Environment and natural resources

Following an unusually high number of drownings in coastal areas in the past month, the Ministry of Tourism has instructed the tourism departments in coastal provinces to continue to collaborate with relevant authorities to ensure safety, public order and cleanliness. A statement released by Minister of ...

The government said this week it wanted to increase by at least 30 percent the number of forest rangers working next year in Cambodia’s wildlife sanctuaries, national parks and other protected areas to guard against encroaching logging, poaching and farming. ...

The high-pitched whine of chainsaws drowned out the sound of birds and bugs you usually hear during any trek through Prey Lang forest. What was once an area full of animals scurrying under the shade of gargantuan trees is now largely populated by stumps and ash. The ...

As a way to possibly boost funding for environmental protection in the Kingdom, Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday floated the idea of an extra tax on cigarettes and alcohol. Speaking at a forum on the protection and conservation of natural resources in Phnom Penh, the prime ...

Billed as a Cambodian first, the invitation of 500 civil society and community representatives to a forum on environmental issues with Prime Minister Hun Sen proved largely a platform for the premier to hold forth on policy and politics, with many observers bemoaning the sidelining ...

With a mixture of hope and hard-earned scepticism, environmentalists from around the country will today get an opportunity most had never dreamed possible: an audience with the prime minister. About 500 civil society activists have been invited to Phnom Penh for the first National Forum ...

A letter sent to authorities in Siem Reap province on Monday by nine park rangers accusing two senior environment officials of involvement in illegally cutting down six trees for profit was dismissed as a lie by one of the accused yesterday, who instead insisted it ...

The US Army Corp of Engineers is providing Cambodia with new tools to understand its growing groundwater shortage. Last week, the Ministry of Environment, US Army Corp of Engineers and National Council for Sustainable Development hosted a three-day technical exchange on groundwater modelling. ...

Officials confiscated nearly 5 tonnes of rosewood and resin tree timber in Siem Reap and Preah Vihear provinces on Sunday in separate incidents. ...

The next round of USAID funding for protection of the Prey Lang forest will be preceded by a consultation process that environmentalists and experts studying the area are calling crucial. ...

Authorities seized more than 30 cubic metres of luxury timber and roughly 1,000 kilograms of illegal rosewood in separate raids in three provinces over the weekend. Chea Hean, head of the Natural Resource and Wildlife Preservation Organization, said he and Pursat environmental officials confiscated and burned ...

To celebrate World Elephant Day today, the conservation group Wildlife Alliance (WA) celebrated its achievement of zero poaching of the Cardamom Rainforest’s Asian elephant population in the last decade, according to a press release on Wednesday. ...

The government sold off more than 10,000 cubic meters of illegally logged wood in direct negotiations with private businessmen over the past two days, according to a Finance Ministry official, after abandoning efforts to auction it off due to a lack of interest. ...

Cambodia’s first large-scale private-sector sale of carbon credits was finalised yesterday, with conservationists predicting that it could pave the way for more public-private partnerships, making millions of dollars of funding available for local carbon-based initiatives. US entertainment giant Walt Disney Company has officially purchased $2.6 ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng informed European Ambassador George Edgar on Tuesday that plans to construct a controversial road and border checkpoint that would have cut straight through the Mondolkiri Protected Forest had been suspended. ...

The Rattanakiri provincial court will hear a case against provincial officials brought by rights group Adhoc on Wednesday, which accuses them of failing to prevent illegal logging in Lumphat district. ...

The environmental protection group WWF has criticized the penalty imposed on three brothers arrested in Mondolkiri province over the weekend for filling the trunk of a car with turtles, lizards, snakes, a monkey and a civet—all of them meant to be food for a party. ...

Cambodia has announced it will shutter the office of the inter-governmental Mekong River Commission in Phnom Penh, relocating its functions to neighboring Laos. ...

The government on Monday auctioned off the first lot of timber from roughly 70,000 cubic meters of illegally logged wood seized by authorities earlier this year, after a lack of interest forced more than a month of cancellations. ...

Rangers from the Sre Pok Wildlife Sanctuary in Mondulkiri province intercepted two men and a minor allegedly smuggling more than 50 wild animals on Saturday evening, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Koh Nhek district police. ...

Some 100 pieces of luxury wood believed to be from the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary area were seized at the house of a military officer near the Vietnamese border on Friday, officials said yesterday. ...

More than $85 million worth of timber was exported from Cambodia to Vietnam during the first half of the year, according to Vietnamese customs data, despite a blanket ban Cambodia has placed on all timber exports to its eastern neighbor. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered his officials to revoke the licenses of any investment and construction firms found doing little or nothing with the islands or land they said they would develop. ...

Evidence that a deadly pesticide is being used to kill wildlife at watering holes in two provinces has raised fears of widespread poisoning that could jeopardize biodiversity and the health of rural communities, according to a new report.   ...