Environment and natural resources

Settlers and rangers have cleared 200 hectares of Samlot Protected Forest in Battambang and Pailin provinces, according to local authorities and staff of the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation, which is helping to protect the area. ...

Authorities in a northern Cambodian province on Monday rounded up six suspects for questioning in the killing of two officials and wounding of another who were on patrol in a preserved forest area, in the latest apparent confrontation between illegal loggers and officials, provincial police ...

A police officer and a Forestry Administration official were shot dead by illegal loggers in Preah Vihear province early Saturday morning in an attack that also left a second officer injured, according to a local official who gave two different versions of the incident. ...

Officials in Preah Sihanouk province on Thursday gave a series of conflicting explanations as to what a team of cargo ships and accompanying barges are doing in the waters between Koh Rong and the mainland. ...

Members of the Jarai ethnic community in Ratanakkiri province turned to human rights NGO Adhoc for help yesterday after briefly detaining alleged illegal loggers. ...

Work began yesterday on Cambodia’s first national environmental plan in more than a decade. Once completed, the National Environmental Strategy and Action Plan (NESAP) will form the backbone of Cambodia’s environmental policy until 2023. The far-reaching plan – which is expected to be put into ...

In the latest twist in a long-running dispute over a protected community forest in Battambang province, villagers disgusted by rampant land grabbing have begun scrambling for a piece of the action. ...

Work began yesterday on Cambodia’s first national environmental plan in more than a decade. Once completed, the National Environmental Strategy and Action Plan (NESAP) will form the backbone of Cambodia’s environmental policy until 2023. The far-reaching plan – which is expected to be put into ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is supporting the government of Cambodia to develop a National Environmental Strategy and Action Plan (NESAP) to help the country achieve its sustainable development goals. ...

A border official and a reporter gave drastically different accounts Sunday of events that transpired after a group of journalists was blocked as they attempted to visit the Chambok border checkpoint in Banteay Meanchey province on Friday. ...

Authorities in Ratanakkiri prov­ince said they confiscated a vanful of illegal luxury-grade timber on Wednesday after a van driver crashed into a motorbike on his way to the Vietnamese border with the wood, but let the driver go because he was injured. ...

Most years the rice fields outside Battambang are an unbroken sea of electric green, but this year they look more like a patchwork quilt. Some paddies are a healthy green, but others are a sickly yellow, while others are little more than empty, muddy fields ...

An environmental activist explains how a grassroots campaign has stalled the building of a dam in Cambodia. We started making more videos and putting them on Facebook. Even locals who didn’t have internet at home were somehow finding the videos and interest started picking up ...

The Ministry of Environment has called on local authorities in Pailin province to find a new location for a 34-hectare dumpsite currently planned for a protected forest.Environment Minister Say Sam Al, who led a team to inspect the site on October 3, wrote to Pailin ...

During its latest round of patrols this week, the Prey Lang Community Network confiscated 12 chainsaws from alleged illegal loggers in Preah Vihear, which it plans to hand over to the local Forestry Administration. ...

The pangolin is slow and has no teeth—its main defense is curling up into a ball on the dense forest floor. It’s an easy target for poachers looking to cash in on the mammal’s much-prized meat or the supposed medicinal qualities of the tiny anteater’s ...

Cambodia’s government and civil society yesterday expressed worry over the lack of progress on finalising the draft text for an international climate change treaty set to be adopted at UN climate talks in Paris (COP 21) after the final round of negotiations concluded in Bonn, ...

Preah Sihanouk provincial authorities have told residents around the Kbal Chhay waterfalls to leave the area or risk being ejected, amid concern over pollution of the popular tourist attraction. ...

An initiative to re-home abused, over-worked domestic elephants is supporting the conservation of one of Cambodia’s last and most species-rich rainforests, writes William Laurance. Growing ecotourism in the area, attracted by the elephants, is engaging indigenous communities in forest protection and helping to stave off ...

A dozen diesel-powered boats crawl across Kep Bay, creating a rumble so low that it shakes the pier. They drag weighted, electrified nets across the inshore shallows, scooping up sea life indiscriminately and destroying vital breeding grounds in the process. And they trawl so close ...

Cambodian officials have defended the government’s record on the forestry sector, despite the publication this year of several substantive reports alleging that deforestation is accelerating due to policy failures. In response, Sophalleth echoed previous comments by the prime minister, insisting that once deforested land is ...

Fish stocks in the Mekong River in Cambodia and the Vietnamese Delta could be halved if 11 planned hydropower dams go ahead, according to the preliminary results of an extensive study funded by the Vietnamese government. ...

Customs officials in Kandal province Monday confiscated live snakes and turtles from a man attempting to smuggle the animals across the border into Vietnam, but failed to apprehend the suspect, who fled on foot, an official said. ...

Twenty-nine loggers were sent back to Cambodia from Thailand on Sunday after the group was arrested by Thai soldiers while logging rosewood across the border from Banteay Meanchey province, an official said Monday. ...