Environment and natural resources

Speaking at a workshop hosted by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) on the past four years of conservation in the so-called Eastern Plains Landscape – a project with $1.42 million in funding from the EU and an additional $420,000 from USAID and the ...

The environment minister has promised to investigate allegations that a tycoon-owned company is using a land concession to illegally log wood in a protected area in Preah Vihear province. ...

Seven Vietnamese nationals who are tied to a timber smuggling ring along with top Mondulkiri provincial officials were sentenced to one year in prison yesterday. ...

Conservation NGOs yesterday raised the issue of alleged land grabs in the country’s protected areas by the military and local authorities at a resources protection forum, asking Environment Minister Say Sam Al to intervene.​ ...

The Prey Lang Community Network in Preah Vihear province has asked the government to investigate the building of homes in a protected area by a group of families claiming they were granted a social land concession.​ ...

A prominent Vietnamese timber trader was arrested and put in pre-trial detention for the second time this year after some two tonnes of rosewood allegedly connected to her were discovered in Oddar Meanchey province, authorities said yesterday. ...

Kampong Chhnang Provincial Military Police Commander Sak Sarang was questioned yesterday at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in relation to allegedly taking bribes from illegal loggers in Mondulkiri, where he was previously stationed. ...

Some 124 logs of luxury timber were discovered on a riverbed on Sunday within Mondulkiri’s Srepok Wildlife Sanctuary some 500 metres from a military base, officials said yesterday. ...

Nine critically endangered Mekong Irrawaddy dolphins, were born this year, but two of them died, the World Wildlife Fund has said. In a statement issued on Friday, the WWF said the population continues to be threatened by illegal fishing and hydropower dams. ...

Families living in a commune flooded by the Lower Sesan II dam have set up a new village on their community forest without the permission of local authorities. Residents of Sre Ko commune were offered new homes in a different area and compensation to leave ...

An oknha accused of overseeing a massive illegal logging scheme in Mondulkiri has yet to appear for a court summons issued more than a month ago, according to the investigating judge. ...

Authorities in Kandal province arrested 19 people in a timber raid at a Metfone shop, but released 15 after questioning, including the branch’s director. ...

Irregularities have been found in the Mondulkiri provincial administration over clearing state land to make way for timber smuggling to Vietnam. An investigation has been launched to find the officers responsible. ...

Police in Kratie province were caught on video letting potentially illegal timber transporters pass through their checkpoints on Monday night, with provincial police yesterday suggesting they were powerless to crack down on such shipments as many transporters possessed axes and machetes and were addicted to ...

The last families refusing to relocate from their homes near the Lower Sesan II dam have accused local authorities of being unwilling to settle their case. ...

The Goldman Environmental Prize winner Ouch Leng, president of the Cambodian Human Rights Task Force, has been awarded the Asia Game Changer Award for 2017 from the Asia Society. Mr Leng will go to collect the award in New York on November 1 with eight ...

Government officials and environmental groups yesterday celebrated the discovery of 121 lesser adjutant stork nests in Preah Vihear province, chalking the success up to a joint programme to hire locals to guard the nests. Environment Ministry rangers and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) workers started counting ...

Thai soldiers arrested seven Cambodians on Friday who crossed into Thailand from Pailin province while logging illegally.​ Chhun Chheuy, acting police chief of Pailin town, which borders with Chanthaburi province’s Pong Nam Ron district, said the group was made up of Cambodians from multiple provinces. ...

Illegal logging within the Prey Lang protected forest decreased significantly year-on-year over a six-month period ending in February, collected data show, though forest-clearing in the area remains rampant. ...

A river bird that was once a common sight along the Mekong River is now down to a population of just 50 to 60 individuals due to human interference and dam construction, conservationists and Environment Ministry officials said yesterday. ...

A task force made up of Preah Vihear provincial and district officials is set to begin a five-day investigation today into a slew of sawmills thought to be illegally milling and transporting timber from the protected Preah Roka forest after villagers and NGOs accused local ...

Families refusing to relocate from their homes near the Lower Sesan II dam have said they will all leave if they can establish a new village on their community forest and ancestral lands. ...

The Environment Ministry is to request the creation of six new protected areas to safeguard biodiversity and boost conservation in the country. Tim Sitha, deputy director of the general department of conservation, said the ministry has been studying the potential to establish the new areas.  ...

Villagers and NGOs have accused local authorities, including forestry and environmental officials, of accepting bribes from illegal loggers in exchange for unfettered logging expeditions in Preah Vihear province’s Preah Roka protected forest. ...