park, said Friday. Options to decrease ...
Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/air-pollution-the-latest-threat-to-angkor-park-48814/
Luxury wood charge floated
About 300 cubic metres of luxury timber is being felled every day and transported on boats to Vietnam and Thailand from four districts in Koh Kong province, according to an investigation by a local rights group. Chea Hean, director of the Natural Resource and Wildlife Preservation ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/luxury-wood-charge-floated
Villagers Say Illegal Loggers Claim to Work for Try Pheap
Villagers in Mondolkiri province filed a complaint with rights group Adhoc on Friday, saying that they had discovered loggers illegally felling trees in their local community forest who claimed to be working for businessman Try Pheap. Mr. Pheap, who owns plantations, mining concessions and special economic ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-say-illegal-loggers-claim-to-work-for-try-pheap-48419/
Angkor’s Management Plan to Be Overhauled
Cambodia’s Apsara National Authority, which manages Angkor Archaeological Park, will this week unveil a “revolutionary” new concept for Angkor’s management that will vastly decentralize responsibility for the preservation of the temple complex, according to Anne Lemaistre, Unesco representative in Cambodia. The new Angkor Heritage Management Framework, ...
Michelle Vachon
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/angkors-management-plan-to-be-overhauled-48235/
Local Groups Say They Must Protect Forest, as Government Fails
Local watchdog groups say they have been forced to take forest protection into their hands, due to a failure of government to do so. “As we have seen: the National Assembly, the Senate and the government do not work,” Ouch Leng, head of the Cambodian Human ...
Sok Khemara
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/local-grouos-say-they-must-protect-forest-as-government-fails/1800429.html
Official Retracts Comments About Logging in Wildlife Sanctuary
A district-level Environment Ministry official on Thursday retracted comments he made last week when he claimed proper monitoring of logging inside Ratanakkiri province’s Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary was impossible because his ministry did not know the boundaries of private land concessions in the protected zone. On November ...
Aun Pheap and Ben Wood
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/official-retracts-comments-about-logging-in-wildlife-sanctuary-48211/
Saved From the Soup, Rescued Sun Bears Thrive
Now about six months old, Hope is still a little clumsy when climbing trees. Hope’s sidekick, named “173,” follows her around as if they were inseparable twins. Together, they swing in a hammock, bathe in a pool and, sometimes, climb up the metal bars of their ...
Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/saved-from-the-soup-rescued-sun-bears-thrive-48223/
Collusion alleged in logging
Ethnic Jarai villagers in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadav district have accused border officials of not only allowing illegal Vietnamese loggers to cross the border unimpeded, but also of taking their side in negotiations with a community forest patrol. Members of the patrol in Paknhai commune’s Lam village said ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/collusion-alleged-logging
Felling illegal: villagers
A private agro-industrial company has come under fire from villagers in Ratanakkiri province who say it has illegally felled resin-producing trees that are their main source of income. More than 1,000 trees in the Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary in Ratanakkiri’s Lumphat district are under threat, the villagers ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/felling-illegal-villagers
Ex-Environment Minister Says Deforestation Exaggerated
Former Environment Minister Mok Mareth on Tuesday accused the media of having “twisted the truth” in reporting on illegal logging in Ratanakkiri province, where rights groups and independent forestry monitors say the natural environment is being pillaged and ethnic minority communities impoverished by illegal loggers ...
Ben Woods and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ex-environment-minister-says-deforestation-exaggerated-47930/
New Report Shows Cambodian Forests in Jeopardy
The rights group Adhoc says it is monitoring “at least 100” individuals who are complicit in forestry crimes across the country. These include “high-ranking officers” of the police and military police; business tycoons; and ordinary citizens across 11 provinces, Chan Soveth, a lead investigator for the ...
Kong Sothanarith
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/new-report-shows-cambodian-forests-in-jeopardy/1797315.html