Logging and timber

A police official in Kompong Thom province has so far avoided prosecution in a weekend timber smuggling case involving his brother, three unidentified loggers and three carloads of rosewood logs marked with his name. ...

Although they remain publicly unnamed, nine businessmen in the timber industry were summoned to appear at the Tbong Khmum provincial court today for alleged deforestation crimes and illegal business dealings, according to officials. ...

A prominent anti-dam activist in Koh Kong province who has been jailed since October was convicted Thursday of illegal logging and given a suspended prison sentence, allowing him to walk free but leaving the shadow of a criminal conviction hanging over him. ...

City Hall plans to privatize a 280-hectare plot of public land set aside for a $3 billion development by the Over­seas Cambodia Investment Cor­poration (OCIC) in Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changva district, officials said Thursday.   ...

The Indigenous Peoples and Forestry Network (IPFN) yesterday released a statement praising the government’s ongoing purported crackdown on illegal logging, but saying far more needs to be done. ...

A blaze authorities have attributed to a forest fire ripped through a nearly 4,000-cubic-metre timber stockpile on a social land concession in Preah Vihear’s Kulen district on the weekend, although the company yesterday said it suspected a case of arson. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen unleashed a tirade against underperforming government officials in a pair of speeches yesterday – musing aloud about reshuffling his Council of Ministers and wondering why rockets had not yet been deployed in the Kingdom’s recent “crackdown” on illegal logging. ...

More than a month has passed since National Anti-Deforestation Committee (NADC) named the people it suspects of profiting from the trade in illegal timber, but not a single arrest warrant or court summons has been issued since. As perpetrators continue to go unpunished, the illegal ...

An ad hoc task force set up by Prime Minister Hun Sun last month to go after illegal timber stocks in eastern Cambodia has started sending cases to the pro­vincial courts for prosecution, Na­tional Police spokesman Eng Hy said on Monday. ...

Six prominent conservation groups yesterday vowed to help a military police task force fight illegal logging near the eastern border yesterday. However, scepticism persists that the highly publicised operation, which has resulted in few arrests, is merely for show. ...

Four Cambodian nationals were arrested by Thai authorities on illegal logging allegations after the suspects were caught in a Surin province wildlife sanctuary with felled Siamese Rosewood trees and logging tools on Monday, according to officials. ...

A rubber plantation in Mondolkiri province targeted by a new government task force sweeping the eastern provinces for illicit timber stocks has denied any involvement in the illegal logging trade. ...

Two men have been arrested over, and a military official implicated in, illegal logging that took place at the protected Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary last week. ...

The recently created nationwide anti-logging commission seized 300 logs of illegal timber at a sawmill near a Vietnamese graveyard in Stung Treng province on Friday. ...

A journalist who accused a military police commander of accepting bribes from illegal loggers in Mondolkiri province was arrested and briefly detained on Thursday on the commander’s orders, a move that was criticized by the Ministry of Information. ...

Authorities have unearthed an­other cache of high-grade logs buried near a well-known timber dealer’s sawmill in Tbong Khmum province, weeks after finding a stockpile of buried logs on the businessman’s property in the same district. ...

The Prey Lang Community Network has called on the government to include the protection of the sprawling Prey Lang forest in the remit of the recently established committee to crack down on illegal logging. ...

A former Mondulkiri provincial military police officer, Sou Marith, fired on authorities who had chased a car carrying timber to his home, but managed to make good his escape in the hours it took authorities to procure an arrest warrant, local authorities said. ...

A former Mondulkiri provincial military police officer, Sou Marith, fired on authorities who had chased a car carrying timber to his home, but managed to make good his escape in the hours it took authorities to procure an arrest warrant, local authorities said. ...

Criminal loggers and land snatchers are committing more murders around the world, but they almost always escape justice. ...

National Assembly President Heng Samrin has refused to forward to Prime Minister Hun Sen a letter from an opposition lawmaker asking that a group of rubber plantations owned by Vietnamese Ar­my commanders be canceled because they violate the Constitution. ...

Hundreds of logs of timber, including luxury wood, as well as sawmill camps were torched at a controversial Vietnamese-owned economic land concession in Mondulkiri province’s Keo Seima district in an apparent bid to destroy evidence of illegal logging ahead of a raid by a new ...

Cambodia’s National Police have joined the fray in an ongoing crackdown against illegal logging, starting their own “mission group” following the creation of a military police task force last week. ...

Authorities from the government’s new anti-logging task force swooped into Stung Treng yesterday and inspected timber stockpiles belonging to the Kingdom’s most prominent logging magnate, Try Pheap, who has been accused of reaping immense profits from the clear-cutting of Cambodian forests for years. ...