Environment and natural resources

Three environment officials in Mondulkiri province are being sued by ethnic minority villagers for allegedly using a permit to build two ranger stations as a pretence to illegally log more than 4,000 cubic metres of luxury wood. ...

Environment officials in Ratanakkiri have over the past 10 days confiscated more than 500 pieces of valuable Sokrom wood found stockpiled throughout the province’s Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary by illegal loggers, officials said Sunday. ...

New articles may be added to a draft law on disaster management, including punishments for officials who break the law. The current draft includes prison sentences and small fines for people who, for example, enter restricted areas during a disaster. ...

Cambodia had spent approximately 30 million U.S. dollars on disaster control in 2014, Nhim Vanda, the first vice-president of the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM), said Thursday. ...

Cambodia is particularly at risk from man-made climate change due to its dependence on agriculture and its geography, Minister of Environment Say Sam Al said yesterday. The minister, speaking at a workshop marking 20 years of meetings on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said ...

Two people were injured and more than 60 homes left damaged after freak storms swept through Preah Vihear and Banteay Meanchey provinces over the weekend. ...

Satellite images suggest tropical forests from the Amazon to the Philippines are disappearing at a far more rapid pace than previously thought, a University of Maryland team of forest researchers say. Tropical Asia showed the second largest increase in deforestation with 0.8 million hectares (about ...

The Koh Koh Provincial Court has summoned an environmental activist living in the Areng Valley for questioning over allegations that he felled trees in a forest in order to build a community center, rights workers said Sunday. ...

Villagers in Stung Treng province displeased local authorities on Saturday by holding a traditional ceremony calling upon a powerful local spirit to curse those behind the construction of the Lower Sesan 2 dam. ...

In the heart of the Areng Valley, on the edges of the rolling Cardamom Mountains, an old Bodhi tree pierces the thick green canopy. At its base, nestled in between its hanging roots, sits a ramshackle altar of tin and timber for the spirit of ...

Authorities in Kratie province moved to stop a convoy of trucks belonging to tycoon Try Pheap overloaded with first-grade timber on Sunday, but were only able to pull over five of the vehicles, which were found to be carrying nearly double the amount of cargo ...

The economic impact of climate change in Cambodia could be highly damaging to rural areas and worker productivity, according to a report from American development agency USAID, which applied climate projections for 2050 to today’s Mekong Basin economies. ...

Referring to Cambodia as “my country”, Alex Gonzalez-Davidson, a vocal environmental activist and Spanish national who was deported Monday, yesterday vowed to return and continue his struggle to save the Areng Valley. ...

Falling crop yields, damage to infrastructure and heat-related illnesses brought on by climate change could cost the four Southeast Asian countries of the lower Mekong River basin $34 billion per year, researchers say. A report released on Monday found that climate change could cost Cambodia, ...

An immigration official said Sunday that his department would wait for orders before moving to deport environmental activist Alex Gonzalez-Davidson, whose visa the government refused to renew after it expired Friday. ...

Thailand’s army has asked Cambodia “not to jump [to] the conclusion” that its soldiers were to blame for the deaths of three Cambodian loggers who were shot dead earlier this month while searching for rosewood across the border, according to Thai media. ...

The Ministry of Interior on Wednesday said it was standing by its decision to not renew the visa of outspoken environmental activist Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson in the face of mounting pressure from fellow activists, NGOs, unions, students and monks—even opposition leader Sam Rainsy—to reverse course. ...

An excavator operator clearing a patch of land in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district had a surprise run-in on Friday with six pythons, which broke cover as his machine moved onto their wetland habitat, according to a local official. ...

A group of university students from Phnom Penh opposed to a proposed hydropower dam in Koh Kong province entered the project’s construction site on Sunday for a 10-day study aiming to highlight the area’s alternative potential for ecotourism. ...

After Thai soldiers last week shot and killed three Cambodians who entered Thailand to log luxury-grade rosewood, a district governor in Preah Vihear province thought it would be an appropriate time to warn locals of the dangers of crossing the border. ...

More than a dozen opposition party officials have accused Thailand of encouraging extrajudicial killings of Cambodians along the border. In a strongly worded letter sent to Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha on Monday, the Cambodia National Rescue Party MPs asked for an independent investigation into an ...

More than a dozen opposition party officials have accused Thailand of encouraging extrajudicial killings of Cambodians along the border. In a strongly worded letter sent to Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha on Monday, the Cambodia National Rescue Party MPs asked for an independent investigation into an ...

Thai soldiers shot and killed three Cambodian loggers and seriously injured a fourth last week after the group illegally crossed into Thailand from Preah Vihear province in search of valuable timber, officials said Wednesday. ...

The government’s apparent unwillingness to take seriously evidence of continued large-scale illegal logging orchestrated by the Try Pheap Group is “disappointing”, Global Witness said yesterday. A report released last week by the UK-based group titled The Cost of Luxury detailed evidence, collected during an eight-month covert ...