Forests and forestry

A group of villagers from a community forest inside Preah Vihear province’s Phnom Tnout Wildlife Sanctuary are collecting thumbprints to evict a family that has been protecting the forest from illegal logging and preventing poaching of endangered species. ...

Chumnoab commune authorities in Koh Kong province have started to dismantle the Areng Valley community office despite appeals from the community to keep it. On March 21, Chumnoab commune officials advised the Areng Valley community to relocate their office because the land it was on ...

A new marine protected area has been established off the coast of Kep province to protect biodiversity and prevent illegal fishing, officials said on Sunday. A directive by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries officially established the marine fisheries management area, which spans more ...

Eight environmental organisations yesterday asked the government to take immediate action against loggers and land speculators in a wildlife sanctuary in Preah Vihear province, worrying that more land will be encroached upon. ...

Kratie provincial authorities were searching on Wednesday for the owners of hundreds of cubic metres of first-grade timber found loaded onto seven heavy trucks during a raid on a warehouse in Snuol district. After getting a tip-off, Military Police, police, Forestry Administration and court officials ...

An environmental ranger and a community forest member on Tuesday were released from prison under court supervision following their brief detention after allegedly firing at a suspect hauling timber within a protected area supported by the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation in Battambang province. ...

The director of Kampong Speu’s protected Phnom Oral Wildlife Sanctuary and his predecessor have been charged with illegally clearing forest in a case dating back to 2013, and have been summoned to court for questioning. ...

Kratie’s Prek Prasap district authorities on Friday confiscated a bulldozer in connection with the clearing of 10 hectares of forestland near the protected Prey Lang forest, officials said on Sunday. ...

The European Union and WWF yesterday launched a $3.4 million project to conserve natural resources in Mondulkiri province. According to a press release issued yesterday, the EU and WWF have officially launched a project worth $3.4 million to support sustainable management of rich forest resources in ...

Environmental officials in Pursat are questioning rangers over how a group of local journalists discovered nearly 100 logs of luxury timber inside a wildlife sanctuary. After receiving a tip, the journalists, representing 24 small online media outlets, teamed up with five local policemen on Tuesday ...

An Areng Valley representative on Monday visited the Chumnoab commune office in Koh Kong province to plead with authorities not to remove a community office that has been slated for demolition to make way for a new commune office. ...

A complaint filed at the Preah Vihear Provincial Court accuses four Kuoy ethnic villagers of goading some 70 others into confiscating tractors being used to clear community land by a subsidiary of the Chinese sugar company Rui Feng, which has been involved in a series ...

A series of quarterly reports from the National Bank of Cambodia raises questions about the government’s ban on timber exports, as they show that last year, more than $5 million in sawn timber was exported from the Kingdom. The latest report, released earlier this month ...

Authorities seized more than 200 kilograms of trafficked wildlife in two cases in Mondulkiri on Wednesday. Provincial Environment Department Director Keo Sopheak said four men on two motorbikes were arrested hauling 100 kilos of illegal wildlife meat out of Phnom Prich Wildlife Sanctuary. ...

The Chumnoab commune authority in Koh Kong province’s Thmar Baing district yesterday ordered Areng Valley residents to move their community office to a new location to make way for its new office. According to a letter released yesterday by Chumnoab commune, commune officials asked Areng residents ...

The Prey Lang Community Network has cancelled an annual Buddhist ceremony it holds each year to commemorate forests, preserve indigenous identity and promote the potential of the Prey Lang forest, citing bad weather and fear of being harassed by authorities. ...

Police in Kampong Cham province on Monday found a haul of 41 rosewood logs in a Lexus heading towards the Vietnamese border, while police in Stung Treng province discovered some 30 cubic metres of illegal timber on Sunday. No suspects were arrested in either case. ...

Two protected wildlife sanctuaries – Snuol Wildlife Sanctuary in Kratie province and Roneam Daun Sam Wildlife Sanctuary in Battambang and Banteay Meanchey provinces – have been dissolved under a royal decree, with at least one conservationist on Sunday saying the move illustrated the government’s failure ...

Stung Treng provincial environmental officials on Sunday confiscated two excavators that were inside the Anlong Phe Wildlife Sanctuary and will send the case to court, according to an official. Eng Phirong, director of the provincial Environmental Department, said he received a report from villagers in ...

Sesan dam holdouts from Kbal Romeas and Srekor villages have gone on the offensive, demanding compensation for destroyed rice fields and new homes on their ancestral land. Both villages were flooded following the inauguration of the China-backed Lower Sesan II Dam in September. While some accepted ...

Ratanakkiri provincial authorities yesterday denied accusations by a group of villagers that the authority of O’Yadav and Andong Meas districts hired ethnic minority villagers to cut the forest along the Cambodia-Vietnam border. ...

The Cambodian government has reclaimed 13 hectares of protected mangrove forest in Koh Kong province, which were illegally sold off to a tycoon and partially filled with sand, though nobody involved in the sale will be sent to court. According to an announcement from the ...

An ethnic Phnong community near Mondulkiri’s Sen Monorom town on Monday claimed that at least 80 hectares of forestland, which they have long depended on for their livelihoods, were covertly sold, with local authorities allegedly signing off on the sale. While the Phnong villagers from ...

Twenty villages in Mondulkiri province are set to receive at least $10,000 each as a result of the $2.6 million carbon credit purchase by the Walt Disney Company in 2016, under a scheme meant to protect the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary, officials said yesterday.​This would ...