National parks and wildlife sanctuaries

The government has decided to develop Bokor National Park into a futuristic and historic tourism city, a sub-decree on the introduction of the master plan for Bokor town’s development said. The area will be connected to the Kingdom’s southern coastal tourism corridor. ...

More than 1,000 families living inside and near wildlife sanctuaries in the Kingdom’s northern provinces have seen their livelihood significantly boosted thanks to an NGO-initiated project. And most of the families have become role models for farmers and natural resource conservationists due to the efforts ...

Environmental specialists are currently clearing the forest surrounding two recently discovered temples and preparing a road leading to them, Ratanakkiri provincial Department of Environment director Phon Khemerin said. ...

Minister of Interior Sar Kheng on Saturday acknowledged that there had been illegal logging in the Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary in Pursat province. Civil society groups lauded the acknowledgement and urged the authorities to immediately combat the crimes. ...

Ecosystems play an important role in sustaining not only plants and animals, but also humans. But as demands for development continue, a balance between investments and sustainability remains elusive in Ream National Park. A forest ranger is geared with a bag behind his back and a ...

The Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN) is planning a joint patrol this month with activists from four provinces – Stung Treng, Kratie, Kampong Thom and Preah Vihear – to scout the protected area and crack down on forestry crimes. Kheng Kho, a PLCN representative in ...

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 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 ...

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 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 ...

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, ...

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 ...

Siem Pang and Siem Pang Khang Lech wildlife sanctuaries’ enforcement teams this month confiscated a total of three chainsaws, two homemade guns, a fish electrocution device and 608 snares, said a BirdLife International Cambodia Programme broadcast on Wednesday. ...

An elephant was found dead at a cashew nut plantation in Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary in Mondulkiri province’s Keo Seima district on Sunday. Experts initially thought the elephant may have been poisoned by a chemicals used by locals, but later confirmed it had been shot. ...

Mondulkiri provincial environment department director Keo Sopheak has said that DNA testing will soon reveal the identities of poachers who exchanged gunfire with environmental rangers, injuring one, at Srepok Wildlife Sanctuary last Wednesday. ...

The government has assigned designated management zones in Srepok Wildlife Sanctuary in Mondulkiri province to make the protected forest more manageable in the wake of a forest ranger being shot. Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday signed a sub-decree designating 372,971 hectares of the forest into ...

A Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN) member in Thmea commune, in Preah Vihear province’s Chey Sen district, on Sunday claimed that authorities are unable to stamp out forest crime in the nature reserve, instances of which have been occurring for months. ...

Mondulkiri provincial authorities are hunting poachers who shot at environmental rangers with an AK-47 assault rifle at the Srepok Wildlife Sanctuary, injuring one. Provincial environment department director Keo Sopheak said the incident happened​ at around 3:30am on Tuesday when six rangers equipped with two AK-47s ...

The Cambodian Red Cross has donated a car, two scooters and cash to activist Ben Devis and the Tabos community as an incentive for participating in the protection of the natural resources in Preah Vihear province’s Phnom Thnout-Phnom Pok Wildlife Sanctuary.​ ...

The Ministry of Environment on Tuesday urged relevant public and private sector stakeholders to jointly preserve the Kingdom’s marine biodiversity for the sake of sustainable development. The appeal came as the ministry announced the establishment of the Koh Rong Marine National Park in Preah Sihanouk ...

The Prey Lang Community Network yesterday claimed that its patrols have found that illegal logging is still rampant in Kratie, Kampong Thom, Stung Treng and Preah Vihear provinces and urged the relevant ministries and authorities to strengthen enforcement. ...