Environment and natural resources

The core of one of Cambodia’s most important and abused forests —Prey Lang—was officially de­clared a protected area this week af­ter years of campaigning by local ac­tivists and foreign conservationists.    ...

After setting up the National Anti-Deforestation Committee (NADC) in an attempt to show that the government was trying to stop illegal logging, Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday called on all citizens to join the battle, saying people even had the right to make citizen arrests ...

More than 40 monkeys were rescued by customs officials at the Cambodia-Vietnam border in Memot yesterday, according to Police Lieutenant Colonel Chuon Phally, the Deputy Commander at Tbong Khmom military camp. ...

The smuggling of illegally cut timber from northeastern Cambodia’s Ratanakiri  province to Vietnam has dramatically increased since around April 17, with smugglers traveling the roads between the two countries day and night, sources in the region say. ...

The Angkor Elephant Company has pledged to reduce the working hours of its animals following the death last Friday of Sambo, one of 14 elephants it uses to carry tourists around the Angkor Wat temple complex, although critics say anything short of their release from ...

The Apsara Authority announced yesterday that it is considering the selective removal of some trees inside the 401-square-kilometer Angkor Park, saying that only those that pose potential risk to the park’s visitors and temples would be cut down. ...

Cambodia’s Royal Turtle is nearly extinct, with fewer than 10 left in the wild, because increased sand dredging and illegal clearance of flooded forest have shrunk its habitat, a conservationist group warned Monday. ...

The Ministry of Environment conducted a workshop yesterday to discuss the government’s plan to designate five forest areas, totaling about one million hectares of land, as protected. ...

Four farmers were arrested and charged yesterday over allegations of killing an endangered banteng, considered to be one of the most beautiful species of wild ox, in a protected forest in Mondulkiri, according to officials. ...

Twelve loggers were arrested on Saturday while harvesting timber illegally inside the Phnom Prich Wildlife Sanctuary in Pich Chreada’s Pou Chrey commune, according to a local media report. ...

The Ministry of Environment has given two NGOs the go-ahead to implement their proposed management plans for five protected community forest areas in Battambang and Pursat provinces, projected to cover 1,064 families and 2,761 hectares.   ...

Hundreds of dead bats were found inside Siem Reap’s Phnom Bouk temple in Banteay Srey district after district police and environmental officers were notified by local residents on Tuesday. ...

Police in Mondolkiri province yesterday arrested a former military police officer with two outstanding warrants after chasing down his SUV and finding a cache of illegally sourced luxury wood inside.   ...

The illegal timber trade to Vietnam, a key nexus in a shadow industry worth billions of dollars, has been all but eliminated, an official said yesterday in summarising a new report from the government’s anti-logging commission, a claim met with disbelief by more than one ...

Police in Koh Kong province reported yesterday that 49 Cambodians were caught trying to cross the Thai border during a forest patrol on Monday in Smach Meanchey district.   ...

A patrol in Seima Protected Forest in Mondulkiri last weekend found a young great hornbill near an illegal logging site. Hornbill sightings have become rarer as the bird’s population drops. ...

Making a dramatic arrival by helicopter at the Sofitel Hotel in Phnom Penh after a flyover of Prey Lang forest, Environment Minister Say Sam Al and US Ambassador to Cambodia William Heidt discussed a plan to make the Kingdom’s largest forest a protected area. ...

The latest crackdown on illegal logging in Cambodia is “just a game” and big timber traders are winning, says Ouch Leng, a former government official who has spent two decades helping poor villagers fight poaching of precious tropical forests. Leng’s tenacious and perilous crusade to stop ...

About 130 hectares of protected wetlands in three villages in Kampong Chhnang province’s Boribor district were consumed in forest fires last week, according to a police report issued by the Interior Ministry. ...

A leading Indian conservationist and tiger expert is warning that a multimillion-dollar scheme to reintroduce the big cat to Cambodia will be a “tragic failure” that could cost lives, and that its advocates will come to rue the attempt.    ...

The number of tigers in the wild has risen for the first time in 100 years, marking a major turning point in the big cat’s plight against poaching and habitat loss. Figures collated from national surveys conducted in tiger range states and from the International Union ...

There will be discussions on whether some tigers can be relocated from India to Cambodia, at the third Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation. No evidence of tigers have been found in Cambodia since 2007 and the World Wide Fund for Nature recently declared tigers ...

A driver’s assistant has been arrested for smuggling 18 turtles hidden in mattress covers in a truck from Thailand on Saturday in Kampong Chhnang’s Toul Kralanh village, according to officials. ...

After issuing a public health warning earlier this month for Kep province due to an algal bloom in the coastal water, the government on Friday lifted its precautionary ban on swimming, fishing and eating seafood in the province, according to a statement.   ...