Land
Smugglers’ boats sink in timber chase
Smugglers sank two boats filled with illegally logged rosewood into Koh Kong’s Sre Ambel River as they shook off pursuing rangers from Wildlife Alliance on March 22, the NGO has said. An anonymous informant tipped off rangers in Sre Ambel district to the boats, allegedly filled ...
Amelia Woodside and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/smugglers%E2%80%99-boats-sink-timber-chase
RCAF soldiers charged for smuggling Rosewood
Siem Reap Provincial Court on Wednesday charged four soldiers from the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) with illegally logging rosewood and placed them in pre-trial detention, an official said. “We charged them under article 96 of the Forestry Law,” said Hok Pov, an investigating judge at ...
Saing Soenthrith
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/rcaf-soldiers-charged-for-smuggling-rosewood-55656/
‘Fatal shooting’ did not happen, Thailand says
While Cambodian officials say the Thais have not responded to a request for an inquiry into the shooting death of a man they say illegally crossed the border, Thailand is denying the incident even occurred. Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs last month called for an investigation ...
Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98fatal-shooting%E2%80%99-did-not-happen-thailand-says
Court charges four Pailin villagers for violating state property
Pailin Provincial Court on Wednesday charged four villagers with infringing on public property because they cultivated 684 hectares of land that the court says belongs to the state, but which villagers claim to have farmed legally since 1999, a rights worker said. The villagers were arrested ...
Police confirm arrest of villagers in dispute with Pailin Governor
Police officials confirmed Tuesday that the villagers involved in a land dispute with a company allegedly owned by Pailin Governor Y Chhien were arrested late Monday and said that one more villager was detained Tuesday. Sath Sin, deputy police chief of Pailin province’s Sala Krao district, ...
Three arrested in land dispute with Governor
Villagers involved in a long-running land dispute with a company alleged to be owned by Pailin Governor Y Chhien were arrested Monday for failing to heed an order from Mr. Chhien to vacate the disputed land, rights workers said. Pich Sothea, 47, Orm Sam Ath, 44, ...
Phann Ana
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/three-arrested-in-land-dispute-with-governor-55402/
Khmer Krom families face sanctuary eviction
A wildlife sanctuary in Takeo province may provide refuge for birds, but it’s a source of contention for 68 Khmer Krom families who stand to lose their livelihood. The local fisheries administration wants to evict villagers from the state-owned sanctuary in Borei Cholsar district, but the ...
Chhay Channyda and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/khmer-krom-families-face-sanctuary-eviction
Police arrest 23 illegal loggers, issue warnings
Police raided a guesthouse in Poipet City on Monday and arrested 23 men as they waited to be paid for illegally logging rosewood across Cambodia’s border with Thailand, police officials said. Um Sophal, Poipet City police chief, said the men were arrested Monday following a tip-off ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/police-arrest-23-illegal-loggers-issue-warnings-55554/
Half a million Cambodians affected by land grabs: rights group
More than half a million Cambodians have been affected by land conflicts involving the government since 2000, with more than 2,000 families across the country subjected to largely violent land grabs during the first few months of this year, local rights group Licadho said Tuesday. The ...
Joshua Lipes
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/land-04012014170055.html
Company 72 again accused of illegal logging
Ethnic Jarai villagers in Ratanakkiri province have once again accused the Vietnamese owners of a rubber plantation of illegally logging their ancestral forests in a complaint filed with rights group Adhoc. A district official, however, said the plantation owner, Company 72, was granted an extension on ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/company-72-again-accused-of-illegal-logging-55399/
Authorities halt march against Lao dam, citing Khmer New Year
Kompong Cham authorities blocked several hundred activists from marching Monday to raise awareness about the environmental dangers raised by Don Sahong dam, officials and activists said. Kompong Cham provincial governor Lun Limthai confirmed that he banned the campaign. “We did not allow them to hold this ...
Khuon Narim and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/authorities-halt-march-against-lao-dam-citing-khmer-new-year-55385/
Compensation plan agreed to, says ADB
Following a scathing report from its internal watchdog about the resettlement of thousands of Cambodian families affected by a national railway rehabilitation project that it is funding, the Asian Development Bank has agreed with the government on an action plan for further compensation, it said ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/compensation-plan-agreed-says-adb
Big logging cartel alleged
Prime Minister Hun Sen’s brother Hun Neng and a Vietnamese state-owned rubber firm are involved in an illegal logging cartel involving several well-connected companies operating on a “massive scale” in the embattled Prey Lang forest, forest monitors working in the area allege. Video footage and photographs ...
May Titthara and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/big-logging-cartel-alleged
NGOs issue one more plea to stop Xayaburi
With time running short before Laos’s Xayaburi hydropower dam enters its final, potentially irreversible stages of construction, a group of NGOs has made another call for its suspension. In a joint declaration released today, 39 organisations based in Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Australia set a one-year ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ngos-issue-one-more-plea-stop-xayaburi
Two killed in separate UXO blasts
A 12-year-old boy and a 37-year-old farmer lost their lives over the weekend in UXO explosions in Battambang and Pailin provinces. ...
Lieng Sarith
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/two-killed-separate-uxo-blasts
Two killed in mine, mortar shell blasts in Battambang, Pailin
A man and a teenage boy were killed by an anti-tank mine and a mortar shell in separate incidents on Friday and Saturday, according to police. In Battambang province, Chea Toum, 37, was seriously injured when the tractor he was walking behind set off a buried ...
Hay Pisey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/two-killed-in-mine-mortar-shell-blasts-in-battambang-pailin-55263/
Tough talk on ELCs
Economic land concessionaires not abiding by their contracts could have their licences revoked if they have seriously breached the terms, Prime Minister Hun Sen has said. Illegally seizing forest land would be punished under the Law on Forestry, he said on Friday, speaking at an annual ...
May Titthara and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/tough-talk-elcs
Relocated ‘need more’
Minister of Environment Say Sam El urged economic land concessionaire Union Development Group (UDG) – the mega-resort developer at the centre of a long-running Koh Kong province land dispute – to provide sufficient infrastructure in the relocation areas provided for residents it displaced, a ministry ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/relocated-%E2%80%98need-more%E2%80%99
Forecast: coast in danger
Residents along Cambodia’s coastline may want to relocate to higher ground in the wake of a climate-change assessment that predicts much of the Kingdom’s coast could be submerged by rising sea levels. Based on predictive models that take into account global temperature trends and melting ice ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/forecast-coast-danger
Firm ‘logging in sanctuary’
A company in Mondulkiri’s Sok San commune has been gradually cutting down a community forest, pushing more than 100 families off their land, villagers said yesterday. “That land belongs to us, the government granted it to us in 1999. But the company invaded and let us ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/firm-%E2%80%98logging-sanctuary%E2%80%99
Residential property prices see steady growth
A property expert and investor in the construction sector says that home prices have increased between 10 and 20 per cent so far this year compared to last year. Kim Heang, president of Khmer Real Estate, says that demand for property in boreys is healthy. Most ...
Siv Meng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/real-estate/residential-property-prices-see-steady-growth
Patrol detains loggers
A forest patrol in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadav district spotted five loggers clearing the community’s ancestral forest on Tuesday, villagers and rights group Adhoc said yesterday. Adhoc provincial coordinator Chhay Thy said that three representatives of nearly 200 ethnic Jarai families in Pak Nhai commune asked for help ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/patrol-detains-loggers
District forestry boss charged over ‘logging’
The director of the Lumphat district forestry department in Ratanakkiri province was charged and put in pre-trial detention on Monday for allegedly logging on protected land around Ou’Sinlair waterfall, police and court officials revealed yesterday. Deputy Police Chief Klol Thoeun said that Meung Bunthin was picked ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/district-forestry-boss-charged-over-%E2%80%98logging%E2%80%99
CNRP leaders lobby EU Parliamentarians over ‘Blood Sugar’
The opposition CNRP made another pitch for an end to free trade benefits for Cambodian sugar exports to the European Union at a meeting in Phnom Penh on Wednesday with visiting European Parliament members, blaming the benefits for effectively subsidizing companies that are evicting poor ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cnrp-leaders-lobby-eu-parliamentarians-over-blood-sugar-55002/