Logging and timber

A police squad working with government officials in Kratie province stopped a truck loaded full of luxury wood in Chet Borei’s Changkrang village on Saturday afternoon. ...

The government has given up on trying to auction off the majority of 71,000 cubic meters of illegally logged timber seized by authorities earlier this year amid a persistent lack of interest from potential buyers. រដ្ឋាភិបាលបានបញ្ឈប់ការព្យាយាមលក់ដេញថ្លៃចំពោះឈើភាគច្រើននៃចំនួនសរុប ៧១ ០០០ ម៉ែត្រគូប ដែលបានមកពីការរឹបអូសដោយអាជ្ញាធរកាលពីដើមឆ្នាំនេះ ខណៈពេលដែលមានកង្វះខាតនៃចំណាប់អារម្មណ៍ពីអ្នកទិញ។  ...

Thousands of cubic metres of endangered Siamese rosewood were sent to Vietnam in 2014 with export permits bearing the Photoshopped signature of a retired Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) secretary of state, a ministry official said yesterday. ...

Soldiers in Thailand fatally shot a logger from Battambang province who slipped across the border with six other Cambodians to cut rosewood on Wednesday night, authorities said.   ...

More than $90,000 worth of luxury timber seized during National Anti-Deforestation Committee (NADC) raids in Stung Treng province will be up for public auction until July 29, the Ministry of Economic and Finance announced last week. ...

Forestry officials in Preah Vihear province confiscated more than 1,100 kg of valuable rosewood early on Tuesday morning, while the two men suspected of transporting the wood were on the run, officials said.   ...

The Finance Ministry has rescheduled a trio of timber auctions that had been set to start today after a continued lack of interest from buyers, although bidding for a lot in Stung Treng province will go ahead on Wednesday as planned.   ...

A pile of illegally logged wood discovered by police in Ratanakkiri province earlier this month along a road built by a local rubber plantation often accused of illegal logging has since gone missing, a Forestry Administration official said on Sunday.   ...

Cambodia has one of the world’s highest deforestation rates. But a group of Buddhist monks are stepping up efforts to save forests by publicly revealing wrongdoings and mobilizing local villagers. Ate Hoekstra reports. ...

Kratie Forestry Administration forces in cooperation with provincial armed forces seized 12 trucks laden with illegal timber yesterday.   ...

Continued widespread logging in the Prey Lang forest is evidence that the government’s recent push to have more than 400,000 hectares of land protected is toothless, according to activists as well as a Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN) report released yesterday. ...

The government claims not to have issued a single permit to export Siamese rosewood since it agreed to strict new trade rules for the exceedingly rare trees, and says it will look into a U.N.-managed database that states otherwise.   ...

The government has indefinitely postponed what was intended to be the first of several public auctions to sell off 71,000 cubic meters of timber seized by au­thorities since January, according to officials, who cited a lack of interest among potential buyers. ...

Cambodia exported hundreds of millions of dollars worth of threatened Siamese rosewood in the 18 months after ratifying a 2013 international protocol designed to protect the species from destructive trade, according to a report released on Friday.   ...

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Monday called for the closure of 2.25 million hectares of natural forest in the country’s Central Highlands as well as the shuttering of wood processing facilities across the country, regional news outlets reported. ...

The government has set the dates to auction off the last of the 71,000 cubic meters of illegally logged timber seized by authorities this year, carrying on a practice riddled with signs of corruption in the past.   ...

Three military trucks were caught transporting illegally logged rosewood by Tbong Khmum authorities yesterday, according to the National Police website. ...

Kampot’s Ta Reach bridge was severely damaged by a truck overloaded with illegal luxury timber over the weekend, prompting a manhunt for the truck’s driver, who was apparently on his way to Vietnam at the time of the accident. ...

As the government prepares to start auctioning off the 70,000 cubic meters of illegal timber it has seized so far this year, not one of the companies on whose property it was found—nor anyone else—has been charged over the wood, following months of court procedures. ...

A local newspaper publisher has appealed directly to Prime Minister Hun Sen for help after provincial officials allegedly crashed into his car and threatened him in order to hide timber smuggling activities. ...

The Ministry of Economy and Finance has announced the date of the auction for timber confiscated from logging companies by the National Anti-Deforestation Committee (NADC) earlier this year, inadvertently releasing the official names of seven previously unknown companies caught housing illegally logged wood. ...

Environment Minister Say Samal claims Cambodia has put an end to illegal logging and timber exports to Vietnam, despite reports of continued, and even rising, levels of forest clearing and timber being transported to the Kingdom’s neighbor. ...

The government is failing to protect Cambodia’s forests, activists, civil society groups and students said during yesterday’s World Environment Day celebration in Phnom Penh. ...

Rewards will be given to those who provide local police with the exact time and place that illegal timber is transported through the Ton Hon Cambodia-Vietnam border checkpoint, the Kampot provincial police chief said yesterday. ...