Forests and forestry

The Banteay Meanchey Provincial Court laid fresh charges of money laundering on the detained chairman of an embattled British investment firm on Friday, the same day that a provincial official was arrested in relation to fraud charges the businessman was already facing, a court official ...

More than 50 villagers who collect bamboo and rattan in the forests of Kampot’s Teuk Chhou district called on Kampot provincial hall for intervention yesterday after their trucks were banned from the area. ...

Stung Treng province police are searching for suspects after authorities found more than six tonnes of luxury-grade timber buried near a remote home in Siem Pang district last week. ...

Three rights monitors filed an attempted murder lawsuit against a Mondulkiri land concessionaire employee on Wednesday, after he violently denied them access to an area under investigation for forest crimes, Adhoc said yesterday. The stand-off comes on the heels of a second potentially violent confrontation ...

More than 100 villagers from eight ethnic communities in Mondulkiri province on Friday symbolically burned two chainsaws allegedly used to illegally log community forest before delivering four others they had confiscated to the provincial forestry administration, participants and Adhoc said yesterday. ...

The number of people shot dead while illegally logging luxury wood in Thailand decreased significantly in 2013 compared to 2012, although a Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) official provided numbers much lower than provincial police officials, whose number also differed from human rights groups. Brigadier General ...

Seven police officers and an NGO staffer in Mondulkiri province escaped a potentially violent confrontation with illegal loggers on Wednesday, while a soldier who was accompanying the group claimed he received death threats from military police connected to the logging operation. Khleuv Krak, 40, a Royal ...

Villagers patrolling a protected community forest in Mondulkiri province yesterday morning found more than 100 logs of luxury timber, believed to be headed for Vietnam. ...

The Pursat Provincial Court on Tuesday charged three men with illegally clearing forest inside a protected wildlife sanctuary, and authorities are still searching for the man they were allegedly working for, officials said Wednesday. Provincial prosecutor Tan Seihak Dechak said the three charged men—Pak Im, 41, ...

In the latest series of arrests involving illegal logging on the Cambodian-Thai border, 21 Cambodians were picked up by Thai authorities on Friday while attempting to smuggle rosewood into Oddar Meanchey province, a rights group said yesterday. Srey Naren, provincial coordinator for rights groups Adhoc, ...

A crackdown on illegal logging in Mondulkiri has yielded more than 50 cubic metres of luxury wood found submerged in a canal and stashed throughout the forest. ...

A group of local journalists in Preah Vihear province allege, in a complaint filed with a rights group, that authorities are involved in the sale of illegally logged timber. Seven journalists, who asked that their names and respective outlets not be identified for fear of retribution ...

A coalition of NGOs yesterday implored Prime Minister Hun Sen to shelve the government’s plans for the Stung Cheay Areng hydropower dam in Koh Kong province and instead turn the wilderness area in question into an eco-tourism site. ...

The constant hum of chainsaws almost drowned out Buddhist monk Sam Kim Sath, 65, as he stood this week in a wildlife sanctuary on Oral Mountain, Cambodia’s highest peak. Forest in the Phnom Oral Wildlife Sanctuary, in the eastern part of the Cardamoms, is being “obliterated” ...

At least four people were injured, one seriously, after Thai soldiers shot them as they allegedly illegally logged the Thai side of the Preah Vihear border on Wednesday. The injured men were part of a group of eight from Preah Vihear province’s Choam Ksan district, provincial ...

Resettlement studies are being carried out at the site of the proposed Stung Cheay Areng hydropower dam in Koh Kong province, officials said yesterday, amid suggestions that yet another Chinese company is now involved in the controversial project.Tou Savuth, Thma Bang district governor, said staff ...

A house in Ratanakkiri owned by a provincial deputy police chief was raided on Saturday, yielding seven cubic metres of luxury timber. Ratanakkiri Provincial Court and Forestry Administration officials carried out the raid on the property where the deputy police chief is the landlord, but he ...

SAMBOR DISTRICT, Kratie Province – A sharply dressed usher in a crisp black shirt, black pants and a shiny black tie escorted guests to one of several bungalow-style, private booths at the Mloub Dong restaurant on a recent evening. While the privacy the restaurant offers is ...

The Forestry Administration on Thursday said it could not comment on the accuracy of new, satellite-generated maps that suggest the government has been vastly overstating the country’s forest cover. Open Development Cambodia, an open data website, on Wednesday published a series of maps using U.S. satellite ...

The Vietnamese embassy fired back yesterday at opposition party leader Sam Rainsy’s claim that Vietnamese companies granted economic land concessions in Prey Lang forest are turning the area into a Vietnamese “colony”. On Wednesday, Rainsy visited the forest and claimed that CRCK, a Vietnamese firm granted ...

Since 2011, an estimated 3,000 resin trees have been illegally razed by rogue loggers and a land concessionaire operating in Mondulkiri’s Sen Monorom district, villagers claimed yesterday. Resin trees are a vital source of income for the Phnong ethnic community in Sokdom commune, according to Thleuk ...

Credit Suisse, a financial services firm based in Switzerland, has been accused of aiding land grabbing in Cambodia by becoming a major shareholder in Vietnamese rubber giant Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) Group. In a statement released today, Global Witness (GW), an NGO based in England, ...

Cambodia’s opposition leader called Wednesday for a halt to land concessions granted by the government to foreign companies in the country’s vast Prey Lang Forest, calling for greater protection of one of Southeast Asia’s last remaining lowland evergreen woodlands. Cambodia National Rescue Party President Sam ...

LUMPHAT WILDLIFE SANCTUARY, Ratanakkiri Province – From behind the corrugated metal walls of Daun Penh Agrico’s wood depot, the raspy buzz of a chainsaw rattled through the surrounding forest on Monday afternoon. As the chainsaw revved and cut, a heavy-duty truck packed full of long, sawn ...