Forests and forestry

Nearly 30 pieces of sralao and koki timber measuring 3m long and 30 to 40cm in diameter were found by locals at three sites in O’Raing district’s Dak Dam commune in Mondulkiri province on Tuesday. The timber was hidden in a forest around 1km from ...

More than 300 kakoh logs were confiscated on Monday by Ratanakkiri provincial anti-financial crime police, in cooperation with Banlung district authorities at a secret timber storage site in Yeak Loam commune’s Labo village. The logs have been handed over to local Forestry Administration officials pending legal procedures. ...

Cambodia’s Beng Per Wildlife Sanctuary is symbolic of the country’s poor forestry management. Around 2,000 square kilometres (sq km) – around three times the size of Singapore – is lost to illegal logging in Cambodia every year where wildlife sanctuaries – despite their name – ...

Hundreds of cars, thousands of motorbikes and chainsaws and a haul of timber impounded as evidence at Mondulkiri province’s Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary are falling into disrepair and should be moved for proper care, said provincial environment department director Keo Sopheak. ...

The Agriculture Ministry collected more than $2 million in forestry revenue during the first three months of this year. A ministry report issued on April 22, and obtained yesterday, said it collected about $2.3 million in riel and also $69,281 in licensing and export revenue. ...

The director of Mondulkiri province’s Phnom Prich wildlife sanctuary, Han Sokhon, is set to face legal action from an indigenous community. The villagers allege he colluded to exploit the very forest he was meant to safeguard after villagers discovered illegal logging in the protected area. ...

WWF-Cambodia is collaborating with the Mondulkiri provincial Department of Environment to install “Source” hydro-panels to collect water from the air for use, the director of the Srepok Wildlife Sanctuary said on Monday. The technological breakthrough from the Arizona-based Zero Mass Water company aims to produce ...

Stung Treng provincial military police yesterday arrested four Vietnamese nationals caught poaching in a wildlife sanctuary in Sesan district. Sok Rithy, district military police commander, yesterday confirmed the arrests but referred questions to the provincial military police. Local media reported that provincial military officers arrested ...

Dak Dam commune forestry community activists in Mondulkiri province’s O’Raing district on Sunday claimed that a deputy district governor was behind the recent clearing of their land. Toeuy Chren, head of the forest community based in Pou Treng village, told The Post on Sunday that ...

The Ministry of Environment on Friday approved the registration of the Yeak Laom Lake community natural protected area in Ratanakkiri province to support the preservation of natural resources, culture and eco-tourism. The indigenous community hailed the decision, but said it had come too late to ...

Ministry of Environment spokesman Neth Pheaktra on Tuesday warned villagers not to believe ill-intentioned land agents and called on people to stop all illegal grabbing of state-owned land or face punishment in accordance with the law. He said that because land prices had increased dramatically, ...

A conservationist group said on Wednesday that a recent Ramsar site status for Cambodia’s Stung Sen wetland is crucial to help protect the habitat of a number of globally near-threatened species. The rich and biologically diverse Stung Sen wetland has been designated as a unique ...

The Stung Treng provincial department of agriculture, forestry and fisheries rejected a Radio Free Asia (RFA) report which claimed that on March 27, there was a resurgence of illegal timber trafficking activities near the Lower Sesan II Dam. ...

The Environment Ministry and the United States Agency for International Development yesterday launched the Greening Prey Lang Project to promote sustainable livelihood and law enforcement in the Prey Lang community in four provinces. The project is estimated to be worth $21 million and funding will ...

A lorry discovered to be secretly transporting illegally logged wood on Monday was impounded by Kampong Thom provincial authorities, with the vehicle’s driver now in hiding, according to a provincial forestry administration official. ...

A dozen Cambodian migrant workers suspected of cutting down trees in a Thai protected forest were arrested on Sunday by military police at a rubber plantation in Thailand’s Nakhon Reachasima province. According to a report by the Bangkok Post, Thai military police conducted a raid ...

Ministry of Environment spokesman Neth Pheaktra on Wednesday blamed climate change and global warming on greenhouse gas emissions from heavy industrial factories and the burning of fossil fuels in developed countries. He said deforestation is only a small contributing factor. ...

A Mondulkiri provincial committee has discovered six forest locations totalling more than 10ha in a protected area of Pech Chreada district’s Bou Sra commune that has been cleared for farming. Several people have been detained but authorities are looking to find land for them in ...

The United States has begun making payments towards its $37 million aid for the protection of the Prey Lang protected area.​ The Prey Lang protected area encompasses four different provinces, including Kampong Thom, Kratie, Stung Treng and Preah Vihear. ...

Two men who allegedly led some 30 villagers to illegally grab and clear forest land within the Ream National Park for private ownership were detained by the Preah Sihanouk provincial authority on Saturday. Neth Pheaktra, secretary of state and spokesperson of the Ministry of Environment, ...

A forest ranger protecting the Prey Ang Ten biodiversity conservation corridor in Kampong Thom province was attacked on Tuesday by an unidentified perpetrator, causing injuries to his head, neck and wrist. Neth Pheaktra, spokesman of the Environment Ministry, yesterday said the incident occurred as five ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday urged relevant authorities to stamp out the export of timber abroad without authorisation and transparency. Speaking during an annual meeting of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries on Thursday, Hun Sen called on officials to work together in ...

Ten villagers were briefly detained by Ream National Park rangers in Preah Sihanouk province on Wednesday and instructed to dismantle their tarpaulins from aconservation area. Authorities said the villagers had secretly erected their tents there in order to illegally settle down and clear state forest ...

Hundreds of hectares of forest in Siem Reap and Kampong Thom provinces have been destroyed by a fire that raged on Monday and Tuesday, according to provincial authorities. The blaze, which authorities said was caused by human negligence, destroyed both natural forest and state-administered forest ...