Forests and forestry

A senior rights group official and eight ethnic community members were questioned by a Ratanakkiri provincial court prosecutor on Tuesday over alleged incitement to forestry crimes. ...

Cambodian and Vietnamese police officials met on Sunday to discuss forestry crime prevention along the border between both countries in Mondulkiri province. ...

Preah Sihanouk provincial governor Yun Min has ordered a local company to cease all development in the Prek Koh Khyong area within the Ream National Park, which the firm plans to turn into a tourist attraction. ...

Environmental rangers on Monday seized a pile of timber hidden in the forest behind a house in Pou Chrei commune’s Me Pai village in Mondulkiri province’s Pech Chreada district following reports from villagers. ...

Preah Vihear provincial court is taking action against three suspects for illegal forest clearing in Prey Lang and Boeung Per Wildlife Sanctuaries and death threats following a complaint from a team of park rangers and the Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN) on Tuesday, according to ...

Kratie provincial court granted Military Police permission to bring two suspects involved with operating an illegal charcoal kiln back to a provincial military police base on Sunday for further questioning. ...

Rangers and officials from the Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN) detained 12 loggers and confiscated seven chainsaws and three cubic meters of timber in Kampong Thom province’s Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary. ...

The Environment Ministry is urging people, especially youth, to take part in the protection of forests and natural resources as the government is lacking manpower and equipment. Kong Siek Ly, director of the community living department at the ministry, said on Saturday that a total ...

Foresty crimes continue unabated in the Kingdom. This week alone, two crackdowns on illegal logging took place in Ratanakkiri and Oddar Meanchey provinces. Authorities on Wednesday uncovered and seized dozens of timber from illegally-felled first-grade woods in Ratanakkiri province, following a tip from the locals. ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng has blamed local officials posted along the Cambodian-Thai border for failing to curb the flow of illegal loggers sneaking across the border to cut down trees in Thailand. Mr Kheng said on Saturday in Oddar Meanchey province that up to 100 Cambodian ...

Kampong Speu provincial governor Vei Samnang rejected villagers’ request on Sunday for 250ha of land within the Kirirom National Park in Phnom Sruoch district on grounds that the park has been designated a protected area by a royal decree. ...

The Stung Sen wetland has become the Kingdom’s latest Ramsar Site, said the Ministry of Environment. The seasonally-flooded 9,293ha freshwater swamp, located along the southeastern edge of the Tonle Sap great lake in Kampong Thom province, was declared Cambodia’s fifth Ramsar Site on Friday under ...

A truck transporting timber overturned on Thursday evening, killing one person and injured another. The incident at Sen Monorom commune, in Mondulkiri province’s O’Raing district, has added spark to the ongoing debate on forest crimes in the province. The province’s traffic police bureau director Yoem ...

Koh Kong provincial authorities said on Sunday that illegal forestry and wildlife trafficking crimes have decreased considerably at the Peam Krasop Wildlife Sanctuary, although authorities are still investigating cases of encroachment on state land at the site. ...

The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Veng Sakhon on Wednesday asked the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) for financial and technical support to improve the living standards of local communities that still rely on fishery and forestry products for a living. ...

Smugglers working in collusion with corrupt officials on both sides of the border are continuing to move illegally harvested timber from Cambodia’s Mondulkiri province into neighboring Vietnam in spite of government warnings to halt the trade, sources in Cambodia say. ...

The authorities are at a loss over who had cleared and demarcated more than 50ha of mangrove forests in Village I, Tumnob Rolok commune, Stung Hav district, in Preah Sihanouk province. Kim Hak, who heads the community protecting the flooded Tumnob Rolok forest and the ...

Cambodia and Vietnam are seeking better cooperation to combat the illicit timber and wildlife trades, following a meeting between the two countries’ forestry administrations last week. The Agriculture Ministry’s forestry administration deputy director Chan Ponika said a number of officials, including him, participated in the ...

The Environment Ministry on Friday ordered all those who have illegally grabbed land in Preah Suramarit-Kossamak National Park to immediately tear down their structures and give the land back to the government. ...

Cambodian and Vietnamese officials on Monday began a five-day conference to discuss timber trade management, including an incoming trade deal between Vietnam and the European Union that has been decried by environmentalists. ...

A district military police deputy commander yesterday said the logs are being transported to the district military police headquarters for further action. “They were seized after local residents reported finding them while they were walking through the forest,” he said. “We are collecting the logs ...

Stung Treng provincial officials have urged local authorities to continue cooperating to crack down on forestry crimes following some negative posts on social media. A statement from the Provincal Hall on Monday urged people to stop posting false information about steps taken to stop forestry ...

The Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN) representative in Kampong Thom province, Sok Plok told The Post that his team had found and seized a number of chainsaws and tents left behind by loggers in the forest. ...

While the Ratanakkiri provincial administration will not recognise illegal land transactions in the province’s protected areas, an NGO says its action is not effective and forest crimes continue unabated. The administration’s letter dated October 19 and obtained by The Post on Monday came after Minister ...