Environment and natural resources

At least 31 people were killed and 64 injured by storms during the first four months of this year, according to figures from the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM). Keo Vy, cabinet director at the NCDM, said strong winds and rains led to three deaths ...

Customs officials over the weekend said they will shed no further light on Friday’s massive haul of three tons of illegal elephant ivory at Sihanoukville Autonomous Port—Cambodia’s biggest-ever ivory seizure—until investigations are complete and a case can be sent to court. A scan on containers that ...

More than 200 villagers from three communes in Svay Rieng province on Saturday protested against a proposal to build a huge irrigation canal through their land, a local official said Sunday. The planned canal would stretch across Kraol Kor, Svay Yea and Chhoeuteal communes in Svay ...

Being landlocked and poor has always placed Laos at a disadvantage to its more powerful neighbors. The only body of water that offers Vientiane an international reach is the Mekong River, which flows through the heartland of Southeast Asia. Now, that river, which laps the western ...

Anti-corruption advocates say they want the US government to help them push for transparency in the extractive industries, as ongoing mining continues to disrupt the lives of many Cambodians. At least 120 companies, most of them Chinese, have obtained mining licenses in the last decade, as ...

Cambodian customs officers on Friday morning confiscated around three tons of elephant tusks at the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port in Southwestern Preah Sihanouk province. In February, customs officers nabbed two Vietnamese men at the Siem Reap International Airport for smuggling 79.5 kg of illegal elephant tusks ...

Cambodian authorities have charged nearly half as many villagers in land dispute cases in the first three months of this year as they did in all of 2013, a local rights group said Thursday, adding that most of the rows stemmed from government-granted land concessions. Following ...

The Chinese government on Thursday donated 10,000 U.S. dollars to the Cambodian Red Cross (CRC) to support humanitarian activities. Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Bu Jianguo presented the donation to CRC’s president Bun Rany during the celebration of the 151st anniversary of the World Red Cross — ...

Authorities in Ratanakkiri province raided the house of a Vietnamese national Tuesday and seized about five cubic meters of illegal luxury timber, but failed to arrest any suspects. “We are now looking for two Vietnamese nationals who jumped over the gate of their house and escaped ...

A group of 13 Vietnamese nationals were apprehended by Cambodian fishermen on Sunday night while illegally fishing off the coast of Kampot province and are being held for repatriation, according to a village representative and the provincial governor. Neak Sen, a representative of a fishing community ...

There is an island in Cambodia that, unlike others in Southeast Asia, is not the object of an ownership dispute. But it is equally clear whom its current owners would like to land there: Chinese property buyers. If all goes according to plan, Koh Pich — ...

The Phnong ethnic minority in Mondulkiri province have heard the promises of development before. With increasing investment and the selling off of the region’s forests will come new roads and schools, they are told. But people in this ancient community, tired of seeing their sacred forests handed ...

A meeting at the Ministry of Mines and Energy on Friday about plans for a controversial hydropower dam in Koh Kong province failed to assuage fears among those trying to stop the project that construction had already been approved. During Friday’s meeting, officials from the ministry ...

At least six people were killed by lightning this week in storms that destroyed dozens of homes across several provinces, officials said Thursday. Keo Vy, cabinet chief for the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM), said that the six deaths had occurred between Monday and Wednesday ...

The Ministry of Mines and Energy invited the head of an NGO battling to stop construction of a highly criticized dam in a remote area of Koh Kong province to meet with ministry officials Friday. Signed by Mines Minister Suy Sem and dated April 25, the ...

About 30 villagers in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district staged a protest Tuesday morning against tycoon Sok Kong, whom they accuse of piping dredged sand into their farmland and fishing ponds. Fourteen families occupying 21 hectares of land in Prek Pra commune have been locked in a ...

ANZ’s financing of ruling party senator Ly Yong Phat’s controversial sugar plantation has come under fire once again, this time in an investigation by NGO Oxfam into Australia’s big four banks and their links to rights abuses in developing countries. In a report titled “Banking on ...

A weekend storm battered buildings in Banteay Meanchey province’s Thma Pouk district, leaving hundreds affected by damage to houses and schools across the area. Deab Chhun, Thma Puok district deputy governor, said strong winds and rain swept through Komrou, Thmor Puok and Phoum Thmey communes at ...

Nearly 200 people from 25 different communities converged on the Mondolkiri Provincial Hall Monday to file complaints and petitions calling for an end to illegal logging and environmental degradation. The action comes two days after armed commune police blocked 16 rights workers and journalists from visiting ...

The French Agency for Development (AFD) announced yesterday that it will provide $24 million to finance privately owned water and power providers to supply rural areas that state-run utilities cannot reach. During a ceremony held at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the AFD and the ...

A little more than two years after signing off on a scheme aimed at improving protection of the critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphin, experts said last week they were concerned that Mekong dams would see wholesale destruction of the population. During a two-day workshop that closed on ...

Ancient ironwork at a site in Preah Vihear province that predates the civilisation of Angkor will fall within a new national park formed by royal decree last week. More than 200 pre-Angkor era industrial sites have been discovered since 2010, but the newly created national park ...

Lightning killed two people sheltering from rain on Wednesday in Preah Sihanouk’s Stung Hav district. Ros Ky, the district police chief, said Khem Nget, a 40-year-old motodop from Kampot, and a second victim identified only as Vanny, 50, were taking shelter near Vanny’s home in Tomnup ...

The Asian Development Bank announced Wednesday that it will provide $81.7 million, including a $6.7 million grant from Australia, in additional financing to help Cambodia recover from catastrophic floods in late 2013. The flooding affected 1.7 million people and caused an estimated $356 million in damage. ...