Forests and forestry

Two men were arrested in Kompong Thom province on Tuesday after they drove their car to obstruct a team of officials in pursuit of a vehicle suspected of transporting illegally harvested luxury timber through Stung Sen City, police said. ...

After marching for Prey Lang forest, the Independent Monk Network for Social Justice now plans to station monks in the forest for two week anti-logging “patrols.” ...

A loacal NGO director and a village chief in Battambang’s Samlot district were summoned for questioning by district police today over a complaint filed by six loggers, who claim the men attempted to extort $6,000 from them under the threat of violence. ...

Farmers in Cambodia who depend on forest products for their livelihood face an uncertain future because of dwindling forests. ...

CNRP lawmakers have written to Prime Minister Hun Sen asking him to stop the ongoing illegal logging of northeast Cambodia’s Virachey National Park, which they said they witnessed during a recent trip and blamed on businessmen An Mady and Try Pheap. ...

King Norodom Sihamoni will participate in a tree-planting event in Kampong Thom today, along with government officials and members of the public, as part of a nationwide celebration that aims to draw attention to conversation of Cambodia’s forests. ...

Members of the ethnic Jarai community in Ratanakkiri’s Andong Meas district have lodged a complaint with the provincial court, demanding that it take legal action against four Vietnamese nationals and two Cambodian border officials for offences related to illegal logging. ...

Gunshots were fired in a tense standoff between two armed groups in Kampong Speu province’s Phnom Oral Wildlife Sanctuary last month, prompting a court investigation into what happened. ...

Around 100 activists, including Buddhist monks, gathered in front of Cambodia’s parliament Monday to demand that lawmakers and the country’s Forestry Administration take action against illegal logging in endangered Prey Lang forest. ...

A Japanese company, A2A Town (Cambodia), has submitted a request to the Cambodian Ministry of Environment to establish helicopter flights from Phnom Penh to Preah Soramrit Kossamak Kirirom National Park in Kampong Speu province.​​ ...

Forestry officials in Oddar Meanchey province on Wednesday discovered a timber processing plant and thousands of lengths of luxury-grade wood in a remote forested area populated only by soldiers, officials said Thursday. ...

More than 100 monks from across the Kingdom will gather in Prey Lang forest on July 2 for four days before travelling to Phnom Penh to protest against illegal logging and other environmental threats to the forest, activist monk Venerable But Buntenh said. ...

The logger’s teeth were smashed with the butt of a rifle and his friend fatally shot by a Thai paramilitary force formed to provide support to the Khmer Rouge. Chakrya*, 24, had ventured across the Dangrek Mountains in Cambodia’s far north to log Siamese rosewood, a ...

Hun Sen’s Cambodia has been shaped by the collection of illegal timber dollars, profiting a politically connected elite and in turn ensuring the ruling party’s grip on the state apparatus, a leading Australian researcher has said. Sarah Milne, a research fellow at the Australian National University, ...

Members of local conservation group the Forest Protection Community announced plans last week to use their own staff members to patrol an area of forest in Anlong Veng that could be decimated by illegal loggers within months. ...

The agriculture industry has lost its luster among industrial manufacturers and service providers. Tycoons are quietly withdrawing money from agriculture projects, just several years after pouring big money into the sector. Just a few years ago, Do Van Minh, Gemadept’s CEO, said that growing rubber ...

Military police in Ratanakkiri province working with the NGO Wildlife Alliance confiscated 40 kg of bushmeat from two vendors at a Banlung City market Thursday morning but let the women go with a warning. ...

The European Union ambassador on Wednesday called on the Cambodian government to help combat climate change, foremost by reducing red tape for communities who want to form groups to protect what remains of the country’s forests. ...

Rangers in eastern Cambodia’s Seima Protected Forest have reported seizing 32 animals in three separate busts over the past week, including more than a dozen endangered tortoises. ...

A Cambodian man who had been illegally logging rosewood across the border in Thailand was shot dead by Thai soldiers on Friday, a village chief in Oddar Meanchey province said Tuesday. ...

A group of activists in northwestern Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey province said Tuesday that their forest is under threat from illegal loggers in neighboring provinces and could be completely cleared within months if authorities do not step in to deal with the problem. ...

Nearly 20 cubic metres of timber were seized by local authorities in Stung Treng’s Thala Barivat district yesterday, despite alleged interference by a military police officer from Preah Vihear province, police said. ...

A group of indigenous villagers in northeastern Cambodia’s Stung Treng province called on local forestry officials Wednesday to crackdown on illegal saw mills and to provide them with protection after they received death threats from unsanctioned loggers of luxury timber. ...

In perhaps the most comprehensive review to date of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s 2012 land titling project, the NGO Forum on Tuesday said the campaign has yielded major benefits, but not without some serious costs—particularly for the country’s beleaguered indigenous communities. ...