Forests and forestry
Forest cover
Illegal lumber trade stalled as two more warehouses raided
Military police investigated two warehouses in Kratie and Mondulkiri provinces yesterday amid a crackdown on illegal logging in eastern Cambodia. As police continue to raid warehouses and tighten security along the Vietnamese border, illegal logging and the sale of luxury wood has ground to a ...
May Titthara and And Jonathan Cox
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/20147/illegal-lumber-trade-stalled-as-two-more-warehouses-raided/
‘Edge effects’ harming forests
Even comparatively small patches of human intrusion into contiguous forestland disproportionately saps forests’ ability to trap harmful carbon, a recent study has shown, a finding that suggests Cambodia’s government may be underestimating the environmental damage caused by logging and development.So-called “forest degradation” – unlike typical ...
Igor Kossov
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/edge-effects-harming-forests
Soldier, 9 others jailed in Cambodia logging-patrol killings
Ten people, including a soldier, have been arrested over the murders of a forest ranger and a policeman who were investigating illegal logging in Cambodia, officials said on Friday. In the last few decades a surge in illegal logging has contributed to a sharp drop ...
AFP News Staff
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/764356/soldier-9-others-jailed-in-cambodia-logging-patrol-killings
Despite growing body of evidence, officials reject deforestation claims
Cambodian officials have defended the government’s record on the forestry sector, despite the publication this year of several substantive reports alleging that deforestation is accelerating due to policy failures. In response, Sophalleth echoed previous comments by the prime minister, insisting that once deforested land is ...
Aun Chhengpor
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/despite-growing-body-of-evidence-officials-reject-deforestation-claims/3018682.html
FAO: World's forests faring better
The bottom line from the Food and Agriculture Organization’s 2015 assessment of global forest resources: The state of the world’s forests is better than it was.The U.N. agency released the report this week ahead of the 14th World Forestry Congress in Durban, South Africa. ...
Joe DeCapua
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/fao-says-world-forests-faring-better/2950891.html
Cambodia logs top spot
Forest loss in Cambodia has accelerated faster than any other country in the world since 2001, according to a leading resource-monitoring initiative.Satellite data released by Global Forest Watch (GFW) suggest that Cambodia also has experienced the highest rate of tree-cover loss in the world over ...
Ethan Harfenist
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cambodia-logs-top-spot
In northeast, one company controls nearly all illegal logging: Report
A new report on illegal logging in Cambodia’s northeastern forests portrays a single company with essentially a monopoly on the illicit trade. Tek Vannara, executive director of NGO Forum, said the report could be a tool to find a solution to combat deforestation. “We ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/in-northeast-one-company-controls-nearly-all-illegal-logging-report/2934773.html
New report shows huge loss of Cambodia’s forest
Economic land concessions are having a huge impact on Cambodia’s northeastern forests, a new reports shows. Still, those who attended Wednesday’s seminar urged the government to do more to stop the practice. Based on calculations of the number of logging trucks counted leaving the ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/new-report-shows-huge-loss-of-cambodia-forest/2933337.html
New report shows huge loss of Cambodia’s forest
Economic land concessions are having a huge impact on Cambodia’s northeastern forests, a new reports shows. Still, those who attended Wednesday’s seminar urged the government to do more to stop the practice. Based on calculations of the number of logging trucks counted leaving the ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/new-report-shows-huge-loss-of-cambodia-forest/2933337.html
Land concessions responsible for large-scale deforestation in Cambodia
Land concessions for large-scale agricultural plantations are stripping off Cambodia’s forest cover, according to a new report by Forest Trends, a U.S.-based environmental protection group. ...
Morgan Erickson-Davis
http://news.mongabay.com/2015/08/land-concessions-responsible-for-large-scale-deforestation-in-cambodia/
Alarm over 'timber grab' from Cambodia's protected forests
The analysis, from campaign group Forest Trends, says that large corporations are using legitimate development permits to illegally clear land.Around 2,000 sq km of forests are being lost every year, they say. ...
Matt McGrath
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33702814
Pheap’s pledge sought
A forest peoples’ network has appealed to tycoon Try Pheap to issue a written commitment to put a halt to his companies’ deforestation activities after he told the Post last week that his logging days are over. ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pheaps-pledge-sought
Forest products threatened by land grabbing and logging
Farmers in Cambodia who depend on forest products for their livelihood face an uncertain future because of dwindling forests. ...
T. Mohan
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/13212/forest-products-threatened-by-land-grabbing-and-logging/
Lawmakers accuse tycoons of illegal logging
CNRP lawmakers have written to Prime Minister Hun Sen asking him to stop the ongoing illegal logging of northeast Cambodia’s Virachey National Park, which they said they witnessed during a recent trip and blamed on businessmen An Mady and Try Pheap. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/lawmakers-accuse-tycoons-of-illegal-logging-87808/
Cambodian activists, monks urge lawmakers to save endangered forest
Around 100 activists, including Buddhist monks, gathered in front of Cambodia’s parliament Monday to demand that lawmakers and the country’s Forestry Administration take action against illegal logging in endangered Prey Lang forest. ...
Prach Chev
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/forest-07062015163702.html
Cambodian villagers demand raid on illegal saw mills, protection from loggers
A group of indigenous villagers in northeastern Cambodia’s Stung Treng province called on local forestry officials Wednesday to crackdown on illegal saw mills and to provide them with protection after they received death threats from unsanctioned loggers of luxury timber. ...
Men Sothy
http://bit.ly/1IGh6eM
Satellite data suggests forest loss is accelerating
Satellite images suggest tropical forests from the Amazon to the Philippines are disappearing at a far more rapid pace than previously thought, a University of Maryland team of forest researchers say. Tropical Asia showed the second largest increase in deforestation with 0.8 million hectares (about ...
Kyle Plantz
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/03/02/us-forest-satellites-idUKKBN0LY1M720150302
New maps show heavy deforestation in 2013
Newly released maps using U.S. satellite data show that Cambodia continued to suffer major deforestation in 2013, much of it in nominally protected forests and wildlife sanctuaries. In November 2013, the University of Maryland released what it said was the first study to combine a consistent ...
Zsombor Peter
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/new-maps-show-heavy-deforestation-in-2013-76239/
Ministry vows to take some ELC land back
Amid promises reiterated by the government yesterday that it will take a tougher stance on economic land concessions, logging tycoon Try Pheap minimally reduced his sweeping natural resource empire, returning more than 20,000 hectares of undeveloped forestry. It was unclear what kind of arrangement prompted Pheap ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ministry-vows-take-some-elc-land-back
Companies regrow ‘forests’
More than 100,000 hectares of forest have been replanted across the country since 2008, according to a government report – but about 90 per cent of that amount can be chalked up to private plantations. Produced by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the report, ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/companies-regrow-%E2%80%98forests%E2%80%99
EU gives park protection
A huge area of Ratanakkiri province’s Virachey National Park has been declared a protected area under a European Union-funded plan that government officials say will shift forest communities away from dependence on depleted forest byproducts. Chhay Samith, head of protected natural areas at the Ministry of ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/eu-gives-park-protection
Cities, provinces ordered to report on illegal logging, fishing
In yet another attempt to stem the looting of Cambodia’s forests, lakes and rivers, the Interior Ministry has given all cities and provinces until July 20 to submit detailed reports on all the illegal logging and fishing taking place in their jurisdictions. The latest initiative comes ...
Bunong vow to act against Mondolkiri loggers
Ethnic Bunong in Mondolkiri province’s Sen Monorom City said Tuesday that they would no longer cooperate with local officials in fighting illegal logging and that they would begin to confiscate loggers’ equipment and burn illicit timber themselves. At a press conference in Phnom Penh, representatives of ...
Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/bunong-vow-to-act-against-mondolkiri-loggers-62960/
Living on a dwindling trade
In Samrong Leu village, a picturesque community nestled deep in the verdant fields of Kors Kralor district, the acrid smell of smoke fills the air. Outside almost every house in this community, billows of smoke continuously emerge from the domes of homemade mud kilns, drifting around ...
Kevin Ponniah and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/living-dwindling-trade