Environment and natural resources

National parks and other protected areas are being gutted at a rapid rate in Stung Treng and Ratanakkiri by private business interests, among them the powerful Try Pheap Group, a report launched yesterday claims, though authorities have disputed certain figures.The report, titled Logs and Patronage: ...

Two elephants living at Kampot province’s notoriously grim Teuk Chhou Zoo are set to be swapped for endangered species with a zoo in Japan, despite deep concern among experts over the suitability of the trade.Teuk Chhou owner Nhim Vanda yesterday said elephants Kiri and Seila ...

Land concessions for large-scale agricultural plantations are stripping off Cambodia’s forest cover, according to a new report by Forest Trends, a U.S.-based environmental protection group.​ ...

Rangers patrolling the Samlot Protected Area in the provinces of Battambang and Pailin say a 34-hectare section of the jungle is being cleared by villagers with impunity from local authorities. ...

Police on Sunday released six Cambodian men who were arrested in Oddar Meanchey province the night before with a load of rosewood they had logged in Thailand and carried back across the border, an official said. ...

The Prey Lang Community Network yesterday reported uncovering more than 2,000 cases of forestry crime so far this year in Prey Lang forest, where they say corrupt elites are decimating protected reserves with impunity. ...

Authorities in Ratanakkiri’s Banlung town cracked down on a luxury timber storage facility over the weekend, confiscating two trucks and hundreds of pieces of illegal timber, a court official said yesterday. ...

Forestry Administration officials detained two military police officers and a third man on Tuesday for attempting to stop them from transporting a haul of illegally logged wood to their headquarters in Kratie City, officials said Sunday. ...

The Foreign Affairs Ministry is looking into a Thai media report that seven Cambodian illegal loggers were involved in a gunfight with Thai soldiers Thursday that culminated in one Cambodian suffering serious injuries and all of the suspects being arrested, a ministry spokesman said. ...

The Angkor Wildlife Release Project successfully released a third group of primates into the Angkor Archaeological Park earlier this summer. An enclosure for two species of deer is now under construction. ...

Sustainability of a project means ensuring that the project’s goals, activities and benefits continue even after the official completion of the project. Sustainability is central for all development projects, but it is particularly important for climate change adaptation projects. The reason is twofold. ...

The Environment Ministry in cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) yesterday launched a $5 million, five-year plan to mitigate the effects of climate change on rural communities in four Cambodian provinces. ...

Forestry officials confiscated 13 cubic meters of illegally logged timber in Stung Treng City on Saturday after discovering the wood hidden in a pond and the surrounding underbrush, an official said Sunday. ...

Considered a nuisance throughout much of Cambodia, the long-tailed macaque might not seem like a species in need of protection. ...

Cambodian wildlife officials have released a pair of Asian gibbons into the forests near Angkor Wat, seeking to spread their population.The rare gibbons have been the subject of a protection program between the government and Wildlife Alliance since 2009. ...

Authorities in Mondolkiri province arrested three men Wednesday morning after discovering nearly 150 kg of illegal bushmeat in the vehicle they were driving, a forestry official said. ...

NGOs yesterday called on the government to make funds for combating the effects of climate change available to local governments, rather than concentrating them at the national level. ...

The Cambodian Red Cross has donated $20,000 to help flood victims in Myanmar. ...

Police from Takeo province came under fire in neighboring Kampot province early Sunday morning as they pursued a truck transporting a load of luxury wood while four other cars tried to protect the truck carrying the timber, according to officials, who said police managed to ...

The head of the Forestry Administration’s Mondolkiri cantonment said Monday that he had accused one man over an August 1 incident in which military police freed the drivers of four trucks transporting illegally logged timber from the custody of anti-economic crime police and escaped with ...

Police in Kratie province say they are searching for the driver of a truck who had been transporting illegally logged timber through Snuol district early Saturday morning when it overturned and burst into flames. ...

As deforestation in Cambodia’s forests has grown in recent years, more and more citizens have come together to fight against it. Now, a group of 300 people are going to campaign for awareness about the destruction of Prey Lang, the largest evergreen forest in the ...

Phnom Penh’s ever-growing garbage problem is not going away, but on Friday its scope became clearer as the Asia Foundation presented two years of research into the city’s present and future solid waste generation, along with suggestions on how to cope with the mess. ...

The government could be forced to shell out more than $120 million [≈ Finance industry 2011 political donations] to build new landfills over the next decade unless it invests in preventing Phnom Penh’s current site from reaching capacity, according to a pair of new reports. ...