Forests and forestry

At least a dozen companies including some of Cambodia’s most prominent developers have been illegally logging and transporting rosewood since the election without any action from authorities, a pair of local NGOs alleged. In a report released yesterday, the Coalition of Cambodian Farmer Community and the ...

Police seized about 600 pieces of luxury-grade rosewood weighing about 2,000 kilograms during a raid in Oddar Meanchey province on Sunday, but are still deciding whether to arrest the owners of the property on which it was found, an official said. Bun Heng, a communal forestry ...

Following an investigation of alleged illegal logging by Vietnamese Company 72 in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadav district forests yesterday morning, provincial Forestry Administration officials claimed nothing seemed awry. Four villagers patrolling the forest at the border of Vietnam reported they had seen six Vietnamese loggers with two tractors, ...

Employees reportedly working for the controversial Company 72 have allegedly been illegally felling timber in a community forest in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadav district and shipping it across the Vietnamese border, community members and Adhoc said yesterday. Romas Svat, a community representative in Paknhai commune’s Lom village, ...

Residents living in the Mekong River basin are expressing concerns over water degradation in the Mekong river and its impact on farming, aquaculture and the livelihood of the millions of people who live in the region. People from Cambodia, Thailand and Viet Nam’s Cuu Long (Mekong) ...

Prior to 2009, Kong Channa, a rice farmer from Svay Rieng province, would leave his wife and young child for months at a time in neighbouring provinces to supplement his income in the off season. This all changed, though, when he began working with the Cambodian ...

Grandis Timber Ltd.’s teak plantation in Kompong Speu province is the fist company in Cambodia to receive a certification from U.S-based Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) for its best practices in forest management, Grandis announced yesterday. “FSC certification recognizes FSC standard’s commitment to sustainable development of ...

Construction of a special economic zone (SEZ) near the Vietnamese border in Ratanakkiri province’s eastern O’Yad­aw district is on track, but who exactly will avail of the facility and its services remains a mystery—even for senior provincial officials. The latest announced venture of agro-industry land concession ...

Since last year, up to a half of nearly 8,000 hectares of community forest has been encroached upon and cleared in Oddar Meanchey province’s Banteay Ampil district by soldiers, community representatives said yesterday. Din Heng, chief of Ang Dong Bor community, said the army has cleared ...

Cambodia observed the Forest Day on Tuesday, urging people to plant trees in order to ensure the sustainability of forest and environment. The celebration was presided over by King Norodom Sihamoni and attended by Prime Minister Hun Sen and senior officials of the government, the parliament, ...

More than 30 families evicted from a former airport site in Preah Vihear province’s Chea Ksan district have filed four complaints with the provincial court since April against district governor Sok Hay. Lor Chan, provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc, said a total of 31 families ...

Cambodia’s Apsara Authority and China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the project of sustainable management of the existing resources for conservation and sustainable development in Angkor World Heritage Site and Siem Reap region. The deal was inked between ...

A reporter from Cheat Sachak newspaper in Ratanakkiri province filed a complaint to provincial military police and rights group Adhoc on Monday, claiming he had been beaten by a group of illegal loggers to stop him from reporting on their activities. Phon Bun Thoen, 53, said ...

Monks residing in Koh Kong’s remote Areng Valley have begun raising funds online to renovate their local temple, despite plans in store for a large Chinese backed hydropower dam that would leave the site completely inundated. The 108-MW hydropower dam, to be built by ...

The Fisheries Administration and the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on Friday officially launched a program to protect Cambodia’s coastline from over-fishing, erosion and other damage to coastal environments and livelihoods. Since the beginning of the year, the program has been training local officials ...

The Ministry of Interior has said six Cambodians were shot dead by Thai forces in the course of a month, in a rare report outlining the impact of the ongoing trade in luxury rosewood, and authorities’ efforts to curb it. The report also says that ...

The government does little to protect the rights and livelihoods of the country’s many ethnic minorities who are under constant threat from rapid development, representatives of indigenous groups said yesterday. “We have polices laws and guidelines to protect indigenous people, but we see that it doesn’t ...

Human rights workers and other civil society groups on Wednesday urged the competing political parties for July’s election to address the ongoing land crises and illegal deforestation that are hurting indigenous populations. About 100 people from various ethnic minority groups from five provinces attended a forum ...

Since 2007, the NGO Pact has been working with the government to turn 68,000 hectares of forest in Oddar Meanchey province into a moneymaking venture for the state just by keeping trees in the area standing. ...

More than 700 villagers from five provinces yesterday protested in front of the provincial government headquarters in Kompong Chhnang after losing their community forests to large agro-industry firms. Organized by the Cambodian Grassroots People’s Assembly- a network of communities that includes forestry and land activists as ...

The foreign ministers of Thailand and Cambodia signed a memorandum of understanding in Phnom Penh yesterday reconfirming their commitment to developing their joint border with new economic zones, checkpoints and a 1,800-MW power plant. “We have agreed to create four international checkpoints to improve trade ...

Okhna Try Pheap’s ballooning empire of exclusive natural resource licences and concessions has been expanded even further with the granting of a special economic zone (SEZ) in Ratanakkiri province. The May 27 issue of the Royal Gazette reveals Pheap was granted a 136-hectare SEZ in O’Yadav ...

Conservation officials have confiscated a truck containing 20 cubic metres of illegally cut, luxury-grade timber from an economic land concession owned by the firm TTY Corporation, a district official said yesterday. Kratie provincial officials seized the logs, along with two trucks and two cars on Monday ...

Land Management Minister Im Chum Lim awarded a community of ethnic minority Banong in Mondolkiri province a communal land tile to their ancestral land last week, only the eighth communal land title to be handed out since the 2001 Land Law made them available. The title ...