បរិស្ថាន និងធនធានធម្មជាតិ
ព្រៃឈើ និងរុក្ខាប្រមាញ់
Cambodia approves land concessions, despite ban
Cambodia’s government has ignored a suspension on new land concessions to private companies, announcements in an official publication showed, despite ordering a freeze after growing discontent over forced evictions and illegal logging. Prime Minister Hun Sen signed off on 12 sub-decrees on June 7 and 12 ...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/26/us-cambodia-land-idUSBRE85P0G520120626
Hun Sen grants four economic land concessions
Prime Minister Hun Sen has signed off on four more economic land concessions (ELCs), all in protected areas, despite placing a moratorium on granting such leases on May 7. Since the May 7 sub-decree, the premier has now signed off on seven concessions totalling 56,586 hectares ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012062557006/National-news/hun-sen-grants-elcs.html
Rosewood Seized From Hotel Truck
Forestry Administration officials have confiscated 15 cubic meters of luxury-grade wood from a truck belonging to hotel and casino magnate Try Pheap in Kompong Thom province. Soth Mary, a division director for the Forestry Administration in the province, said yesterday that his staff stopped a truck ...
Prey Long Meeting Gets Grudging Go-Ahead
Commune and village officials in Kratie province yesterday threatened to shut down a community meeting on the protection of Prey Long forest because the organizers had failed to get permission and allegedly invited only opposition party activists. The authorities eventually allowed the meeting to proceed, after ...
Chut Wutty slaying witness questioned
Another witness to the fatal shootings of environmental activist Chut Wutty and military police officer In Rattana was questioned at Koh Kong Provincial Court yesterday. Bou Orn is the third employee of logging company Timbergreen – a firm Chut Wutty was investigating for alleged illegal logging ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012061456797/National-news/shooting-witness-questioned.html
Firm Says Logging Won’t Derail Carbon Credits
The U.S. firm selling credits for a carbon trading scheme that could earn Cambodia tens of millions of dollars said yesterday that sales could start in a matter of months, despite mounting claims of deforestation within the community forests set to anchor the project. Leslie Durschinger, ...
Zsombor Peter and Kuch Naren, P. 1
Lawsuit Filed Against Banteay Meanchey Land Protesters
Banteay Meanchey’s provincial environment department, a local company and two bulldozer drivers, have sued four villagers in Banteay Meanchey province over their alleged role in a violent land protest in February. The villagers, who have been summoned for questioning this week, stand accused of intentional property ...
Commmander Files Complaint Against Forestry Chief
A military police commander has filed a complaint against a Forestry Administration chief whom he accuses of wrongly sending authorities to search a truck suspected of transporting illegally logged luxury wood, officials said yesterday. When Forestry Administration officials searched the truck at a military police base in Kompong Thom province on ...
UN Confirms Logging in Carbon Trading Zone
The U.N. has said it is concerned about deforestation in Oddar Meanchey province in an area where it has launched a carbon trading scheme and confirmed that it is working with the government in order to “rectify the situation.” In an email on Friday, the ...
Kuch Naren and Abby Seiff, P. 1
Police Search Home of Luxury Wood Trader in Kratie
The Kratie Provincial Court yesterday issued a search warrant for the home of Chum Vuthy, a man who allegedly trades in luxury wood, in Kratie City, provincial police said. Mr. Vuthy had been transporting a load of illegal lumber from Stung Treng City to Vietnam and ...
Luxury Wood Seized From Military Vehicle
Forestry officials on Monday confiscated nearly two-and-a-half cubic meters of luxury grade Thnong wood in Stung Treng province from a military truck emblazoned with the insignia of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Bodyguard Unit, forestry officials said yesterday. An additional 100 pieces of luxury grade wood were ...
First Forest Patrol Since Activist’s Death Set
Members of the Prey Long Forest Network yesterday said they are planning to hold a citizens’ patrol to look for evidence of illegal logging in Kompong Thom province this weekend. The patrol would be the first such patrol in the country since the April 26 murder ...
Soldier Held After Aiding Two Slain Loggers
The Oddar Meanchey Provincial Court on Saturday charged a 31-year-old soldier for helping villagers who were shot dead after crossing the Thai border while logging for luxury timber, officials and a rights worker said yesterday. Mao Chenda, 20, and Ung Theara, 17, villagers from Anlong Veng ...
Ex-soldier faces logging charge
A former RCAF soldier accused of leading a group of Cambodians across the Thai border to log luxury wood – an incident that left two dead – is awaiting trial in Oddar Meanchey province, officials said yesterday. Ngoun Thyrith, district military police chief for the Anlong ...
Government Creates 4 New Fishing Conservation Areas
In an effort to increase fish stocks, the Ministry of Agriculture on Wednesday adopted a sub-decree to create four conservation areas in Kandal, Kompong Cham, Prey Veng and Takeo provinces where all fishing activities will be prohibited. Signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen on April 6, ...
Chut Wutty witness had eyes elsewhere
Another witness to the fatal shooting of prominent environmentalist Chut Wutty and military police officer In Rattana has said he did not see who shot the men after testifying in Koh Kong provincial court yesterday. Puom Ravin, a 37-year-old employee of the logging firm Timbergreen said ...
Cambodian forest campaigners fight rampant logging
KOH KONG, Cambodia – Frustrated by government inaction, Cambodian citizen patrollers are risking their lives to take on the country’s illegal loggers in a bid to save their shrinking forests. The shooting of a prominent environmentalist by a military policeman last month after he refused to ...
http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20120527-348666.html
Trio face forest-clearing charge
A married couple and another man were called before a judge yesterday after being charged with clearing protected forest in Koh Kong province’s Kandorl commune. Kry Deuy, his wife, Moeung Yan, and a man named Soun Sareth cleared about 16 hectares of state-protected forest to cultivate ...
Officials Took Mourners’ Names, Activists Say
Anti-logging activists have accused authorities of attempting to collect the names of roughly 400 people who attended a memorial service in Koh Kong province last week for the outspoken environmental campaigner Chut Wutty, who was shot dead last month. Although the memorial service at the spot ...
Shadow Cast Over Future of Forest Patrols
More than two weeks after the murder of conservationist Chut Wutty in the forests of the Cardamom Mountains, the future of his small NGO remains in doubt. But NGOs and communities who worked with Chut Wutty over the years say the larger fate of his ...
CEDAC sours on honey prices
CEDAC, a domestic agriculture development organisation and the Kingdom’s largest distributor of natural honey, will shrink its purchases of the commodity in the face of rising prices, the company’s president says. Yang Saing Koma said the group would not reach its goal of buying 7,000 litres ...
Sieam Bunthy, P. 8
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/cedac-sours-honey-prices
Chut Wutty slaying puts Timbergreen logging in spotlight
Community activists and conservationists commemorating slain environment activist Chut Wutty on the weekend used the occasion to shed light on what they allege are the shadowy practices of a logging company in the southwestern Cardamom forests. Activists amongst the hundreds of people who travelled to Koh ...
Chut Wutty Remembered in Koh Kong Memorial
Mondol Seima district, Koh Kong province – It was a gesture the late conservationist and outspoken anti-logging activist would have appreciated. After blessing the site where Chut Wutty was shot dead just over two weeks ago under still mysterious circumstances in this remote patch of the ...
In Koh Kong, Hundreds to Commemorate Chut Wutty’s Death
More than 600 people, including 50 Buddhist monks, who have been affected by illegal logging across the country arrived in Koh Kong province yesterday ahead of a memorial service to be held today at the site where well-known forestry activist Chut Wutty was shot dead ...