Protected areas

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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. ...

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. ...

Smugglers sank two boats filled with illegally logged rosewood into Koh Kong’s Sre Ambel River as they shook off pursuing rangers from Wildlife Alliance on March 22, the NGO has said. An anonymous informant tipped off rangers in Sre Ambel district to the boats, allegedly filled ...