Environment and natural resources

Twenty-eight hard-shell turtles and eight snakes – weighing more than 50 kilograms – were seized from a minivan in Kampong Thom’s Kampong Svay district on Wednesday. ...

After almost five years of alleged illegal logging in Preah Vihear province’s Preah Rokar community forest by a local businessman, more than 100 villagers yesterday petitioned the provincial authorities to shut down his handicrafts company. The villagers say that the woodworking operation, owned by businessman Sar ...

The 21st century welcomed its first baby gibbon at Cambodia’s Angkor Archaeological Park, in a celebrated step towards the conservation of an endangered species. ...

Ethnic Lao and the local authorities in Stung Treng province’s Sesan district have accused the Srekor commune police chief of being a timber “gangster” and selling protected wood to tycoon Kith Meng, who has a stake in the nearby Lower Sesan II hydropower project. ...

About 150 ethnic Kuoy in Preah Vihear province on Tuesday prevented police and a court prosecutor from taking back a pair of bulldozers the villagers seized last year from a Chinese-owned plantation they accuse of encroaching on their farms. ...

The Ministry of Environment is close to finalising a draft environmental impact analysis (EIA) law for development projects, but NGOs and civil society groups raised concerns that the draft law, as it stands, prevents indigenous people who live on the land from opposing such projects. Speaking ...

As the Mekong Irrawaddy dolphin population steadily declines, conservation groups have voiced concern that the critically endangered species may be swimming toward extinction if drastic measures are not soon taken to protect them. The numbers tell a depressing tale: From 2011 to 2014, 23 dolphins were ...

Forest and community activists in a northwestern province in Cambodia have expressed concerns about illegal loggers who have started producing charcoal for export to Thailand,destroying protected areas of community forests in the process. ...

Between 40 and 80 tonnes of charcoal, made from trees logged inside protected areas of community forests in Battambang’s Samlot district, have been illegally exported to Thailand over the last year, an NGO officer said yesterday. ...

The European Union yesterday pledged an additional €6 million to the Cambodia Climate Change Alliance Programme, as the 10-year plan, first implemented in 2010, entered its second phase of development. ...

The government says it seized less rosewood from illegal loggers in Banteay Meanchey province in 2014 than the year before thanks to stricter enforcement, following a meeting Wednesday to review its anti-logging activities in the area. ...

The new director-general of the international environmental group WWF, Marco Lambertini, met Tuesday with Environment Minister Say Sam Al to raise concerns over development projects that could have harmful environmental impacts, and one in particular that could derail plans to reintroduce tigers to Cambodia. ...

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. ...