Forests and forestry

Families refusing to relocate from their homes near the Lower Sesan II dam have said they will all leave if they can establish a new village on their community forest and ancestral lands. ...

The Environment Ministry is to request the creation of six new protected areas to safeguard biodiversity and boost conservation in the country. Tim Sitha, deputy director of the general department of conservation, said the ministry has been studying the potential to establish the new areas.  ...

Villagers and NGOs have accused local authorities, including forestry and environmental officials, of accepting bribes from illegal loggers in exchange for unfettered logging expeditions in Preah Vihear province’s Preah Roka protected forest. ...

The last families refusing to relocate from two communes near the Lower Sesan II dam are considering asking the authorities to establish a new village on ancestral lands close to their original homes as flood waters in the area continue to rise. ...

Nearly 3,000 cases have been detected in a crackdown on fisheries and forest crime in the first nine months of this year.​ The results were in a Ministry of Agriculture and Fishery report published on Friday. ...

The Ministry of Environment is asking Japan for help mapping Cambodia’s forests using satellite imagery, one week after it vehemently refuted a report of such imagery showing accelerating forest loss in the Kingdom. ...

Six Vietnamese nationals were arrested on Wednesday afternoon in a Military Police raid that saw 30 officers confiscating at least 100 illegally felled trees and 10 logging vehicles from an economic land concession in Kratie province’s Snuol district near the border with Vietnam. ...

The Ministry of Environment released a statement late Tuesday night vehemently refuting University of Maryland data that showed a 30 percent spike in forest cover loss in 2016 over the year before, pointing instead to its own data showing only minimal deforestation over the same ...

The new data, released by the University of Maryland, tracks forest cover loss globally using satellite imagery. Results showed that not only was 2016 worse than 2015, but of the 16 years for which deforestation was recorded, last year was the fourth worst – with ...

Ratanakkiri province police seized 285 logs of first-grade timber in a raid at a cashew farm in a remote area of the province yesterday, although no loggers were arrested. ...

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries yesterday announced the establishment of two community forest areas over 4,500 hectares in Kampong Thom province’s Santuk district. ...

Fifty endangered sarus cranes have hatched from 27 nests protected by conservationists and villagers in Cambodia’s Northern Plains, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). The nests are in Kulen Promtep and Chhep wildlife sanctuaries. ...

Police raided a warehouse in Pursat province’s Veal Veng district on Friday, seizing tonnes of illegal luxury timber after the owner fled.​ ...

The Apsara Authority has extended an agreement with China’s International Centre on Space Technologies for Natural and Cultural Heritage to continue using its remote sensing technology to discover and preserve ancient temples in Siem Reap province.​ ...

National and Provincial Military Police in Kampong Speu seized hauls of illicit timber and arrested two suspects in separate cases over the weekend. A Provincial Military Police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the press, said the ...

Four endangered hog deer, once thought to be extinct in Cambodia, were caught on camera in Kratie province for the first time in a decade, according to the World Wildlife Fund. ...

Authorities yesterday discovered at least 20 tonnes of rosewood and other luxury timber after raiding a warehouse in Kandal province’s Kien Svay district. ...

A team of researchers at the National University of Singapore (NUS) has found that the loss of dense forest in Cambodia is associated with higher risk of diarrhea, acute respiratory infection, and fever in children. ...

A Khmer-Vietnamese Association representative in Ratanakkiri yesterday denied that illegally logged timber confiscated from the group’s office in Tes Anglong village on Tuesday belonged to the association. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen declared a passion for forest protection yesterday, urging officials to improve the efficiency of forest crime prevention. ...

The Ministry of Environment has disputed an environmental NGO report that large-scale illegal logging continues unabated, with large quantities of timber being transported to Vietnam. ...

Cambodian timber exports to Vietnam over the first six months of the year have almost surpassed the total amount for all of last year, according to Vietnamese customs data, despite an existing ban on the trade – which one analyst said had “entirely failed” in ...

The government has granted a private company an export licence to transport $15 million worth of illegal timber bought at an auction last year to Vietnam, documents show. ...

A Koh Kong environmental official yesterday said a company with a sand-washing facility in an area where the Ministry of Mines and Energy last month banned sand dredging would be allowed to keep and operate its facility. ...