Forests and forestry
Forest protection
Growling prowlers rumble in the jungle
The government is working in conjunction with the World Wildlife Fund on a plan to release eight tigers into the wild in Mondulkiri province by 2022. WWF-Cambodia communication manager Un Chakrey said yesterday that they are working with the ministries of environment, agriculture and tourism, among ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/5074022/growling-prowlers-rumble-jungle/
Activists fear dredging in wildlife sanctuary
Activists and a fisherman yesterday claimed that a company has started sand dredging within a wildlife sanctuary in Koh Kong, despite a standing ban on sand exports from companies operating in coastal areas. ...
Yesenia Amaro and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/activists-fear-dredging-wildlife-sanctuary
Endangered duck eggs found
For the first time in five years, a nest with seven eggs of the endangered white-winged duck was discovered in the Northern Plains of Cambodia, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) announced yesterday. ...
Touch Sokha and Jovina Chua
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/endangered-duck-eggs-found
1,000 Phnom Kulen families to be relocated
A group of about 1,000 families living in Siem Reap province’s Phnom Kulen National Park will be relocated to prevent them from continuing an environmentally detrimental trend of clearing land, building homes, selling and repeating, the environment minister said on Thursday. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/1000-phnom-kulen-families-to-be-relocated-131679/
Apsara Authority starts razing illegal Angkor park homes
The government body charged with managing the Angkor Archaeological Park on Monday started tearing down the first of more than 500 homes and shophouses illegally built within the park in the weeks before the June 4 commune elections. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/apsara-authority-starts-razing-illegal-angkor-park-homes-131533/
Alleged poachers charged with killing endangered monkeys
Two farmers caught with dead monkeys in Mondolkiri province’s Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary have been charged with poaching endangered wildlife. ...
Buth Kimsay
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/alleged-poachers-charged-with-killing-endangered-monkeys-131318/
Mineral exploration permits offered for protected Prey Lang
One of four new mining exploration permits, advertised publicly this week, is within the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary map, coordinates reveal, sparking concern among activists and community members about the strength of the forest’s recently-acquired protected status.In the first public tender of fresh exploration licenses ...
Shaun Turton and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/mineral-exploration-permits-offered-protected-prey-lang
Calls to halt ‘reforestation’ plan
Fourteen community representatives speaking for thousands of families yesterday petitioned the South Korean Embassy, Environment Ministry and Forestry Administration to halt the expansion of a controversial “reforestation” project by a Korean company situated between the protected Prey Lang forest and Mekong River. Their petition – ...
Phak Seangly and Shaun Turton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/calls-halt-reforestation-plan
Court questions officials over sale of Jolie-Pitt land
An environmental ranger and a village chief were questioned yesterday by the Pailin Provincial Court for allegedly colluding to grab, clear and sell land in a protected area supported by the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation, according to officials. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/court-questions-officials-over-sale-jolie-pitt-land
Logging ‘conspiracy’: Cambodian, Vietnamese officials accused of taking huge bribes
Cambodian and Vietnamese officials have received millions of dollars in bribes from Vietnamese timber traders as part of a cross-border “conspiracy” to log vast swathes of Ratanakkiri province and funnel the timber to Vietnam, according to a damning report by the Environmental Investigation Agency released ...
Shaun Turton and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/logging-conspiracy-cambodian-vietnamese-officials-accused-taking-huge-bribes
NGO to file report over clearing of forestland
The Natural Resource and Wildlife Preservation Organization, a conservation organisation in Kampong Speu, pledged yesterday to file a letter of complaint to authorities after learning that 6 hectares of protected forestland were cleared illegally. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ngo-file-report-over-clearing-forestland
PM: Save our flooded forests
Prime Minister Hun Sen has called on the Agriculture Ministry to do more to prevent land grabbing in the country’s endangered flooded forests.Speaking at the closing ceremony of the Agriculture Ministry’s annual meeting yesterday, Mr. Hun Sen said encroachment risks wiping out fish populations that ...
Ven Rathavong
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/37427/pm--save-our-flooded-forests/
Adhoc accuses Ratanakkiri official of OK’ing sale of sanctuary land
Some 200 hectares of forest in Ratanakkiri’s Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary have been cleared and sold for up to $400 per hectare – allegedly with an official’s blessing – while an additional 700 hectares around the protected area face clearing. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/adhoc-accuses-ratanakkiri-official-oking-sale-sanctuary-land
Herd of elephants rescued from muddy bomb crater
Eleven wild elephants were rescued on Saturday in Mondulkiri’s Keo Seima protected area after becoming trapped in a former bomb crater without food for four days, though rangers will continue to monitor the herd to ensure it reaccepts one juvenile who was handled by humans ...
Mech Dara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/herd-elephants-rescued-muddy-bomb-crater
Task force grills officials over allegations of graft
Two military commanders, a military police commander and a provincial police chief in Mondulkiri were questioned by the national military police’s anti-logging task force yesterday for their alleged involvement in a Vietnamese timber smuggling operation. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/task-force-grills-officials-over-allegations-graft
Masked farmers raid, burn down community forestry office
Officials are still investigating an arson attack on a Mondolkiri province community forestry monitoring office by dozens of masked farmers on Friday, in what they suspect was retaliation for preventing the farmers from growing cassava in a protected area. ...
Van Roeun
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/masked-farmers-raid-burn-down-community-forestry-office-126759/
Forest patrollers accuse authorities of collusion
Prey Lang Community Network conservation activists in Kratie province have accused local officials of colluding with illegal timber transporters after authorities allegedly declined to intervene after being tipped off on Sunday to stockpiles of logs thought to have been felled within a wildlife sanctuary.Ek Sovanna, ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/forest-patrollers-accuse-authorities-collusion
Luxury wood haul found, but no arrests
Mondulkiri provincial environment officials and National Military Police early yesterday morning confiscated a seemingly abandoned Toyota Land Cruiser loaded with more than 10 poles of luxury thnong timber in the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary, though no arrests were made. ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/luxury-wood-haul-found-no-arrests
Ratanikkiri crackdown nets 700 logs, zero loggers
More than 700 logs, many of them luxury timber, were discovered in Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary in Ratanikkiri province on Sunday, according to local military police, though the loggers were nowhere in sight. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ratanikkiri-crackdown-nets-700-logs-zero-loggers
Villagers seek NGOs’, UN’s help in dispute
More than 400 families in Preah Vihear province submitted a petition to a group of NGOs and the UN yesterday, seeking assistance in their battle with the government over 3,555 hectares of protected land that sits within the Kulen Prom-Tep Wildlife Sanctuary. According to Sokha, ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/villagers-seek-ngos-uns-help-dispute
Ministry okays wood plant
The government issued a statement yesterday allowing Lim Royal Joint Stock Company to create a temporary wood and furniture manufacturing plant in Trapeang Srae village in Kratie province.According to an announcement signed by Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Veng Sakhon last Thursday, Lim Royal will ...
May Titthara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/35376/ministry-okays-wood-plant/
Rural development director implicated in clearing
The director of Mondulkiri’s rural development department stands accused of clearing about 50 hectares of state-owned forest for his own farming purposes, authorities said yesterday. ...
Lay Samean
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rural-development-director-implicated-clearing
Ministries urged to do more to protect forest
Forest activists and community representatives have urged the government to post markers at protected natural areas to prevent encroachment of loggers and the clearing of forest. ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/35168/ministries-urged-to-do-more-to-protect-forests/
Ministry issues measures meant to counter wildfires
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forests and Fisheries on Monday signed off on a list of seven measures intended to guard against forest fires, although details on implementation remained scarce yesterday and observers said they expected little to come of the new document. ...
Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon and Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ministry-issues-measures-meant-counter-wildfires