Environment and natural resources

Forestry Administration officers confiscated the hacked-up body of an illegally hunted sambar deer in Mondulkiri province on Sunday, though the poacher avoided arrest by escaping into the protected forest where the bust took place. ...

Military police in Kompong Chhnang province said they found 290 kg of rosewood in the back of an SUV with military license plates yesterday but failed to apprehend the driver, who escaped in a car that had been following his. ...

Four large trucks thought to be carrying illegal timber were stopped and impounded in Kampong Speu province by local authorities on Friday morning. ...

Heavy rains in Poipet town have yet to reach a “serious” level, according to the government, despite widespread flooding in recent days. ...

The fate of the last surviving Irrawaddy river dolphins on the Laos-Cambodian border hangs in the balance after a Laos government official was reported as saying this week that construction of the dam would begin by the end of the year.   ...

When the Lao national assembly last week approved a potentially destructive dam project just 2 kilometers from the border with Cambodia, the surprise announcement was yet another blow to the regional framework designed to protect the Mekong River.  ...

The release last week of camera-trap photos showing fishing cats prowling wetlands in Koh Kong and Preah Sihanouk provinces drew cheers from environmentalists as well as a note of caution – ensuring their survival will require plenty of work. ...

People are no longer denying that El Nino – a cyclical weather phenomenon that can cause severe drought – has arrived in Cambodia. ...

A Kampong Speu-based NGO has accused a police officer and several rangers working for the provincial Environment Department of seizing more than 100 hectares of Phnom Oral Wildlife Sanctuary, demanding a court order to restore the land and hold the parties to account. ...

Three accused illegal loggers have been placed in pre-trial detention in Ratanakkiri province, after authorities caught them on Sunday evening transporting nearly a tonne of rosewood.According to Ratanakkiri anti-economic crimes police chief Nov Dara, the men were caught in Kon Mom district driving two vehicles ...

The bottom line from the Food and Agriculture Organization’s 2015 assessment of global forest resources: The state of the world’s forests is better than it was.The U.N. agency released the report this week ahead of the 14th World Forestry Congress in Durban, South Africa. ...

Youths raised concerns about the potential environmental impact of petroleum discovery and use at a roundtable discuss on Saturday during which they debated with officials eager to continue searching and tapping into new energy resources. ...

Police and forestry officials in Kratie province have seized a truck and the illegally logged luxury-grade wood it had been ferrying through Snuol district after finding the vehicle overturned and abandoned on Saturday, officials said Sunday. ...

The role played by vultures in maintaining the environment by stripping the carcasses of dead animals was celebrated yesterday at an event in Preah Vihear province, where conservationists and officials pledged to do more to protect the species’ dwindling numbers. ...

As part of the country’s largest ever elephant survey, 1,300 dung samples have been collected in Mondolkiri province in an effort to ascertain how many of the pachyderms remain in the province and where they live. ...

The fish population in Cambodia’s Tonle Sap lake has declined significantly from a year ago, fishermen in the country’s Kampong Chhnang province said Friday, citing the construction of dams in the area and climate change, among other factors. ...

A forestry official in Mondulkiri province was surrounded by taxi drivers yesterday as they allegedly prevented him from tailing a suspected illegal timber dealer who was heading towards the Vietnam border. ...

Forest loss in Cambodia has accelerated faster than any other country in the world since 2001, according to a leading resource-monitoring initiative.Satellite data released by Global Forest Watch (GFW) suggest that Cambodia also has experienced the highest rate of tree-cover loss in the world over ...

Fishing cats are a rare species of predatory feline found in South and Southeast Asia. For decades, fishing cat populations have been in decline. The latest sightings were made possible by a remote cameras set up by researchers with Cambodia’s Center for Biodiversity Conservation ...

Hirakawa Zoo in southern Japan has confirmed it plans to send endangered white tigers to Teuk Chhou Zoo in Kampot province, despite deplorable conditions and evidence of psychological damage among the animals at the Cambodian zoo.A senior official from the Japanese zoo stated that the ...

Police in Kompong Thom province arrested two people on Saturday night when a group of about 30 villagers attempted to free their vehicles from Forestry Administration officials who had confiscated them, police said Sunday. ...

Asia has a unique opportunity to fight climate change and lift many more people out of poverty if it invests more in the communities living in its forests, experts said. ...

A new report on illegal logging in Cambodia’s northeastern forests portrays a single company with essentially a monopoly on the illicit trade. Tek Vannara, executive director of NGO Forum, said the report could be a tool to find a solution to combat deforestation. “We ...

Economic land concessions are having a huge impact on Cambodia’s northeastern forests, a new reports shows. Still, those who attended Wednesday’s seminar urged the government to do more to stop the practice. Based on calculations of the number of logging trucks counted leaving the ...