Environment and natural resources

Deep in the forest, about an hour from Stung Treng’s provincial capital through a rough and difficult road, just over half of the houses in an ethnic minority village have been tagged with bright orange spray paint saying, “LSS2”. According to a 2010 environmental impact ...

The Korea Forest Service on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding with Cambodia to prevent deforestation and degradation in the Southeast Asian country, government officials said Thursday. Under the MOU, the two countries will cooperate on United Nations-led REDD+ programs ― standing for Reducing Emissions from ...

Phom Penh was selected on Wednesday as one of 35 cities joining a $100 million “resiliency” program meant to strengthen urban centres’ abilities to respond to shocks and stresses, including climate change, natural disasters, pollution and resource scarcity. “The intense growth occurring and projected for ...

ANGKOR GOLD CORP. (ANK) (“ANGKOR” or “ANGKOR GOLD”) announces that approval from Cambodia’s Ministry of Mines and Energy has been received to proceed with an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) on Cambodia’s first royalty-generating gold mine at Phum Syarung. The total area of 12 sq km ...

A python escaped from the house of a government official and is on the loose in the Cambodian capital, a local newspaper reported Monday. It is the second such serpent to escape from the Phnom Penh home of Nhim Vanda, the first vice chairman of Cambodia’s ...

High prices and lax law enforcement have created a booming transnational trade in otter skins, where the endangered mammals are hunted in the wild to be sold on to buyers in neighbouring countries, according to a new report. ...

Citing Cambodia’s vulnerability to climate change, civil society groups have called for global responses to the issue as the United Nations prepares for its annual climate change convention in Lima, Peru. ...

A 25-year-old police officer in Mondulkiri’s Sen Monorom commune was killed in a car crash while transporting timber to sell in a nearby district on Sunday, police and authorities confirmed yesterday. Un Sokim was driving a Toyota Camry sedan loaded with timber to Keo Seima district ...

Despite one success story emerging in the trade of Cambodia-generated carbon credits, immediate prospects for the environmental trading scheme in Kingdom remain few. Securing buyers of carbon credits for Cambodian projects is a well-known difficulty. Pact, however, left the project in July 2013 when the ...

Phnom Penh’s only working elephant was blessed by a crowd of chanting Buddhist monks on Tuesday (Nov 25) as she prepared for a life of comfortable jungle retirement after three decades of giving rides to tourists. Sambo’s new home will be an ecotourism venture – ...

A group of conservationists in Kratie province submitted on Friday a formal request asking Defence Minister Tea Banh to discipline two Kratie-based military commanders. They accuse the officers of profiting from illegal logging and threatening to kill an activist should he continue his work. ...

Four Ministers have been summoned to answer orally to members of the National Assembly’s third and seventh commissions this month over their position fulfillment. ...

Forestry Administration officials in Mondulkiri province are on the lookout for illegal loggers, after finding 130 pieces of luxury-grade timber in Koh Nhek district. The find comes on the heels of 3,221 pieces of timber found in Mondulkiri’s Pech Chreada district last month. ...

Opposition CNRP lawmaker Pol Ham on Monday said he will visit the site of a proposed hydropower dam in Koh Kong province on Monday with colleagues from his parliamentary commission before they quiz government officials about the controversial project later this month. If built, the 108-megawatt ...

Members of a conservation group in Kampong Thom province stopped a van carrying illegal timber on Sunday night only to be threatened by a man claiming to be the nephew of a powerful National Assembly parliamentarian. The van was driving with no licence plate and was ...

Authorities in Stung Treng province confiscated more than 100 pieces of illegal luxury-grade wood stockpiled on the bank of the Mekong River Saturday, officials said Sunday. ...

Nine sun bear cubs have been rescued in the first 10 months of this year, according to the Phnom Penh office of NGO Wildlife Alliance. The cubs, some as young as two weeks, were saved by government rangers and the NGO’s Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team (WRRT), ...

Police and Forestry Administration officials in Banteay Meanchey province confiscated more than 120 pieces of illegally logged luxury-grade wood in two separate operations on Tuesday and Wednesday, officials said Thursday. In one case, authorities on Wednesday found 75 pieces of beng and thnong wood inside a ...

A new wetland protected area may be implemented in Battambang province following talks between scientists, Asian governments and conservation groups held in Siem Reap this week. The message seems to have been heard, at least by the Ministry of Environment, which yesterday said it would ...

Cambodia plans to open bids for concessions on 19 onshore oil and gas exploration blocks to promote investment in the sector, a senior official at the country’s Ministry of Mines and Energy said on Wednesday. The Southeast Asian country is also keen to talk with international ...

Villagers in Banteay Meanchey province’s Malai district have complained that a politically connected firm owned by one of the country’s most influential businessmen has flooded their homes. ...

Mirach Energy Ltd. announced Monday that its associate company, CPHL (Cambodia) Company Limited (the Company), has received the approval from the Ministry of Environment in Cambodia for the Initial Environmental Social Impact Assessment Report (IESIA) report for drilling in offshore Cambodia (Block D). ...

Construction of the Xayaburi dam on the Mekong River in Laos is almost half finished, the developer behind it has said. ...

Ethnic Tumpoun residents from Ratanakkiri’s Banlung district sent petitions to authorities yesterday to protest plans to erect a Buddha statue at Yeak Loam Lake, saying it will bring bad luck to their villages. ...