Environment and natural resources

A series of quarterly reports from the National Bank of Cambodia raises questions about the government’s ban on timber exports, as they show that last year, more than $5 million in sawn timber was exported from the Kingdom. The latest report, released earlier this month ...

In two operations last week, Wildlife Alliance officials rescued three pangolins in Kampong Speu province and on Thursday arrested a banteng poacher alongside Military Police in the Cardamom Mountains. Following a two-week investigation into suspected wildlife traders, a team from the environmental NGO raided two ...

Authorities seized more than 200 kilograms of trafficked wildlife in two cases in Mondulkiri on Wednesday. Provincial Environment Department Director Keo Sopheak said four men on two motorbikes were arrested hauling 100 kilos of illegal wildlife meat out of Phnom Prich Wildlife Sanctuary. ...

The Chumnoab commune authority in Koh Kong province’s Thmar Baing district yesterday ordered Areng Valley residents to move their community office to a new location to make way for its new office. According to a letter released yesterday by Chumnoab commune, commune officials asked Areng residents ...

The Prey Lang Community Network has cancelled an annual Buddhist ceremony it holds each year to commemorate forests, preserve indigenous identity and promote the potential of the Prey Lang forest, citing bad weather and fear of being harassed by authorities. ...

Police in Kampong Cham province on Monday found a haul of 41 rosewood logs in a Lexus heading towards the Vietnamese border, while police in Stung Treng province discovered some 30 cubic metres of illegal timber on Sunday. No suspects were arrested in either case. ...

A Wildlife Conservation Society official yesterday expressed concern about the potential impact on birds, livestock and humans after a poisoned pond was found in a conservation area in Preah Vihear province’s Chheb district. ...

Students in Kampong Thom and Siem Reap provinces last week learned that protecting wildlife can be beneficial to both local communities and the environment at a workshop hosted by the Wildlife Conservation Society. ...

Two protected wildlife sanctuaries – Snuol Wildlife Sanctuary in Kratie province and Roneam Daun Sam Wildlife Sanctuary in Battambang and Banteay Meanchey provinces – have been dissolved under a royal decree, with at least one conservationist on Sunday saying the move illustrated the government’s failure ...

Stung Treng provincial environmental officials on Sunday confiscated two excavators that were inside the Anlong Phe Wildlife Sanctuary and will send the case to court, according to an official. Eng Phirong, director of the provincial Environmental Department, said he received a report from villagers in ...

Sesan dam holdouts from Kbal Romeas and Srekor villages have gone on the offensive, demanding compensation for destroyed rice fields and new homes on their ancestral land. Both villages were flooded following the inauguration of the China-backed Lower Sesan II Dam in September. While some accepted ...

The World Bank said in a recent report that Cambodia is among 12 countries in East Asia and the Asia-Pacific that are vulnerable to rising sea levels which could lead to the loss of land and force millions of people to relocate. ...

Ratanakkiri provincial authorities yesterday denied accusations by a group of villagers that the authority of O’Yadav and Andong Meas districts hired ethnic minority villagers to cut the forest along the Cambodia-Vietnam border. ...

The Cambodian government has reclaimed 13 hectares of protected mangrove forest in Koh Kong province, which were illegally sold off to a tycoon and partially filled with sand, though nobody involved in the sale will be sent to court. According to an announcement from the ...

An ethnic Phnong community near Mondulkiri’s Sen Monorom town on Monday claimed that at least 80 hectares of forestland, which they have long depended on for their livelihoods, were covertly sold, with local authorities allegedly signing off on the sale. While the Phnong villagers from ...

Twenty villages in Mondulkiri province are set to receive at least $10,000 each as a result of the $2.6 million carbon credit purchase by the Walt Disney Company in 2016, under a scheme meant to protect the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary, officials said yesterday.​This would ...

Authorities in Siem Reap province on Monday stopped the clearing of protected wetlands within the Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve, halting the work of a team that had already cleared one hectare of flooded forest.The authorities found nine vehicles, including bulldozers, excavators and trucks, and seven ...

An Irrawaddy dolphin was found dead on Saturday in Stung Treng province, near the border of Laos’ Don Sahong region, where Lao authorities are constructing a hydropower dam. Environmental activist Chum Huot said yesterday that villagers in the Preah Rumkel community found the dead dolphin and ...

Environment NGO Mother Nature on Saturday debuted a new video about threatened mangroves in Koh Kong province featuring an unlikely spokesperson, or rather, spokes-puppet. The video is about a plot of mangrove forest inside the Peam Krasaop Wildlife Sanctuary that was illegally filled in with sand, ...

The Ministry of Environment will soon collaborate with some NGOs to host a Bird Photos Fair for the first time at Wat Phnom in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district in order to increase public awareness and understanding of Cambodian bird species. ...

New resorts, restaurants and casinos could be coming to Bokor National Park after environment officials endorsed an “improved” plan for the mountain along with oknha Sok Kong’s hotel company, according to the government’s news agency. ...

Six nests of the critically endangered white-shouldered ibis have been found in the northern plains of Preah Vihear province. According to a statement from the Wildlife Conservation Society yesterday, the nests were found in Tmatbouy village in the Kulen Promtep Wildlife Sanctuary. ...

Grown in floods and thriving without pesticides, floating rice offers Cambodia a sustainable alternative for its eco-friendly food production amid threats from climate change. ...

Cambodia’s forests are being felled at a shocking rate, as poachers and corrupt officials profit from the black market trade in rare wood species, which is being exported to Vietnam — and beyond. Loggers are illegally felling rare and valuable trees to sell in China and Europe, ...