Environment and natural resources

A government minister has sounded the death knell for Tonle Sap picturesque floating villages after outlining a long-term plan to rehome all those living on the lake. Agriculture Minister Veng Sakhon yesterday told Khmer Times he wants to relocate thousands of families living on the lake ...

South Korea will manage the replanting of trees on former economic land concessions—with an eye toward eventually entering Cambodia’s logging industry—under a tentative agreement between the two countries, Agriculture Minister Veng Sakhon said on Wednesday.   ...

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. ...

The Mondulkiri Provincial Court is preparing to investigate accusations that Cambodian border officials last month knowingly allowed seven Vietnamese loggers to illegally fell trees in the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary, a court official said yesterday. ...

Japan has signed a three-year deal to help train government officials on attracting environmentally friendly investment. The Environment Ministry and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) yesterday signed the agreement to educate officials about how to use environmental impact assessments and enforce pollution controls. ...

Seven Vietnamese nationals were arrested during a timber bust on Wednesday when Mondulkiri authorities intercepted eight trucks loaded with illegal timber in the Keo Seima protected area. ...

High-ranking Laos officials said on Wednesday that the proposed Pak Beng hydropower dam will not have a major impact on downstream communities, claiming that they would take time to study its potential impacts. ...

Members of Mekong River Commission and civil society groups will be heading to Luang Prabang in Laos to attend the regional stakeholder meeting on Wednesday to discuss Laos’ proposal to build a third dam on the Mekong mainstream, the Pak Beng. ...

Cambodian environmental groups on Friday asked the government to reject Laos’ 912-megawatt Pak Beng hydropower project, alarmed by the potential impacts on fisheries and sediment flow in the Mekong. ...

Try Pheap, director general of the Try Pheap Group and widely known for his extensive involvement in the kingdom’s timber trade, told a government news outlet yesterday that he has ended his involvement in the logging business and did not burn down a lumber warehouse ...

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. ...

The Council of Ministers on Friday gave the green light for construction of a transmission line from Koh Kong province’s Stung Tatai hydropower dam to Phnom Penh, raising concerns from conservationists who fear the impact of cutting through largely untouched forest areas in the Southern ...

Environmental organizations and civil society groups have expressed concern at plans to build another dam along the Mekong River in Laos and asked the Lao government to suspend the project due to the effects it will have on communities, water flow and fishery resources in ...

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, ...

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 ...

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. ...

Many cattle in Svay Rieng province’s Svay Chrum and Chantrea districts have fallen ill or died from foot-and-mouth and other diseases over the past few weeks, resulting in the launch of a cattle vaccination campaign. ...

Pursat environmental officials sent five suspects to the provincial court yesterday afternoon for allegedly attempting to farm on flooded forestland illegally, a provincial environmental officer said. ...

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. ...

Locals in Siem Reap province’s Kralanh district and Banteay Meanchey’s Preah Netr Preah district yesterday alleged that a sand-dredging company is polluting a river that straddles the two districts and stoking fears of bank collapse. ...

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. ...

Two hundred ethnic Phnong villagers in Mondulkiri’s Koh Nhek district launched a protest on Friday after the deputy district governor and an armed escort seized timber from their homes, before allegedly attempting to extort a bribe for its return. ...

Government officials say they are investigating the causes of two separate weekend fires in Mondolkiri province that reportedly burned through hundreds of high-value logs the government had sold to a businessman after confiscating them from a pair of rubber plantations. ...

The government has declared almost 1.5 million hectares as protected areas in a bid to enhance the sustainability of the ecology system and reduce the impact of climate change, according to a sub-decree signed on Thursday. The so-called Biodiversity Conservation Corridors cover a total of more ...