Forests and forestry

Authorities in Ratanakkiri province have found more piles of possibly illegally logged wood as part of the government’s ongoing sweep of eastern Cambodia for illicit timber stocks, this time on a rubber plantation owned by wealthy businessman Soung Vang. ...

A high-speed police chase across Stung Treng province early Monday morning led to the confiscation of more than 1.5 tons of rosewood, but only after an SUV plowed into a police truck blocking the road, with two suspects eventually fleeing on foot. ...

The National Anti-Deforestation Committee (NADC) filed complaints to provincial courts against five companies that obtained economic land concessions (ELCs) from the government after discovering irregularities in the companies’ timber stocks after a three-day inspection early this week. ...

A police official in Kompong Thom province has so far avoided prosecution in a weekend timber smuggling case involving his brother, three unidentified loggers and three carloads of rosewood logs marked with his name. ...

Although they remain publicly unnamed, nine businessmen in the timber industry were summoned to appear at the Tbong Khmum provincial court today for alleged deforestation crimes and illegal business dealings, according to officials. ...

A prominent anti-dam activist in Koh Kong province who has been jailed since October was convicted Thursday of illegal logging and given a suspended prison sentence, allowing him to walk free but leaving the shadow of a criminal conviction hanging over him. ...

City Hall plans to privatize a 280-hectare plot of public land set aside for a $3 billion development by the Over­seas Cambodia Investment Cor­poration (OCIC) in Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changva district, officials said Thursday.   ...

The Indigenous Peoples and Forestry Network (IPFN) yesterday released a statement praising the government’s ongoing purported crackdown on illegal logging, but saying far more needs to be done. ...

A blaze authorities have attributed to a forest fire ripped through a nearly 4,000-cubic-metre timber stockpile on a social land concession in Preah Vihear’s Kulen district on the weekend, although the company yesterday said it suspected a case of arson. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen unleashed a tirade against underperforming government officials in a pair of speeches yesterday – musing aloud about reshuffling his Council of Ministers and wondering why rockets had not yet been deployed in the Kingdom’s recent “crackdown” on illegal logging. ...

More than a month has passed since National Anti-Deforestation Committee (NADC) named the people it suspects of profiting from the trade in illegal timber, but not a single arrest warrant or court summons has been issued since. As perpetrators continue to go unpunished, the illegal ...

An ad hoc task force set up by Prime Minister Hun Sun last month to go after illegal timber stocks in eastern Cambodia has started sending cases to the pro­vincial courts for prosecution, Na­tional Police spokesman Eng Hy said on Monday. ...

Over a month after launching, the National Anti-Deforestation Committee (NADC) has claimed that deforestation crimes across the country have dropped significantly, with the majority of illegal deforestation occurring in Mondulkiri, Kratie and Tbong Khmum provinces. ...

Six prominent conservation groups yesterday vowed to help a military police task force fight illegal logging near the eastern border yesterday. However, scepticism persists that the highly publicised operation, which has resulted in few arrests, is merely for show. ...

Four Cambodian nationals were arrested by Thai authorities on illegal logging allegations after the suspects were caught in a Surin province wildlife sanctuary with felled Siamese Rosewood trees and logging tools on Monday, according to officials. ...

A rubber plantation in Mondolkiri province targeted by a new government task force sweeping the eastern provinces for illicit timber stocks has denied any involvement in the illegal logging trade. ...

Two men have been arrested over, and a military official implicated in, illegal logging that took place at the protected Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary last week. ...

The recently created nationwide anti-logging commission seized 300 logs of illegal timber at a sawmill near a Vietnamese graveyard in Stung Treng province on Friday. ...

A journalist who accused a military police commander of accepting bribes from illegal loggers in Mondolkiri province was arrested and briefly detained on Thursday on the commander’s orders, a move that was criticized by the Ministry of Information. ...

Government rangers, paid to protect the Phnom Oral Wildlife Sanctuary, allow loggers to process and transport illegally felled timber in exchange for bribes, an NGO alleged yesterday after conducting an undercover operation in the protected forest. ...

Authorities have unearthed an­other cache of high-grade logs buried near a well-known timber dealer’s sawmill in Tbong Khmum province, weeks after finding a stockpile of buried logs on the businessman’s property in the same district. ...

Authorities have seized more than 160 kilograms of illegal wildlife meat and several live animals during separate raids in Stung Treng and Ratanakkiri provinces over the past week. ...

The Prey Lang Community Network has called on the government to include the protection of the sprawling Prey Lang forest in the remit of the recently established committee to crack down on illegal logging. ...

Steng Treng’s forestry protection communities called on the government and relevant institutions to investigate the irregularities of duty of the local authorities and Stung Treng provincial forestry officers who did not pay attention to local forest conservation, also enable logger to encroach land arbitrarily. ...