Environment and natural resources

Hundreds of logs of timber, including luxury wood, as well as sawmill camps were torched at a controversial Vietnamese-owned economic land concession in Mondulkiri province’s Keo Seima district in an apparent bid to destroy evidence of illegal logging ahead of a raid by a new ...

Water bird numbers are making a big comeback in the Prek Toal conservation area on the Tonle Sap lake in Battambang province, the Wildlife Conservation Society said in a report released on Saturday. ...

Cambodia’s National Police have joined the fray in an ongoing crackdown against illegal logging, starting their own “mission group” following the creation of a military police task force last week. ...

In a move to crack down on future illegal logging, the government has created a special Commission, led by human rights group Adhoc, which will review and cancel any licenses of companies that violate forestry laws. ...

Authorities from the government’s new anti-logging task force swooped into Stung Treng yesterday and inspected timber stockpiles belonging to the Kingdom’s most prominent logging magnate, Try Pheap, who has been accused of reaping immense profits from the clear-cutting of Cambodian forests for years. ...

Military police investigated two warehouses in Kratie and Mondulkiri provinces yesterday amid a crackdown on illegal logging in eastern Cambodia. As police continue to raid warehouses and tighten security along the Vietnamese border, illegal logging and the sale of luxury wood has ground to a ...

Cambodia’s military police said yesterday that they have sealed the Vietnam border against wood transport following a major crackdown on two tycoons’ logging warehouses on Sunday. Local observers and experts, however, suggested the actions were little more than a hiccup for a long-tolerated illicit trade. ...

Authorities yesterday raided several logging warehouses in the country’s east, just days after Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered a crackdown on illegal timber smuggling into Vietnam. ...

A herd of at least 12 endangered Asian elephants, including young, has been caught grazing and roaming around the Cambodia’s largest protected forest in a remarkable camera trap footage, according to the Conservation International’s statement seen on Saturday.   ...

With the threat of climate change, a long-lasting drought, and contentious dam construction in Laos, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) has its work cut out for the rest of the year. Composed of delegates from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, the MRC is in charge ...

A Kandal province businessman yesterday denied involvement in illegal land transactions after villagers in Khsach Kandal district last week alleged he illegally bought and filled parts of a seasonal lake used for communal fishing and farming. ...

Municipal officials said yesterday that they would take steps to combat what they said was the unlawful occupation of portions of Boeung Trabek lake, which the city hopes to clear out to restore its ability to hold rainwater and reduce flooding. ...

Scientists warn that plans to build dams across Tonlé Sap, south-east Asia’s greatest lake, could be an ecological timebomb threatening the food security of millions. In a few months’ time, monsoon rains will more than quadruple the size of Cambodia’s Tonlé Sap, south-east Asia’s greatest lake ...

A group of villagers in Mondolkiri province filed a lawsuit this week against three local border police officers and a forestry official accusing them of allowing Vietnamese loggers to sneak across the nearby border and illegally log the forests they depend on for a living. ...

Police and government officials say they know nothing about a recent report published by the National Police accusing wealthy businessman Soeng Sam Ol of using government-approved economic land concessions in Mondolkiri province to illegally log a local wildlife sanctuary, but added that they would investigate ...

Officers from Tbong Khmum provincial police’s anti-economic crime unit yesterday seized 36 pieces of luxury rosewood timber dumped in a pepper field in Memot district’s Memot commune. ...

After more than a week traveling along remote forest trails in eastern Mondolkiri province, police and forestry officials transporting 30 large pieces of valuable timber seized from Vietnamese loggers earlier this month are expected to reach the end of their 120-km journey today, an official ...

Local authorities say they are struggling to protect the Mondulkiri Protected Forest and the Phnom Prich Wildlife Sanctuary from being logged by villagers in the province’s Koh Nhek and Pech Chreada districts, while villagers accuse authorities of colluding with certain logging groups. ...

In the first nine months of 2015, exports of Cambodian rosewood to China – the Kingdom’s largest market for the protected species – have declined by as much as 95 per cent compared with the same period last year, data released by NGO Forest Trends ...

Officials in Kampong Speu province have accused a man of illegally clearing dozens of hectares of land in the Phnom Oral Wildlife Sanctuary to grow sugarcane. ...

Civil society and government representatives met at the Royal University of Phnom Penh yesterday to discuss how both sides can cooperate to formulate climate change policies that fulfill the Kingdom’s treaty obligations in the wake of the historic climate accord reached in Paris earlier this ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has called environmental activists objecting to the construction of hydropower dams in Cambodia “extreme” insisting that such developments would benefit millions of people.His remarks came on Wednesday during the inauguration of a dam located on the Tatay river in Koh Kong ...

More than 100 youth and civil servant from relevant institutions took part in a training course this morning on Climate Change for Youth, where the Environment Minister encourage youth to participate in solving issues in relation to climate change at Preah Sihanouk province. ...

The country is headed for a prolonged dry spell for the first half of next year as the El Nino weather phenomenon hits hard, the government warned yesterday, urging people to put water conservation plans into effect now. ...