Forests and forestry
Forest protection
‘Deforestation plagues ASEAN’
Concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have never been higher, but Association of Southeast Asian Nations member countries are still failing to curb emissions created by heavy deforestation, according to a new report. Forest land in ASEAN countries declined by more than 6 per cent ...
Phak Seangly and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98deforestation-plagues-asean%E2%80%99
Lawmaker blasts illegal logging in Stung Treng
Two draft laws on judicial reform were easily passed by the single-party National Assembly on Friday but the session was overshadowed by a rookie lawmaker’s attack on lax enforcement of forestry laws in Stung Treng province. On the fourth day of the third plenary session of ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/lawmaker-blasts-illegal-logging-in-s-treng-59494/
Activist ‘threatened with knife’
A forest activist in Kampong Thom province yesterday claimed to have been threatened with a knife by a soldier after reporting that the officer was behind a number of forest crimes in the area. Pen Bunkear, a soldier with the Kampong Thom military research unit, yesterday ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/activist-%E2%80%98threatened-knife%E2%80%99
WWF petitions to halt Don Sahong dam
World Wildlife Fund is taking to the internet to halt a hydropower project it claims will serve as the nail in the coffin for the critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphin. On Friday, WWF launched an online petition calling on the developers of Laos’s 120 megawatt Don Sahong ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wwf-petitions-halt-don-sahong-dam
Huge haul of smuggled ivory came from Kenya
The three-ton haul of illegal elephant ivory seized by port officials on May 9 originated in Kenya and was then shipped through Malaysia to Cambodia in two freight containers, the chief of Sihanoukville Autonomous Port’s customs and excise department said Thursday. Most of the elephant ...
Khy Sovuthy and Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/huge-haul-of-smuggled-ivory-came-from-kenya-59451/
Directive aims to stop ELC abuses
Sacred burial grounds and community forests should be granted more protection under a new government proclamation issued this month, but rights groups and land-grab victims are wary that, without proper enforcement, it will amount to little in practice. An interministerial proclamation, or prakas, signed by ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/directive-aims-stop-elc-abuses
Gov’t called on to save forests
Villagers from forest communities in nine provinces called on the government yesterday to take action after alleging that “the rich and powerful” are causing the “serious destruction” of their livelihoods. The villagers, with the support of two NGOs – the Children’s Development Association and Community Peace-Building ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/gov%E2%80%99t-called-save-forests
Chong villagers block Chinese engineers from reaching dam
A group of 20 ethnic minority Chong villagers in Koh Kong province’s Areng Valley blocked the road Friday to prevent a group of Chinese engineers from reaching the site of a controversial proposed dam. A number of Chong villagers have been intermittently camping near the road ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/chong-villagers-block-chinese-engineers-from-reaching-dam-58944/
Illegal wood exports to China tripled in 2013
Cambodia’s exports of protected rosewood and other high-value timber to China more than tripled last year, according to U.N. figures cited in a new report that blames lax law enforcement across the Mekong region and skyrocketing demand in China for pushing some species to the ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/illegal-wood-exports-to-china-tripled-in-2013-58593/
Ivory haul investigation kept under wraps
Customs officials over the weekend said they will shed no further light on Friday’s massive haul of three tons of illegal elephant ivory at Sihanoukville Autonomous Port—Cambodia’s biggest-ever ivory seizure—until investigations are complete and a case can be sent to court. A scan on containers that ...
Saing Soenthrith
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ivory-haul-investigation-kept-under-wraps-58470/
Cambodia seizes 3 tons trafficked ivory tusks at sea port
Cambodian customs officers on Friday morning confiscated around three tons of elephant tusks at the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port in Southwestern Preah Sihanouk province. In February, customs officers nabbed two Vietnamese men at the Siem Reap International Airport for smuggling 79.5 kg of illegal elephant tusks ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-05/09/c_133321744.htm
A way of life falls with trees
The Phnong ethnic minority in Mondulkiri province have heard the promises of development before. With increasing investment and the selling off of the region’s forests will come new roads and schools, they are told. But people in this ancient community, tired of seeing their sacred forests handed ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/way-life-falls-trees
Despite dolphin-saving plan, dam threat remains
A little more than two years after signing off on a scheme aimed at improving protection of the critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphin, experts said last week they were concerned that Mekong dams would see wholesale destruction of the population. During a two-day workshop that closed on ...
The Cambodia Daily
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/despite-dolphin-saving-plan-dam-threat-remains-57509/
Heritage preserved: Park status to protect ancient site
Ancient ironwork at a site in Preah Vihear province that predates the civilisation of Angkor will fall within a new national park formed by royal decree last week. More than 200 pre-Angkor era industrial sites have been discovered since 2010, but the newly created national park ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/heritage-preserved-park-status-protect-ancient-site
Trucks hauling luxury wood busted
Police in Kompong Speu province on Monday night stopped three container trucks on National Road 4 bound for Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, seizing more than 100 logs of illegal luxury wood, officials said. Provincial economic police chief Nhem Sao said that his officers and police from Chbar ...
Saing Soenthrith
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/trucks-hauling-luxury-wood-busted-57090/
Military cop investigated for alleged forest clearing
A deputy district military police chief in Kampong Thom’s Santuk district is under scrutiny for allegedly clearing up to seven hectares of community forest land for personal gain, and district officials are investigating the case with the aim of presenting it at the provincial court ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/military-cop-investigated-alleged-forest-clearing
Wood confiscated in Stung Treng Province
Military police and local forestry officials in Stung Treng province confiscated more than 90 pieces of luxury-grade Thnong wood from a private farm on Sunday, but only after the suspected owner escaped, according to officials. Provincial court prosecutor Chroeng Khmao said a joint force of military ...
Saing Soenthrith
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/wood-confiscated-in-stung-treng-province-56919/
To honour Chut Wutty
Nearly two years have passed since Cambodia’s leading forestry activist, Chut Wutty, was gunned down in the Cardamom Mountains. After a long wait, more than 100 activists, supporters and monks will finally make the pilgrimage on Saturday to the spot where he was killed to pay ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/honour-chut-wutty
Chong villagers put festive spin on dam protest
Villagers from an ethnic minority community in Koh Kong province’s Areng Valley continued their blockade over the Khmer New Year holiday of an access road leading to the site of a proposed dam they say would destroy their way of life. Members of the ethnic ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/chong-villagers-put-festive-spin-on-dam-protest-56708/
Anti-dam activists set to block workers’ arrival
Members of an ethnic minority in Koh Kong province’s Areng Valley stood watch Thursday to block a road leading to the site of a proposed dam after they heard that Chinese workers would inspect the site, community representatives said. Villagers believe that the Chinese company Sinohydro ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/anti-dam-activists-set-to-block-workers-arrival-56442/
A logging free-for-all
The scale of mass logging in once-dense woodlands in Cambodia’s north now more closely resembles the free-for-all of a gold rush than the sustainable forestry more often associated with these communities. With the financial backing of powerful businessmen, villagers in three districts of Preah Vihear are ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/logging-free-all
Jail time for governor if summons ignored
The governor of Ratanakkiri province’s Lumphat district will face arrest if he fails to appear for a second summons to Ratanakkiri Provincial Court to answer questions about his alleged involvement in the illegal logging of protected land around the Ou’Sinlair waterfall, the court said yesterday. The ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/jail-time-governor-if-summons-ignored
Villagers make plea over crocs
A group of villagers from Koh Kong’s Areng Valley gathered outside the offices of Flora & Fauna International (FFI) in Phnom Penh yesterday, demanding a say in a project designed to relocate endangered Siamese crocodiles from the site of the planned Stung Cheay Areng dam. ...
Phak Seangly and Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/villagers-make-plea-over-crocs
Python peddler arrested
Police in Kandal province’s Koh Thom district seized a shipment of live pythons en route to market in Vietnam on Friday, arresting the accused smuggler and turning the snakes over to conservation group Wildlife Alliance, police said yesterday. ...
Kim Sarom
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/python-peddler-arrested