Deforestation drivers

Forest activists claimed they had observed more cases of deforestation in the Prey Lang area than before the Covid-19 outbreak. They alleged that three companies had sent workers to log and transport timber with no crackdown by the relevant authorities. ...

Cambodia’s forest cover was over 73 per cent in 1975 but it has shrunk to only about 47 per cent last year. In its Human Development Report Cambodia 2019, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said deforestation was mainly caused by rising wood demand for ...

As the impacts of climate change become more apparent worldwide, members of the public are connecting more weather events to the phenomenon. In March and April, for example, extreme heat baked mainland Southeast Asia. On April 20, Vietnam set an all-time observed record high temperature, 43 ...

Cambodia’s forests are being felled at a shocking rate, as poachers and corrupt officials profit from the black market trade in rare wood species, which is being exported to Vietnam — and beyond. Loggers are illegally felling rare and valuable trees to sell in China and Europe, ...

A team of researchers at the National University of Singapore (NUS) has found that the loss of dense forest in Cambodia is associated with higher risk of diarrhea, acute respiratory infection, and fever in children. ...

A petrol tanker truck was found with more than 2,000 pieces of luxury rosewood stashed inside its tank when it was intercepted by authorities in Phnom Penh last week, National Military Police spokesman Eng Hy said yesterday. ...

The Cambodia Royal Gendarmerie and Kratie provincial military police yesterday concluded a crackdown on a known timber smuggling route in Sambour district, confiscating nearly 100 pieces of wood equivalent to about 40 cubic metres. ...

Massive deforestation is playing a crucial role in the droughts that have devastated Cambodia. But despite an official ban on timber exports, forests continue to be cut down at a record rate.The Cambodian government awarded between 30 and 40 logging concessions to private companies during ...

A conservation NGO official yesterday said he planned to ask microfinance lenders to better scrutinise their loans after a spate of cases over the last month showed that such loans had been used by illegal loggers to purchase chainsaws and tractors for transporting timber. ...

About 1,000 hectares of protected forest in Mondulkiri province have been logged under the noses of environment officials, rights group Adhoc and community leaders said yesterday. ...

Alleged illegal logging and timber exports continue to happen in the Prey Lang forest, while drug trafficking in the area is also on the rise, according to the latest Prey Lang Com-munity Network (PLCN) report yesterday. The fifth monitoring report on the forest’s status from April ...

Ten trucks fully loaded with timber have been spotted entering a heavily guarded sawmill near the Lower Sesan II dam on an hourly basis, claimed a report by the Cambodian Human Rights Task Force (CHRTF), which was released yesterday. According to the report, photos taken from ...

Despite numerous laws and committees created to tackle deforestation and illegal logging in Cambodia, the timber trade has continued unabated. In another attempt to deal with the issue, authorities across the country have been ordered to ensure they execute their responsibilities to oversee the enforcement of ...

Cambodian forests, some of the most biologically diverse areas in the world, are vanishing fast as a result of the Vietnamese, Chinese and Cambodian political interests. Cambodia has one of the largest deforestation rates in the world. Forest Trends, an influential organization with a mission to conserve ...

Newly declared protected areas in Prey Lang forest are being illegally logged by companies belonging to a three-star general and his sister, according to Goldman Environmental Prize-winning conservationist Ouch Leng and NGOs with which he is working. Leng, along with 15 NGO officers, patrollers and ...

The governor of Kompong Speu on Tuesday ordered 10 armed soldiers to help a team of environmental officials confront a group of “anarchic” farmers clearing state forestland in the province. ...

In recent months Prime Minister Hun Sen has made an effort to show that the government has a handle on the voracious deforestation that has ravaged the country’s forests over the years. Yet his speeches and decrees have done little to slow down, much less stop, ...

The high-pitched whine of chainsaws drowned out the sound of birds and bugs you usually hear during any trek through Prey Lang forest. What was once an area full of animals scurrying under the shade of gargantuan trees is now largely populated by stumps and ash. The ...

While the luxury timber trade continues to eat away at Cambodia’s forests, there is another industry that poses a growing threat to the Kingdom’s trees: pepper farms.   ...

The Mondulkiri Provincial Court yesterday released on bail three ethnic Phnong villagers charged with illegally clearing state land on the condition that they agree not to return to their homes and farms. ...

Steng Treng’s forestry protection communities called on the government and relevant institutions to investigate the irregularities of duty of the local authorities and Stung Treng provincial forestry officers who did not pay attention to local forest conservation, also enable logger to encroach land arbitrarily. ...

Military police investigated two warehouses in Kratie and Mondulkiri provinces yesterday amid a crackdown on illegal logging in eastern Cambodia. As police continue to raid warehouses and tighten security along the Vietnamese border, illegal logging and the sale of luxury wood has ground to a ...

Cambodian officials have defended the government’s record on the forestry sector, despite the publication this year of several substantive reports alleging that deforestation is accelerating due to policy failures. In response, Sophalleth echoed previous comments by the prime minister, insisting that once deforested land is ...

A new report on illegal logging in Cambodia’s northeastern forests portrays a single company with essentially a monopoly on the illicit trade. Tek Vannara, executive director of NGO Forum, said the report could be a tool to find a solution to combat deforestation. “We ...