Environment and natural resources

The Ministry of Environment submitted an ambitious national climate change plan to the United Nations yesterday ahead of scheduled climate talks in Paris (COP 21), though observers yesterday questioned the plan’s feasibility given a lack of both funding and political will.According to Sao Sopheap, spokesperson ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $60 million loan to modernize and rehabilitate irrigation systems in Kompong Thom and Battambang provinces. ...

The Prey Lang Community Network, which works to protect Cambodian forests, has been selected by UNDP for an Equator Prize, for outstanding community organizing. In an interview with VOA Khmer, the group’s spokesman, Seng Sok Heng, says the government is “inactive” in protecting Cambodian forests, some ...

Cambodians authorities have cracked down on villagers in three forest communities, arresting them or forcing them to stop clearing land for subsistence agriculture, while companies, military personnel and the government continue to encroach upon the areas, according to commune leaders and rights group officials. ...

Community forest monitors in Preah Vihear province who seized more than 20 chainsaws over the course of a recent weeklong patrol of the Preah Roka forest now plan to ask local officials to join them in publicly setting the confiscated equipment ablaze, according to community ...

Authorities have seized large amounts of luxury wood following busts on two separate illegal timber transporters in Pursat and Ratanakkiri provinces.Local Forestry Administration officials together with Phnom Kravanh district police forces on Friday reported intercepting some five tractor loads containing 29 tbeng logs. ...

Elephant conservation NGO Ears Asia has been ejected from Teuk Chhou Zoo in Kampot province and forbidden from caring for its two elephants, amid mounting pressure for a proposed animal swap involving the pair to be called off.In a statement posted on their Facebook page ...

As world leaders prepare for a major summit on climate change in Paris this December, Cambodian officials say industrialized nations should provide support to lesser developed countries, to offset their contributions to global warming. ...

Environmental groups yesterday urged the government to seek greater legal clarity among the Mekong River countries about how they should share its resources. ...

Battambang provincial forestry officials intercepted a large load of illegal luxury timber being transported in a government-plated car on Monday night. ...

Thai police on Monday repatriated 23 Cambodian men who were tricked into traveling to Thailand to log rosewood, according to an official. ...

Four people were arrested and more than 1,000 pieces of illegally logged timber seized in Mondolkiri province during a coordinated series of raids on three warehouses over the past three days, an official said Sunday. ...

Forestry officials raided two locations in Mondulkiri province on Friday, confiscating more than 1,000 logs from suspected illegal timber dealers. ...

Nine forest communities across Cambodia on Friday expressed concern about illegal land encroachment and logging operations as a European Union-funded sustainable forest management project which helped communities in wooded areas thrive comes to an end. ...

At least 100 cubic metres of luxury timber allegedly belonging to powerful tycoon Na Marady was intercepted in Stung Treng province’s Sesan district yesterday, officials said. ...

Members of a community-based organization in Cambodia responsible for protecting local forest resources have confessed to illegally cutting down trees to sell to local businessmen, prompting the group’s leader to threaten to resign. ...

Senior officials from the Environment Ministry have called on the developed world to provide more assistance in the battle against climate change, which they said Cambodia is working hard to address. ...

Over 100 logs of luxury timber from Phnom Oral Wildlife Sanctuary in Kampong Speu province were seized by authorities in Chbar Mon town on Tuesday. ...

Cambodian environmental leaders came together yesterday to discuss the country’s contributions to the upcoming Paris Climate Conference in December. ...

A group of villagers from Svay Rieng province involved in a land dispute with the Forestry Administration said police officers attempted to block them from traveling to the provincial court Wednesday morning to protest against the trial of three community leaders. ...

Thai authorities have released 58 Cambodians accused of illegal logging, after fining them about $120 each, officials said. ...

At least 60 containers at the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port were knocked over on Tuesday morning, as coastal areas were battered with high winds, heavy rains and two-meter high waves. ...

A new 10-year action plan proposed by a host of NGOs aims to reverse the fortunes of Cambodia’s national bird, the giant ibis, which faces increasing pressure from human encroachment in its dwindling habitat.With fewer than 200 mature individuals now believed to survive in the ...

Forestry Administration officers confiscated the hacked-up body of an illegally hunted sambar deer in Mondulkiri province on Sunday, though the poacher avoided arrest by escaping into the protected forest where the bust took place. ...