Environment and natural resources

Phnom Penh Municipality has warned the public to expect prolonged traffic disturbances around O’Russei market in Prampi Makara district after construction began in the area Monday as part of the ongoing Japan-funded drainage project, a statement from City Hall said. The public has been asked for ...

More than 200 families filed a complaint with the Preah Vihear provincial court yesterday against two employees of logging tycoon Try Pheap who allegedly cleared 15 hectares of community forest late last year before being stopped by villagers. Huon Kino, 39, a representative of the 203 ...

Four of six men arrested on Thursday for allegedly clearing more than three hectares of protected forest within Mondulkiri’s Seima Biodiversity Conservation Area were charged on Saturday, court officials and rights monitors said yesterday. Sou Sovichea, provincial deputy prosecutor, confirmed yesterday that the four suspects charged ...

Cambodia is changing fast. Over the past decade, the capital city, Phnom Penh has expanded exponentially: its bodies of water have been filled in and green spaces diminished. Rural to urban migration has changed the shape of the countryside. Great shifts are under way and ...

Authorities in Kratie and Stung Treng provinces on Thursday said that they were investigating an unusual change of color in the Mekong River to a muddy, dark brown that was unnatural for this time of the year and was worrying residents. Since the beginning of this ...

A Japanese national is being accused by a Preah Sihanouk farmer of shooting him over a logging dispute in Kampong Seila district, the alleged victim and a rights monitor said yesterday. Kanha Phan, 32, is alleging that Peter Ly, 39, shot him in the waist after ...

Villagers living in Mondulkiri’s Sen Monorom district are demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation for the loss of thousands of protected resin trees, alleging that a land concessionaire company has been illegally razing community forest since 2012.​ ...

Ten land activists are set to be questioned today by Preah Vihear provincial court over their involvement in halting the drilling of a well in a community forest in November last year, rights monitors said yesterday. Lor Chhan, provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc, told the Post the ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Tuesday that the Southeast Asian nation has no ambition to develop a nuclear power plant, but wants to use nuclear technologies in agriculture, health, and animal breeds. The prime minister made the remarks during a meeting with Yukiya Amano, director ...

The Banteay Meanchey Provincial Court laid fresh charges of money laundering on the detained chairman of an embattled British investment firm on Friday, the same day that a provincial official was arrested in relation to fraud charges the businessman was already facing, a court official ...

More than 50 villagers who collect bamboo and rattan in the forests of Kampot’s Teuk Chhou district called on Kampot provincial hall for intervention yesterday after their trucks were banned from the area. ...

Stung Treng province police are searching for suspects after authorities found more than six tonnes of luxury-grade timber buried near a remote home in Siem Pang district last week. ...

Three rights monitors filed an attempted murder lawsuit against a Mondulkiri land concessionaire employee on Wednesday, after he violently denied them access to an area under investigation for forest crimes, Adhoc said yesterday. The stand-off comes on the heels of a second potentially violent confrontation ...

More than 100 villagers from eight ethnic communities in Mondulkiri province on Friday symbolically burned two chainsaws allegedly used to illegally log community forest before delivering four others they had confiscated to the provincial forestry administration, participants and Adhoc said yesterday. ...

The number of people shot dead while illegally logging luxury wood in Thailand decreased significantly in 2013 compared to 2012, although a Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) official provided numbers much lower than provincial police officials, whose number also differed from human rights groups. Brigadier General ...

Seven police officers and an NGO staffer in Mondulkiri province escaped a potentially violent confrontation with illegal loggers on Wednesday, while a soldier who was accompanying the group claimed he received death threats from military police connected to the logging operation. Khleuv Krak, 40, a Royal ...

Villagers patrolling a protected community forest in Mondulkiri province yesterday morning found more than 100 logs of luxury timber, believed to be headed for Vietnam. ...

The Pursat Provincial Court on Tuesday charged three men with illegally clearing forest inside a protected wildlife sanctuary, and authorities are still searching for the man they were allegedly working for, officials said Wednesday. Provincial prosecutor Tan Seihak Dechak said the three charged men—Pak Im, 41, ...

The number of foreign and local tourists who spent time in Cambodia’s coastal destinations increased in 2013, according to provincial officials in Preah Sihanouk, Kampot, Kep and Koh Kong provinces. Foreign visits swelled to 302,325, a 42 per cent rise compared with the same period ...

In the latest series of arrests involving illegal logging on the Cambodian-Thai border, 21 Cambodians were picked up by Thai authorities on Friday while attempting to smuggle rosewood into Oddar Meanchey province, a rights group said yesterday. Srey Naren, provincial coordinator for rights groups Adhoc, ...

A crackdown on illegal logging in Mondulkiri has yielded more than 50 cubic metres of luxury wood found submerged in a canal and stashed throughout the forest. ...

A group of local journalists in Preah Vihear province allege, in a complaint filed with a rights group, that authorities are involved in the sale of illegally logged timber. Seven journalists, who asked that their names and respective outlets not be identified for fear of retribution ...

The Ministry of Water Resources impounded five barges in Kandal province on Saturday for flouting a government ban on sand dredging on the Mekong River, an official said Sunday. Chan Youttha, cabinet chief for Water Resources Minister Lim Kean Hor, said the minister personally led a ...

A coalition of NGOs yesterday implored Prime Minister Hun Sen to shelve the government’s plans for the Stung Cheay Areng hydropower dam in Koh Kong province and instead turn the wilderness area in question into an eco-tourism site. ...