Forests and forestry
Forest protection
Nearly six million hectares to be protected
Minister of Environment Say Sam Al has sent a letter to the Minister of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction asking to register nearly six million hectares of land as protected under the Ministry of the Environment. ...
May Titthara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/24932/nearly-six-million-hectares-to-be-protected/
PM signs off on protected forests
Prime Minister Hun Sen has signed a sub-decree to mark 18 protected areas over nearly three million hectares of land across Prey Lang forest, according to a Ministry of Environment statement released yesterday. ...
May Titthara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/24817/pm-signs-off-on-protected-forests/
Cambodia scouts for tigers before relocating big cats from India
Before it takes action on ‘relocating’ Indian tigers, Cambodia’s forestry administration is on a special mission – scouting for signs of indigenous tigers in its dense jungles, where according to reports they are “functionally extinct”. ...
PM calls for bird preservation
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday told Cambodians to stop hunting and poisoning wild birds, whose populations are already under strain from drought and forest fires. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pm-calls-bird-preservation
Cambodia declares protected area in hotly contested Prey Lang forest
A landmark decision by Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen could see almost a million hectares of forest reclassified as protected areas in a country with one of the highest deforestation rates in the world. But the order, circulated on Friday, to transfer control of the sites ...
Daniel Pye
https://news.mongabay.com/2016/05/cambodia-protected-areas/
Prey Lang shorted in new protected areas
The core of one of Cambodia’s most important and abused forests —Prey Lang—was officially declared a protected area this week after years of campaigning by local activists and foreign conservationists. ...
Kuch Naren
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/prey-lang-shorted-in-new-protected-areas-111963/
Angkor Wat ‘tourist elephant’ firm pledges to trim hours
The Angkor Elephant Company has pledged to reduce the working hours of its animals following the death last Friday of Sambo, one of 14 elephants it uses to carry tourists around the Angkor Wat temple complex, although critics say anything short of their release from ...
Bun Sengkong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/angkor-wat-tourist-elephant-firm-pledges-trim-hours
Dangerous trees to be removed from Angkor
The Apsara Authority announced yesterday that it is considering the selective removal of some trees inside the 401-square-kilometer Angkor Park, saying that only those that pose potential risk to the park’s visitors and temples would be cut down. ...
Pav Suy
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/24254/dangerous-trees-to-be-removed-from-angkor/
Preah Vihear excluded from protection plan
The Ministry of Environment conducted a workshop yesterday to discuss the government’s plan to designate five forest areas, totaling about one million hectares of land, as protected. ...
May Titthara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/24212/preah-vihear-excluded-from-protection-plan/
Men detained after killing endangered ox
Four farmers were arrested and charged yesterday over allegations of killing an endangered banteng, considered to be one of the most beautiful species of wild ox, in a protected forest in Mondulkiri, according to officials. ...
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/24152/men-detained-after-killing-endangered-ox/
Green light for protected forest plans
The Ministry of Environment has given two NGOs the go-ahead to implement their proposed management plans for five protected community forest areas in Battambang and Pursat provinces, projected to cover 1,064 families and 2,761 hectares. ...
Kong Meta
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/green-light-protected-forest-plans
Officials survey Prey Lang from sky
Making a dramatic arrival by helicopter at the Sofitel Hotel in Phnom Penh after a flyover of Prey Lang forest, Environment Minister Say Sam Al and US Ambassador to Cambodia William Heidt discussed a plan to make the Kingdom’s largest forest a protected area. ...
Pech Sotheary and Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/officials-survey-prey-lang-sky
Kampong Chhnang forest fires out of control
About 130 hectares of protected wetlands in three villages in Kampong Chhnang province’s Boribor district were consumed in forest fires last week, according to a police report issued by the Interior Ministry. ...
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/23878/kampong-chhnang-forest-fires-out-of-control/
Expert says tiger reintroduction plan sure to fail
A leading Indian conservationist and tiger expert is warning that a multimillion-dollar scheme to reintroduce the big cat to Cambodia will be a “tragic failure” that could cost lives, and that its advocates will come to rue the attempt. ...
Zsombor Peter
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/expert-says-tiger-reintroduction-plan-sure-to-fail-111330/
Controversial elephant swap with Japan called off
A controversial proposed animal swap that would have seen elephants Kiri and Seila sent from the notorious Teuk Chhou Zoo in Kampot to a zoo in Japan in exchange for other exotic species has been officially called off, new documents show. ...
Charles Parkinson and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/controversial-elephant-swap-japan-called
Tigers to be reintroduced to Cambodia in 2019
Eight tigers will be released into the Cambodian wild in an unprecedented plan projected to cost between $20 and $50 million, the Ministry of Agriculture and WWF-Cambodia announced at an event in Phnom Penh on Wednesday. ...
Kang Sothear and Peter Ford
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/tigers-to-be-reintroduced-to-cambodia-in-2019-110954/
Attacked Prey Lang activist vows to keep up the fight
Sleeping in a hammock strung between two tall trees, deep inside Prey Lang forest, environmental activist Phorn Sopheak was startled awake at 1:30 a.m. on Sunday morning when her parked motorbike toppled over onto her body. ...
George Wright and Sek Odom
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/attacked-prey-lang-activist-vows-to-keep-up-the-fight-110769/
PM decides to protect 1 million hectares of forest
Prime Minister Hun Sen has agreed to legally protect nearly 1 million hectares of the Kingdom’s forest land, including the Prey Lang forest. Speaking during the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport’s annual meeting at the Institute of Technology of Cambodia, Mr. Hun Sen said he ...
May Titthara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/23482/pm-decides-to-protect-1-million-hectares-of-forest/
Gov’t asked to protect nearly 1 million hectares of forest
The Ministry of Environment has proposed the government establish nearly one million hectares of newly protected forest, an area that will include the Prey Lang forest, according to ministry spokesman Sao Sopheap. ...
May Titthara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/23420/gov---t-asked-to-protect-nearly-1-million-hectares-of-forest/
Attack on Prey Lang defender highlights logger brutality
A member of the Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN) in Kratie province was seriously injured after she was attacked by an unknown assailant while sleeping in a hammock on Sunday night near Boeung Cha village. ...
May Titthara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/23301//
Ministry encourages conservation, domestication of wild animals
The Ministry of Environment is encouraging people living in or around protected areas to start feeding and domesticating wild animals, and to abstain from eating them, with similar strategies in animal conservation being attempted in communities in Preah Vihear province. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/23236/ministry-encourages-conservation--domestication-of-wild-animals/
Bribes alleged at Phnom Oral Sanctuary
Government rangers, paid to protect the Phnom Oral Wildlife Sanctuary, allow loggers to process and transport illegally felled timber in exchange for bribes, an NGO alleged yesterday after conducting an undercover operation in the protected forest. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/bribes-alleged-phnom-oral-sanctuary
Wild animals, illegal meat seized in raids
Authorities have seized more than 160 kilograms of illegal wildlife meat and several live animals during separate raids in Stung Treng and Ratanakkiri provinces over the past week. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wild-animals-illegal-meat-seized-raids
Prey Lang network calls for protections in logging crackdown
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. ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/prey-lang-network-calls-protections-logging-crackdown