Environment and natural resources

The death toll from recent flooding continued to rise yesterday, with meteorology officials voicing concerns that floods in some parts of the country could rival the catastrophic ones of 1996, which claimed almost 170 lives and affected more than a million Cambodians nationwide. At least 25 ...

SAN FRANCISCO — The Oddar Meanchey REDD+ (Reduced Emissions for Deforestation and Degradation) project in Cambodia is the first in the world to complete verification of emission reductions under the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) with a triple gold Climate, Community and Biodiversity (CCB) accreditation for emission ...

Flooding across the country has now killed seven people, including four children, since water reached emergency levels in some areas on Friday, the National Disaster Management Committee (NDMC) said Monday. Flooding is affecting a total of seven provinces and authorities have already evacuated hundreds of families ...

Nearly 2,000 families have been evacuated from their homes and thousands of hectares of crops flooded in the wake of continuing rains and the opening of dams in Vietnam and Thailand. At least two people have died since Friday in the flooding, which has affected at ...

In the months leading up to Cambodia’s national election on July 28, authorities in the Angkor Archaeological Park allowed dozens of land owners to build new houses and develop plots of land inside highly protected areas of the world heritage site. Villagers interviewed last week said ...

Unicef during a discussion yesterday pressured the Phnom Penh Municipality to develop a plan to eradicate slums in the capital, but government officials offered no quick fixes. According to the municipality, there are 281 slum communities in the capital, which 2,033 families call home. Earlier this month, ...

The Siem Reap Provincial Court charged three men Wednesday with illegally logging luxury rosewood inside the Angkor Archaeological Park, a Unesco world heritage site, officials said. Provincial prosecutor Heng Pheng said the suspects had been identified as Sun Phearak, 20, Phay Sophea, 18, and Phin Ron, ...

The number of Ratanakkiri residents trapped in their homes by floodwater that continues to rise amid relentless rain is now estimated by provincial authorities to be at least 4,000. Heavy rain has put five Lumphat district communes – Lbaing I, Chey Uddom, Batang, Seda and Kaleng ...

A conservation group yesterday accused a military commander in Kampong Speu of smuggling two tonnes of illegally cut rosewood to Vietnam on Monday night. Chea Hean, director of the Natural Resources and Wildlife Preservation Organisation, said the commander had cut the timber in the protected Oral ...

Flash floods left hundreds of families trapped in their villages, destroyed properties and killed livestock in Ratanakkiri province’s Lumphat district Tuesday, officials said. Heavy rain had softened the walls of a canal, which gave way to the pressure, according to Khlem Sovann, chief of Lbaing I ...

KAMPONG SPEU PROVINCE— Three years ago, Pao had a farm and a charcoal stove near a stream in a community called Omlaing in western Cambodia. The farm gave her rice, charcoal sales gave her extra income and the nearby forest provided edible and medicinal plants. Pao ...

Four unidentified men were arrested yesterday for allegedly killing an endangered and pregnant gaur – a species of wild bovine – in a protected wildlife reserve in Mondulkiri province, provincial officials said. After villagers discovered the carcass on Wednesday, provincial authorities along with conservationists in charge ...

Civil society groups yesterday hit back at the government after a Ministry of Interior statement released on Wednesday warned NGOs that they would be breaking ministry protocols on political neutrality by “directly or indirectly” supporting an unnamed political party or its protests. The Cambodia National Rescue ...

Early on Monday morning, at about 1am, two trucks carrying roughly 10 cubic metres of illegally felled timber were bouncing down the road between Oddar Meanchey and Siem Reap. Police stopped the trucks – one of which bore military plates – and seized the haul, but ...

Jarai ethnic minority villagers in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadav district are demanding compensation from a villager they claim illegally cleared a sizeable portion of their community forest this year. The villagers seized two carts transporting rosewood – and the four buffaloes pulling them – out of the forest ...

City Hall has ordered all tourist boats and ferries operating on the Mekong and Tonle Bassac rivers to stock up on life jackets and prevent overloading as water levels continue to rise. “All drivers must turn lights on at night and all ferries must prepare ...

Diminishing populations of hoofed animals in Southeast Asia have hit Cambodia hard, with numbers of one of the Kingdom’s indigenous species dropping by 90 per cent. The current banteng census shows an 80 per cent drop in the world’s banteng population and a 90 per ...

A group of 12 ethnic minority villagers in Ratanakkiri province have filed a complaint with the provincial court over what they claim is collusion between other villagers and local authorities to illegally log luxury timber from 193 hectares of land inside a community forest. The Prov ...

Police and forestry officials in Siem Reap province discovered more than 10 cubic metres of illegally logged second-grade timber yesterday in two trucks, one of them bearing a Royal Cambodian Armed Forces licence plate. No arrests were made. Police were now looking into the origins ...

Rights group Adhoc will take a complaint filed against a commune police officer accused of colluding with illegal loggers in Ratanakkiri’s Lumphat district to the provincial court today. The complaint, which villagers in Lbaing II commune filed with Adhoc on Friday, alleges that commune police officer ...

One year ago today, Hang Serei Odom, a journalist in Ratanakkiri province, received a fateful phone call. After telling his wife he was going to meet a military police officer, he bid her goodnight. He left his house in Banlung City at about 7 p.m. ...

Provincial authorities in Siem Reap discovered a stockpile of rosewood weighing approximately 21 tonnes in Banteay Srei district on Wednesday afternoon. Tea Kimsoth, provincial Forestry Administration director, yesterday credited joint efforts made by the Forestry Administration and anti-economic crime police officials in discovering the wood stashed ...

Siem Reap’s provincial government apparatus, which in 2010 was relocated to a remote site 16 km outside of the city as part of an extensive and hugely controversial swap of government land and buildings, is moving back to its old home in the tourist city’s ...

Roughly 100 rubber farmers in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Chum district blocked National Road 78A on Wednesday, demanding that authorities take action against a pair of laborers they accuse of stealing resin from their land. The laborers—Math Las, 40, and his wife, Nos Yas, 38—who are reportedly employed ...