Forest policy and administration

The government said this week it wanted to increase by at least 30 percent the number of forest rangers working next year in Cambodia’s wildlife sanctuaries, national parks and other protected areas to guard against encroaching logging, poaching and farming. ... ...

The high-pitched whine of chainsaws drowned out the sound of birds and bugs you usually hear during any trek through Prey Lang forest. What was once an area full of animals scurrying under the shade of gargantuan trees is now largely populated by stumps and ash. The ...

Four members of a forest patrol were ambushed in Preah Vihear’s Cheam Pen community forest on Tuesday afternoon, according to deputy forest chief Ros Lim. ... ...

The government claims not to have issued a single permit to export Siamese rosewood since it agreed to strict new trade rules for the exceedingly rare trees, and says it will look into a U.N.-managed database that states otherwise. ...  ...

Forestry officials in Svay Rieng province on Wednesday said border guards prevented them from seizing and inspecting a trio of trucks suspected of smuggling luxury wood into Vietnam, flagging the convoy through despite their protests. ... ...

Legal timber exports to Vietnam – the bulk of them rosewood – soared between 2013 and 2015, with the volume of logs exported increasing by a factor of 142 and seven times as much sawn wood passing across the border, according to a report by ...

The government has reversed course on a controversial decision to downsize the proposed boundaries of a long-awaited protected area for the beleaguered Prey Lang Forest, the largest lowland evergreen forest left in Southeast Asia. ...  ...

A landmark decision by Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen could see almost a million hectares of forest reclassified as protected areas in a country with one of the highest deforestation rates in the world.​ But the order, circulated on Friday, to transfer control of the sites ...

The National Anti-Deforestation Committee (NADC) filed complaints to provincial courts against five companies that obtained economic land concessions (ELCs) from the government after discovering irregularities in the companies’ timber stocks after a three-day inspection early this week. ... ...

Over a month after launching, the National Anti-Deforestation Committee (NADC) has claimed that deforestation crimes across the country have dropped significantly, with the majority of illegal deforestation occurring in Mondulkiri, Kratie and Tbong Khmum provinces. ... ...

A former Mondulkiri provincial military police officer, Sou Marith, fired on authorities who had chased a car carrying timber to his home, but managed to make good his escape in the hours it took authorities to procure an arrest warrant, local authorities said. ... ...

In a move to crack down on future illegal logging, the government has created a special Commission, led by human rights group Adhoc, which will review and cancel any licenses of companies that violate forestry laws. ... ...

Authorities from the government’s new anti-logging task force swooped into Stung Treng yesterday and inspected timber stockpiles belonging to the Kingdom’s most prominent logging magnate, Try Pheap, who has been accused of reaping immense profits from the clear-cutting of Cambodian forests for years. ... ...

Authorities yesterday raided several logging warehouses in the country’s east, just days after Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered a crackdown on illegal timber smuggling into Vietnam. ... ...

A group of villagers in Mondolkiri province filed a lawsuit this week against three local border police officers and a forestry official accusing them of allowing Vietnamese loggers to sneak across the nearby border and illegally log the forests they depend on for a living. ...

Police and government officials say they know nothing about a recent report published by the National Police accusing wealthy businessman Soeng Sam Ol of using government-approved economic land concessions in Mondolkiri province to illegally log a local wildlife sanctuary, but added that they would investigate ...

A network of community activists protecting Prey Lang forest has appealed to the government to prevent all forms of intimidation against its members by courts, police and soldiers as well as local officials involved in the timber business. ... ...

The government’s Apsara authority will join forces with the Preah Vihear administration to establish a joint committee to prevent illegal logging and to manage state land in the protected areas around Koh Ker, officials said yesterday. ... ...

Patrols have resumed in the area of Preah Vihear protected forests where two forest rangers were fatally shot on November 7th, as police continue their investigation into the murders. The beefed-up patrols are taking new security precautions, and unarmed patrols have not resumed yet because ...

Authorities in Mondolkiri province seized three vehicles packed with illegally logged luxury timber at separate locations inside the Snuol Seima Biodiversity Conservation Area in the space of two hours Saturday night but failed to apprehend any of the drivers. ... ...

An estimated 30 to 40 cubic metres of protected luxury timber was intercepted in Ratanakkiri province on Wednesday night while being hauled to Vietnam, according to local officials. ... ...

After years of land-grabbing that has eroded a protected forest in Battambang Province, forestry administration officials took a forceful step yesterday to crack down on the problem. In the early hours of the morning, a team from the forestry administration alongside local police entered the ...

Several weeks after villagers on the outskirts of a community forest in Battambang Province began clearing trees and seizing land, forestry administration officials say there has been a lull in deforestation. ... ...

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. ...