Environment and natural resources

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. ...

Even comparatively small patches of human intrusion into contiguous forestland disproportionately saps forests’ ability to trap harmful carbon, a recent study has shown, a finding that suggests Cambodia’s government may be underestimating the environmental damage caused by logging and development.So-called “forest degradation” – unlike typical ...

A local investment company, Norkor Korkthlok company, owned by Oknha Sieng Nam, recently decided to stop investment on Preah Chey Varaman-Norodom National Park in Kulen Mountain and voluntarily return back to the government. ...

An endangered white-winged duck was scheduled to be released into the wild in Preah Vihear province yesterday, after being rescued earlier this month.​ ...

In the Kampong Phluk fishing village on the Tonle Sap lake, home to thousands of families in Siem Reap province, fishermen say their catch this year has been too poor to live on. Ning Ny, chief of Kampong Phluk commune, in Siem Reap, said almost ...

As airline passenger numbers in the country rocket, Cambodia has taken its first step toward greener air travel by earning the initial level of accreditation from a body that monitors the carbon footprint of airports. ...

A network of community activists protecting Prey Lang forest has appealed to the government to prevent all forms of intimidation against its members by courts, police and soldiers as well as local officials involved in the timber business. ...

The pool of climate finances available to Southeast Asia is set to expand following an announcement by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) that it plans to double its climate funding to the region by 2020 – a move welcomed by the Cambodian government and climate ...

The return of tigers to the Cambodian wild edged a little closer this week, as the wildlife charity spearheading the project sent a representative to India to see how numbers were boosted there and to discuss bringing big cats from the subcontinent to the Kingdom. ...

In the remote province of Ratanakiri, in northeastern Cambodia, deforestation and climate change are taking a heavy toll on communities.Drought has damaged crops, from rice to sesame, cashews, beans and potatoes, making it hard for farmers here to earn a living. And deforestation has greatly ...

Cambodia may seek tigers from India as it plans to reinstate the big cat in the Southeast Asian nation. The last tiger was sighted in Cambodia in 2007.Representatives from Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand participated in a two day study programme to understand the successful tiger ...

Over 200 people gathered on Friday from across Cambodia to join in a campaign against the construction of the Don Sahong Dam, which has been ongoing in the past month on one of the major channels of the Mekong at the Cambodia-Lao border. The campaign, ...