Environment and natural resources

Two men were arrested in Kompong Thom province on Tuesday after they drove their car to obstruct a team of officials in pursuit of a vehicle suspected of transporting illegally harvested luxury timber through Stung Sen City, police said. ...

After marching for Prey Lang forest, the Independent Monk Network for Social Justice now plans to station monks in the forest for two week anti-logging “patrols.” ...

A loacal NGO director and a village chief in Battambang’s Samlot district were summoned for questioning by district police today over a complaint filed by six loggers, who claim the men attempted to extort $6,000 from them under the threat of violence. ...

Farmers in Cambodia who depend on forest products for their livelihood face an uncertain future because of dwindling forests. ...

Ever since its designation as a UNESCO heritage site in 1992, the Angkor Archaeological Park has been a tourism magnet for the Kingdom. In the high season, it isn’t uncommon to see tuk-tuks, private taxis and busloads of tourists flooding the temple complex, causing traffic jams ...

CNRP lawmakers have written to Prime Minister Hun Sen asking him to stop the ongoing illegal logging of northeast Cambodia’s Virachey National Park, which they said they witnessed during a recent trip and blamed on businessmen An Mady and Try Pheap. ...

King Norodom Sihamoni will participate in a tree-planting event in Kampong Thom today, along with government officials and members of the public, as part of a nationwide celebration that aims to draw attention to conversation of Cambodia’s forests. ...

China’s state-owned dam builders are failing to keep their promises to protect the planet when developing hydropower projects abroad – increasing the threat of environmental and social problems, according to a new study by green group International Rivers. ...

Members of the ethnic Jarai community in Ratanakkiri’s Andong Meas district have lodged a complaint with the provincial court, demanding that it take legal action against four Vietnamese nationals and two Cambodian border officials for offences related to illegal logging. ...

Gunshots were fired in a tense standoff between two armed groups in Kampong Speu province’s Phnom Oral Wildlife Sanctuary last month, prompting a court investigation into what happened. ...

Around 100 activists, including Buddhist monks, gathered in front of Cambodia’s parliament Monday to demand that lawmakers and the country’s Forestry Administration take action against illegal logging in endangered Prey Lang forest. ...

A Japanese company, A2A Town (Cambodia), has submitted a request to the Cambodian Ministry of Environment to establish helicopter flights from Phnom Penh to Preah Soramrit Kossamak Kirirom National Park in Kampong Speu province.​​ ...

Forestry officials in Oddar Meanchey province on Wednesday discovered a timber processing plant and thousands of lengths of luxury-grade wood in a remote forested area populated only by soldiers, officials said Thursday. ...

Despite a minor car crash on the way to Preah Vihear yesterday, more than 100 environmental activist monks will today march into Prey Lang forest to ordain trees and promote environmental awareness. ...

Facing snares, hunters and deforestation, sun bears are in danger of being classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) – and deforestation is their main threat. ...

Policymakers and experts gathered at Can Tho city on Friday to discuss and propose an inter-provincial policy for the sustainable management of sediment in the Mekong Delta region.  About 126 companies currently have the licence to extract sand in the region, he said. ...

Representatives of a group known as Cambodia Youth Movement 157, which counts Defense Ministry officials among its leadership, on Sunday handed out money to eviction-threatened indigenous families in Koh Kong province’s Areng Valley on behalf of Hun Manet, the son of Prime Minister Hun Sen. ...

More than 100 monks from across the Kingdom will gather in Prey Lang forest on July 2 for four days before travelling to Phnom Penh to protest against illegal logging and other environmental threats to the forest, activist monk Venerable But Buntenh said. ...

A tiny species of frog that may be found only in Virachey National Park in Cambodia’s remote northeast was yesterday officially classified as endangered by a major international conservation group. ...

The logger’s teeth were smashed with the butt of a rifle and his friend fatally shot by a Thai paramilitary force formed to provide support to the Khmer Rouge. Chakrya*, 24, had ventured across the Dangrek Mountains in Cambodia’s far north to log Siamese rosewood, a ...

Hun Sen’s Cambodia has been shaped by the collection of illegal timber dollars, profiting a politically connected elite and in turn ensuring the ruling party’s grip on the state apparatus, a leading Australian researcher has said. Sarah Milne, a research fellow at the Australian National University, ...

Members of local conservation group the Forest Protection Community announced plans last week to use their own staff members to patrol an area of forest in Anlong Veng that could be decimated by illegal loggers within months. ...

The agriculture industry has lost its luster among industrial manufacturers and service providers. Tycoons are quietly withdrawing money from agriculture projects, just several years after pouring big money into the sector. Just a few years ago, Do Van Minh, Gemadept’s CEO, said that growing rubber ...

Military police in Ratanakkiri province working with the NGO Wildlife Alliance confiscated 40 kg of bushmeat from two vendors at a Banlung City market Thursday morning but let the women go with a warning. ...