Forest products
Forestry Industry
Huge rosewood haul seized in Preah Vihear province
Senior members of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) yesterday seized about a tonne of luxury rosewood near the house of a two-star general in the Choam Ksan district of Preah Vihear province after a night hunting for illegal smuggling. General Ngeth Chanthon, deputy general of ...
Activists call on government to adopt forest law
Members of the Prey Lang Community Network yesterday called on the government to approve a forest preservation sub-decree that has been in draft form since 2011. Hoeun Sopheap, representative of the Kampong Thom provincial Prey Lang community, said the sub-decree would help protect the biodiversity of ...
Group Wants Changes to Prey Long Forest Protected Plan
A local conservation group yesterday called for several changes to a draft sub-decree meant to turn Cambodia’s Prey Long Forest into a protected area, concerned it could end up harming, rather than conserving, the forest. ...
Khuon Narim and Saing Soenthrith, P.20
http://www.cambodiadaily.com
Two Men Charged With Smuggling Rosewood
The Kompong Thom Provincial Court yesterday charged two men with illegally logging 65 pieces of rosewood, the courts director Pen Sarat, said. Provincial police said the two 19 year old men were arrested Saturday morning while transporting about 1 105 kg of rosewood in Prasat ...
Disputed land to be returned to villagers
More than 8,000 hectares of land was cut from economic and forest land concessions owned by some of the country’s biggest tycoons and awarded to villagers last month, according to documents from the Council of Ministers. Four sub-decrees signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen order that ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013012160890/National/disputed-land-to-be-returned.html
Dozens sentenced in forest-clearing ring
Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday sentenced 28 people – including several government officials – to between two and five years in jail on charges of clearing state-protected flooded mangrove forest in Kampong Thom province in July of 2012. Presiding Judge Keo Mony said that Cheath Sivutha, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013011860868/National/dozens-sentenced-in-forest-clearing-ring.html
Forestry Officials Confirm Illegal Logging by Vietnamese Firm
During a joint investigation with police and military police last week, the Forestry Administration found evidence of large-scale illegal logging by the Vietnamese owners of a rubber concession in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadaw district, officials said yesterday. ...
Aun Pheap and Ben Woods, P.18
http://cambodiadaily.com
Investigation Wraps In Journo Death
For the second time, an investigating judge at Ratanakirri Provincial Court has closed the investigation into the murder of Virakchun Khmer newspaper journalist Hang Serei Oudom. Odom was found dead in the trunk of his car. The murder happened only days after an article about ...
Firm Compensates Jarai After Ruining Graves
A Vietnamese rubber company in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadaw district yesterday agreed to pay $4,000 in compensation to an ethnic Jarai community whose traditional graveyard was bulldozed by the firm last week, local officials said. During a meeting at the Paknhai commune police station, representatives of the ...
Soldiers Keep watch over Broma Villagers
More than seven months after government security forces violently evicted hundreds of people living in Kratie province’s Broma village to quell a so-called secessionist movement, more than 70 families are still being prevented by patrolling soldiers from returning to the site of their former homes, ...
Victory claimed in land dispute
More than a month after halting construction around a disputed land concession in Ratanakkiri province, a Vietnam-based company has reportedly gone a step further and agreed to return 30 hectares of razed forest, a village representative and commune chief maintained yesterday. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/victory-claimed-land-dispute
Luxury Wood Seized in Ratanakiri Road Block
About 30 metres of luxury timber were seized in Ratanakirri province on Sunday after national and provincial military police set up a road block near the border with Vietnam, according to police officials. The high-end lumber was being smuggled over a dirt road in Lumphat ...
Forestry Officials Investigate Vietnamese Firm
Amid mounting calls for government intervention to stop the destruction of indigenous land by a Vietnamese rubber company in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadaw district, the Forestry Administration has begun investigating claims that the firm is logging illegally and clearing land outside of its concession, officials said ...
Aun Pheap and Ben Woods, P.19
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/forestry-officials-investigate-vietnamese-firm-7450/
Adhoc Requests Cancellation of 2 Vietnamese Land Concessions
Rights group Adhoc has requested that the government cancel economic land concessions held by two Vietnamese companies in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadaw district, on the grounds that the firms are logging and exporting wood illegally. “Adhoc calls on the Royal Government of Cambodia to immediately cancel the ...
Thousands More Logs Found on Company's Land
Ethnic Jarai villagers and a local rights worker yesterday discovered about 3,000 more logs that have been illegally cut by the Vietnamese owners of a rubber concession in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadaw district, according to rights group Adhoc. The logs were found stockpiled in dense forest inside ...
1,000 More Logs Discovered Inside Ratanakkiri Land Concession
Forestry Administration officials and police yesterday discovered a stockpile of more than 1,000 logs that ethnic Jarai villagers in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadaw district claim have been illegally cut by the Vietnamese owners of a rubber concession, a district official said. The 4,000-hectare concession was granted to ...
Illegal Luxury Wood Seized From National Police Truck
Forestry officials in Siem Reap province seized 14 cubic meters if illegally logged luxury wood being transported by a truck bearing National Police license plates, Forestry Administration officials said yesterday. ...
Haul of Logs Discovered Inside Ratanakkiri Land Concession
The Forestry Administration and military police are investigating reports of a stockpile of nearly 300 logs that ethnic Jarai villagers in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadaw district claim have been illegally cut by the Vietnamese owners of a land concession, local officials said yesterday. Indigenous villagers living in Paknhai ...
Ministries’ different interpretations, wood imports get stuck
The Vietnam Agriculture and Forestry Investment and Development Company in Hanoi is one of the two enterprises that signed a contract on importing 20,000 cubic meters of wood from Cambodia. Cambodian authorities approved the export of the volume of wood to Vietnam in 2011-2012. The ...
Seven Vietnamese Arrested for Logging Inside Land Concessions
Seven Vietnamese men have been arrested for illegally felling trees inside two government-granted economic land concessions in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadaw district, where a Jarai ethnic minority community is fighting to preserve the forest and their ancestral lands. ...
Jarai Call for Vietnamese Rubber Companies to Cease Logging
Representatives of an ethnic Jarai community in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadaw district, along with local human rights group Adhoc, have called on two Vietnamese rubber companies to cease the clearing of forests on their ancestral land and exporting the logs to Vietnam. The companies, Day Dong Yoeun ...
China is top dam builder, going where others won't
Up a sweeping jungle valley in a remote corner of Cambodia, Chinese engineers and workers are raising a 100-meter- (330-foot-) high dam over the protests of villagers and activists. Only Chinese companies are willing to tame the Tatay and other rivers of Koh Kong province, ...
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/12/18/2809176/china-is-top-dam-builder-going.html#storylink=rss
New species, old threats to wildlife: WWF
From a devilish-looking bat to a frog that sings like a bird, scientists have identified 126 new species in the Greater Mekong area, the WWF said Tuesday in a new report detailing discoveries in 2011. But from forest loss to the construction of major hydropower projects ...
Hun Sen Again Orders Stop to Illegal Logging
Prime Minister Hun Sen has again ordered local officials to step up their efforts to stop illegal timber being cut down and transported from Cambodia’s forest’s in response to an apparent rise in forest crimes. Thousands of cubic meters of luxury wood, as well as ...