Environment and natural resources

Fishing communities around the Tonle Sap Lake have called on Laos to scrap a controversial Mekong hydropower project after the consultation period for the project ended this week. ...

Three men were sent to court yesterday for allegedly hauling more than 18 tonnes of illegally logged first-grade timber in Kampong Thom province. ...

Police have arrested three people and seized ten tonnes of thnong wood from a truck near the Thai border in Preah Vihear province.   ...

The first readings of the capital’s PM2.5 concentration, a major indicator of air quality, show that levels of the harmful particulates are “still low”, said Thiv Sophearith, chief of the Ministry of Environment’s Air Quality, Noise and Vibration Office, though an environmental specialist yesterday challenged ...

The Wildlife Conservation Society has made its first discovery of Siamese crocodile eggs on the Sre Ambel River in Koh Kong province in six years, it announced yesterday in a statement. ...

National Military Police spokesman Eng Hy said legal action is being “considered” after a news outlet published a report linking the force’s commander, Sao Sokha, to the illegal timber trade. ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday sentenced a Vietnamese  businesswoman, who stormed a forestry office to steal her seized timber, to two years imprisonment and a fine of $12,500. ...

Cambodia has been a vocal supporter of the BRI since the initiative’s conception in 2013. The BRI will offer a new framework of cooperation between Cambodia and her neighbours, through the increased connectivity that will arise in the region once the work on the improved ...

Kampong Chhnang provincial authorities on Saturday intercepted and seized a truck loaded with 300 kilograms of live snakes and tortoises, though the wildlife traders managed to escape, a provincial Forestry Administration official said yesterday.​ ...

A group of about 1,000 families living in Siem Reap province’s Phnom Kulen National Park will be relocated to prevent them from continuing an environmentally detrimental trend of clearing land, building homes, selling and repeating, the environment minister said on Thursday. ...

More than a month after confirming its investigation into new reports of rampant timber trafficking between Cambodia and Vietnam, the Environment Ministry remains tight-lipped about what—if any—progress it is making, but says the U.K. NGO that exposed the scale of the problem is itself being ...

According to the figures, Vietnam imported 21,670 cubic metres of sawn wood valued at $13.7 million in April, a 27 percent drop compared to February and an almost 50 percent decrease compared to March. ...

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) yesterday released 150 endangered Asian giant softshell turtles into the wild as part of a “community protection programme”, the organisation announced. Gathered from nests guarded by local communities, including former egg harvesters, the hatchlings were released into their natural habitat ...

The consultation process for the controversial proposed Pak Beng dam in Laos concluded on Monday, allowing construction to begin even as local and international civil society groups continued to urge a delay until a forthcoming Mekong River Commission (MRC) environmental assessment is released later this ...

The top military and police officials in Mondolkiri province have opened investigations into some of their soldiers and officers after a news story claimed they were involved in timber trafficking into Vietnam. ...

Local communities in the Tonle Sap Lake region have appealed to the Laos government to immediately put on hold plans to construct the Pak Beng hydropower dam. ...

The wife of the Srekor commune police chief in Stung Treng province has been charged and placed in pre-trial detention for possessing some 400 logs of luxury wood near the couple’s home. ...

The government body charged with managing the Angkor Archaeological Park on Monday started tearing down the first of more than 500 homes and shophouses illegally built within the park in the weeks before the June 4 commune elections. ...

A Vietnamese national reputed to be a prominent illegal timber trader is believed to have fled to her native country after the Oddar Meanchey provincial governor ordered her arrest last week. ...

Two farmers caught with dead monkeys in Mondolkiri province’s Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary have been charged with poaching endangered wildlife.   ...

About 30 villagers escorted two environmental activists from Kandal province’s Sa’ang district to the relative safety of Phnom Penh yesterday after the pair were allegedly harassed by local police for helping coordinate a protest against sand dredging in the area the day before. ...

Cambodia plans to have an ambitious environmental code adopted by the end of this year, according to a legal adviser with the law firm helping to write the legislation, though conservationists yesterday remained wary about how it would be implemented. ...

The increase in commercial dry-season rice cultivation in Cambodia’s Tonle Sap floodplain is threatening the survival of the critically endangered Bengal florican, a new study suggests. ...

In the first and only day of her trial yesterday, prominent alleged timber trader Heng Samnieng claimed that Military Police officers had tried to sell off pieces of timber confiscated by authorities in Stung Treng, where she was arrested in October while allegedly attempting to ...