Rivers and lakes

Days after Prime Minister Hun Sen announced a blanket pardon for all suspects and convicts jailed for small-time fisheries crimes, the premier yesterday signed into effect an expected sub-decree canceling fishing lots across the country. Last month, Mr. Hun Sen announced that he would cancel ...

More than two dozen fisheries experts from across the world have sent a letter of concern to the prime minister and Council of Ministers warning that if construction of the Lower Sesan 2 dam goes ahead as planned, it would negatively impact hundreds of thousands ...

Hydropower dams planned for the tributaries of the Mekong River, particularly the Lower Sesan 2, will have a “catastrophic” impact on fish stocks throughout the country, according to new research that calls for several planned dams to be reconsidered. Authored by an international group of ...

Within days of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s announced amnesty for those detained and jailed for fisheries crimes, the Ministry of Justice responded and has already freed dozens of suspects from provincial prisons around the country, judicial officials said yesterday. Independent analysts, however, said the order ...

Less than a week after banning commercial fishing in Tonle Sap Lake, Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a sub-decree on Monday extending the ban to four provinces along the Mekong River. According to the sub-decree, signed March 5 and released publicly yesterday, commercial fishing will be ...

When Chhin Theang picked up the long-awaited title to her Boeung Kak home during a low-key ceremony at the Daun Penh district office on Monday, the moment was bittersweet. “We always had hope because we protested. We had to get land titles,” Ms. Theang said ...

More than 300 Kandal province villagers have filed a complaint with Sa’ang district officials over sand dredging along the Bassac river after riverbanks in their village collapsed, district governor Khim Chankiri said yesterday. Mr. Chankiri said, however, that the sand dredging operation along the Bassac ...

Two days after extending indefinitely a ban on commercial fishing in Tonle Sap Lake, Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday called for the release of all prisoners detained during the government crackdown, officials close to the premier said yesterday. Deputy Prime Minister Yim Chhayli told the ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has ordered the release of all prisoners serving sentences and suspects facing charges related to illegal fishing, officials said yesterday, though it was unclear when the directive would take effect. Nao Thuok, director general of the Fisheries Administration, said the prime ...

Dredging in Kampot has escalated in the face of community concerns, with more boats now mining sand right in front of the provincial capital and dumping vast amounts of it directly outside the provincial land management authority. The Post counted a total of 17 boats ...

A government committee yesterday approved a draft sub-decree aimed at protecting the endangered Mekong River dolphin and will send it to the Council of Ministers within a few weeks. Among the provisions contained in the sub-decree is the creation of a 180-km-long conservation area stretching ...

The government yesterday moved to protect endangered Irrawaddy dolphins in the Mekong River, announcing plans for a 180-kilometre-long conservation area that would stretch from the Lao border through Stung Treng province to Kratie town. Touch Seang Tana, chairman of the Commission for Conservation and Development of ...

Nine companies have put in bids for the rights to dredge the lengths of the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers and sell the sand for export, Water Resources Ministry officials said yesterday, noting that the dredging would be beneficial in terms of deepening the waterways. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday extended indefinitely a ban on commercial fishing in Tonle Sap lake, citing ongoing illegal fishing to the detriment of local villagers. The premier had first imposed the ban on 35 fishing lots in the lake in August, as a result of ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday that he would permanentlycance all 35 fishing lots on the Tonle Sap lake – which had already been suspended in recent months – and turn them into a conservation zone to protect the lake’s pressurized wild fisheries, on which ...

Workers who were seen last week clearing forestland in Stung Treng province in preparation for the construction of the 400-megawatt Lower Sesan 2 dam have stopped their work after receiving an order to do so by the district governor, officials said yesterday. Sesan district governor Bou ...

The government said yesterday that a gold mine in Kompong Cham province that has damaged about 1 square km of land with chemical waste would cost at least $4 million to clean up. Speaking at a workshop in Phnom Penh on revenue transparency, Sim Sisokhaly, director ...

Workers will begin clearing forestland in Stung Treng province as early as next week in preparation for the controversial 400-megawatt Lower Sesan 2 dam, district officials and villagers said yesterday. The hydropower project, funded by Vietnam Electricity (EVN), will flood tens of thousands of hectares of ...

Less than two weeks after the Tonle Sap Authority reportedly installed a ban on large-scale fish exports, Prime Minister Hun Sen declined to endorse the order and re-opened exports, officials said yesterday. Chan Youttha, secretary-general of the Tonle Sap Authority, said it had prepared a report ...

Officials and environmentalists yesterday agreed to draw up new measures to save the endangered Mekong dolphin and find more information on why the species is disappearing. At the end of a three-day workshop in Kratie province, officials and representatives from the World Wildlife Fund signed a ...

They thought the days of scenic sunsets ruined by the noise and pollution of dredgers on the Tatai River were over, but villagers and business owners in the popular tourism destination now say they were duped in a promise from ruling party Senator Ly Yong ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday outlined the government’s plans to spur economic growth in the northeast of the country through implementing a wide range of projects in sectors such as agriculture and the extractive industries. Rights workers have warned that little information on the plans for ...

The agreement by Mekong River Commission Countries to conduct more studies before they decide on Laos’ proposal for the first Lower Mekong dam received further support on Friday, with an influential US senator and an environmental group welcoming it as an important step in preventing ...

A new government plan has set a goal for an annual 1.2 million tonnes of fish by 2019, but officials and environmentalist have said the construction of Xayaburi dam in Laos could stymie Mekong fisheries. The plan would push fish exports to 500,000 tonnes of fish ...