Environment and natural resources
Villagers make plea over crocs
A group of villagers from Koh Kong’s Areng Valley gathered outside the offices of Flora & Fauna International (FFI) in Phnom Penh yesterday, demanding a say in a project designed to relocate endangered Siamese crocodiles from the site of the planned Stung Cheay Areng dam. ...
Phak Seangly and Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/villagers-make-plea-over-crocs
Python peddler arrested
Police in Kandal province’s Koh Thom district seized a shipment of live pythons en route to market in Vietnam on Friday, arresting the accused smuggler and turning the snakes over to conservation group Wildlife Alliance, police said yesterday. ...
Kim Sarom
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/python-peddler-arrested
Man injured by landmine while illegally logging
A man was seriously injured on Saturday by an anti-personnel landmine that exploded under him as he tried to sneak across the Thai-Cambodian border to illegally log rosewood, local officials said. [O’Smach commune chief] Mr. [Phang] Sam Ath said the border area where the men ...
Saing Soenthrith
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/man-injured-by-landmine-while-illegally-logging-55854/
Weekend storms take heavy toll
A weekend storm surge that saw torrential downpours hit the capital had far more dire consequences outside of Phnom Penh, where hundreds of families were affected and at least one man was killed. At least 675 homes in eight provinces were damaged in sudden thunderstorms that ...
Khoun Leakhana
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/weekend-storms-take-heavy-toll
Activists dismayed at mekong summit outcome
Environmentalists have expressed disappointment at the outcome of the second Mekong River Commission (MRC) summit, which wrapped up yesterday. International Rivers, an environmental and human rights organisation, yesterday released a statement slamming regional leaders’ failure to address concerns over the proliferation of dams on the mainstream ...
Bangkok Post News Staff
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/403657/activists-dismayed-at-mekong-summit-outcome
Cambodian PM flies to Vietnam for Mekong River Commission Summit
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen flew Friday to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to attend the second Summit of the Mekong River Commission (MRC), which will be held on Saturday. The premier was accompanied by Minister of Water Resources and Meteorology Lim Kean Hor, Environment Minister ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-04/04/c_133238058.htm
Cambodia to call for moratorium on Laos' dam during MRC summit
Cambodia will probably call for a moratorium on the Laos’ 260-megawatt Don Sahong dam development project on the lower Mekong River during the second Summit of the Mekong River Commission (MRC), to be held on April 4 and 5 in Ho Chi Minh City of ...
Xinhuanet news Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-04/04/c_133238376.htm
Ethnic group petitions UN to halt Areng dam
The Areng Chorng ethnic minority group yesterday submitted five petitions – addressed to the UN office in Cambodia and four government institutions – seeking a halt to the Sinohydro dam project in Koh Kong province. After blocking Sinohydro from entering the dam site in the Areng ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ethnic-group-petitions-un-halt-areng-dam
Licadho data ‘not real’: gov’t
The government yesterday accused Licadho of producing wildly misleading figures on land grabs, following the rights group’s announcement earlier this week that land conflicts in Cambodia have affected more than half a million people since 2000. Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Sar Sovan, secretary of ...
May Titthara and Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/licadho-data-%E2%80%98not-real%E2%80%99-gov%E2%80%99t
Eco groups slam Areng dam
Two major conservation groups yesterday said that the proposed Stung Cheay Areng dam in Koh Kong province should be scrapped, while protesters who have blocked developer Sinohydro Group from entering the site for several days headed to Phnom Penh to voice their concerns and discontent. Conservation ...
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/eco-groups-slam-areng-dam
Intervention urged for dam
In anticipation of a regional summit this weekend, government officials and civil society have their sights locked on a controversial hydropower development just across the Cambodian border in Laos. NGO Forum submitted an open letter yesterday urging Prime Minister Hun Sen to confront Laos about its ...
Laignee Barron and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/intervention-urged-dam
Smugglers’ boats sink in timber chase
Smugglers sank two boats filled with illegally logged rosewood into Koh Kong’s Sre Ambel River as they shook off pursuing rangers from Wildlife Alliance on March 22, the NGO has said. An anonymous informant tipped off rangers in Sre Ambel district to the boats, allegedly filled ...
Amelia Woodside and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/smugglers%E2%80%99-boats-sink-timber-chase
RCAF soldiers charged for smuggling Rosewood
Siem Reap Provincial Court on Wednesday charged four soldiers from the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) with illegally logging rosewood and placed them in pre-trial detention, an official said. “We charged them under article 96 of the Forestry Law,” said Hok Pov, an investigating judge at ...
Saing Soenthrith
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/rcaf-soldiers-charged-for-smuggling-rosewood-55656/
‘Fatal shooting’ did not happen, Thailand says
While Cambodian officials say the Thais have not responded to a request for an inquiry into the shooting death of a man they say illegally crossed the border, Thailand is denying the incident even occurred. Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs last month called for an investigation ...
Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98fatal-shooting%E2%80%99-did-not-happen-thailand-says
Two Killed, 73 Houses Destroyed by Lightning in Northwest
Officials said two people were killed on Tuesday by separate lightning strikes in Pailin and Kompong Cham provinces as the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology issued a warning about seasonal storms spreading across the country. Searing temperatures and the approach of wet season ignited the ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/two-killed-73-houses-destroyed-by-lightning-in-northwest-55648/
Ministry issues storm warning
In the wake of two deaths from separate lightning strikes this week, the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology issued a notice yesterday warning against potentially devastating storms lasting from today until Sunday. ...
Khoun Leakhana
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ministry-issues-storm-warning
Python skin origins unclear
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on Monday warned that allegedly farmed python skins originating from Cambodia could in fact have been harvested in the wild, and called for surveys to determine the scale and impact of possible python hunting in the ...
Stuart White
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/python-skin-origins-unclear
Police arrest 23 illegal loggers, issue warnings
Police raided a guesthouse in Poipet City on Monday and arrested 23 men as they waited to be paid for illegally logging rosewood across Cambodia’s border with Thailand, police officials said. Um Sophal, Poipet City police chief, said the men were arrested Monday following a tip-off ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/police-arrest-23-illegal-loggers-issue-warnings-55554/
Crane makes itself at home
A growing number of red-headed Sarus cranes are reportedly flocking west from Vietnam to a protected sanctuary in Kampot province’s Kampong Trach district, and conservationists observing the trend aren’t sure why. The Tuoitrenews website reported on Saturday that unusually large numbers of the birds, which are classified as ...
Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/crane-makes-itself-home
Company 72 again accused of illegal logging
Ethnic Jarai villagers in Ratanakkiri province have once again accused the Vietnamese owners of a rubber plantation of illegally logging their ancestral forests in a complaint filed with rights group Adhoc. A district official, however, said the plantation owner, Company 72, was granted an extension on ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/company-72-again-accused-of-illegal-logging-55399/
Authorities halt march against Lao dam, citing Khmer New Year
Kompong Cham authorities blocked several hundred activists from marching Monday to raise awareness about the environmental dangers raised by Don Sahong dam, officials and activists said. Kompong Cham provincial governor Lun Limthai confirmed that he banned the campaign. “We did not allow them to hold this ...
Khuon Narim and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/authorities-halt-march-against-lao-dam-citing-khmer-new-year-55385/
Big logging cartel alleged
Prime Minister Hun Sen’s brother Hun Neng and a Vietnamese state-owned rubber firm are involved in an illegal logging cartel involving several well-connected companies operating on a “massive scale” in the embattled Prey Lang forest, forest monitors working in the area allege. Video footage and photographs ...
May Titthara and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/big-logging-cartel-alleged
NGOs issue one more plea to stop Xayaburi
With time running short before Laos’s Xayaburi hydropower dam enters its final, potentially irreversible stages of construction, a group of NGOs has made another call for its suspension. In a joint declaration released today, 39 organisations based in Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Australia set a one-year ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ngos-issue-one-more-plea-stop-xayaburi
Hundreds protest Laos dam
Yin Vuth, one of hundreds of Cambodians who protested against the Don Sahong dam over the weekend, said that if construction on the project in Laos goes ahead, the fish will disappear, and once the fish disappear, the dolphins will be next. “All we will have ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/hundreds-protest-laos-dam