Environment and natural resources policy and administration

The Ministry of Environment on Wednesday approved the environmental impact assessment for a new special economic zone in Kandal province. Plans to build Suvannaphum SEZ, which will be located 46 kilometres away from Phnom Penh, can continue after the EIA for the project was approved ...

Civil society organisations dealing with environmental issues yesterday urged the Environment Ministry to disclose environmental impact assessment reports due to a lack of public information on whether or not companies comply with their reports after development projects have been approved. In a workshop on “Promoting Environmental ...

The ministries of Interior, Environment, and Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries on Monday agreed on the amendment to the laws concerning forestry, fisheries and natural resource protection. They are set to send the draft to the Council of Ministers for revision before it can be passed ...

Parts of an environmental impact assessment for the controversial Pak Lay dam in Laos was copied word for word from an assessment of the equally contentious Pak Beng dam, an advocacy group has claimed. A statement from Save the Mekong, released last week during a meeting ...

The ministry’s report, which it shared on its Facebook page, said CRCK II Rubber Development and Bean Heack Investment Co Ltd have been respectively allowed to develop 7,121.78ha and 4,128.66ha within Boeung Pear Wildlife Sanctuary in Kampong Thom province. Following the granting of the concessions, the ...

An environment-monitoring working group from the Environment Ministry and the Council for the Development of Cambodia plans to meet with the owners of nearly 50 special economic zones across the country to promote standards on environmental protection and liquid waste management. ...

Guidelines for mitigating the environmental impact and managing risks of hydropower dams in the Mekong River will be established at the end of March 2018 after discussion between Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. Forty-five officials from the four countries have been meeting in Vientiane this week ...

Environmental NGOs expressed concerns this week about a requirement from the Ministry of Environment to get advanced permission to patrol the Prey Lang protected forest, saying doing so could lead to illegal loggers getting tipped off, given the history of collusion with officials in the ...

The investor in Cambodia’s first large scale marine fish farm project in Preah Sihanouk province, that was approved by the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) in April, has been asked to submit an environmental impact assessment study to the Ministry of Environment before ...

he Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Environment expect to complete a national draft eco-tourism policy by August to coincide with the second National Forum on the Protection and Conservation of Natural Resources, an environment official said yesterday. ...

Fishing communities around the Tonle Sap Lake have called on Laos to scrap a controversial Mekong hydropower project after the consultation period for the project ended this week. ...

The consultation process for the controversial proposed Pak Beng dam in Laos concluded on Monday, allowing construction to begin even as local and international civil society groups continued to urge a delay until a forthcoming Mekong River Commission (MRC) environmental assessment is released later this ...

Cambodia plans to have an ambitious environmental code adopted by the end of this year, according to a legal adviser with the law firm helping to write the legislation, though conservationists yesterday remained wary about how it would be implemented. ...

The Mekong River Commission held its second stakeholder meeting on Laos’s controversial proposed Pak Beng dam on Friday, giving involved parties the opportunity to hear responses to concerns raised at the first meeting in February. ...

Japan has signed a three-year deal to help train government officials on attracting environmentally friendly investment. The Environment Ministry and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) yesterday signed the agreement to educate officials about how to use environmental impact assessments and enforce pollution controls. ...

Environmental organizations and civil society groups have expressed concern at plans to build another dam along the Mekong River in Laos and asked the Lao government to suspend the project due to the effects it will have on communities, water flow and fishery resources in ...

Pursat environmental officials sent five suspects to the provincial court yesterday afternoon for allegedly attempting to farm on flooded forestland illegally, a provincial environmental officer said. ...

The new Environmental Code, a sweeping piece of legislation that is set to overhaul how protected and communal land are governed and give unprecedented control to the Environment Ministry, was finalized on Sunday and will be released to the public this week, those involved in ...

The Environment Ministry’s annual report revealed 600 forestry crimes in protected areas, while there were nearly 700 cases of fishing, wildlife and land crimes. The report, released yesterday, showed that rangers, in collaboration with relevant parties, managed to prevent and suppress offenses at national parks, wildlife ...

An environmental impact assessment released on Friday for a $245 million mining project slated to begin operations in Mondolkiri province next year has raised concerns about its potential effects on the environment and local communities. The project, proposed by the Chinese-owned Alex Corporation, would see a ...

The government created a national commission last week to prevent and crack down on crimes involving natural resources. National Military Police Commander Sao Sokha will head the commission and Hou Sakun, the deputy commissioner general of the National Police, will be second in command. Environment Ministry and ...

The Preah Sihanouk provincial hall has started providing land to nearly 300 families living illegally around the Kbal Chhay waterfall in Sihanoukville’s Muoy commune. The decision to provide land came after villagers blocked National Road 4 in September, burning tires in protest of resettlement from the ...

The owners of Hong Sopheap Development Company in Preah Vihear have been arrested days after military police carried out a massive raid on a 4,000 hectare social land concession (SLC) that the company holds a licence to log. ...

Civil society groups are getting closer to unveiling a new set of guidelines that will change how the impact of big development projects is assessed across the Mekong region, NGOs said yesterday, following the end of a two-month public consultation period. ...