Forest products
Forestry Industry
Vietnam border sealed against loggers
Cambodia’s military police said yesterday that they have sealed the Vietnam border against wood transport following a major crackdown on two tycoons’ logging warehouses on Sunday. Local observers and experts, however, suggested the actions were little more than a hiccup for a long-tolerated illicit trade. ...
Mech Dara, Igor Kossov and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/vietnam-border-sealed-against-loggers
Tbong Khmum timber warehouses raide
Authorities yesterday raided several logging warehouses in the country’s east, just days after Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered a crackdown on illegal timber smuggling into Vietnam. ...
Mech Dara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/tbong-khmum-timber-warehouses-raided
Community sues border police over loggers
A group of villagers in Mondolkiri province filed a lawsuit this week against three local border police officers and a forestry official accusing them of allowing Vietnamese loggers to sneak across the nearby border and illegally log the forests they depend on for a living. ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/104780-104780/
Officials claim ignorance of illegal logging report by police
Police and government officials say they know nothing about a recent report published by the National Police accusing wealthy businessman Soeng Sam Ol of using government-approved economic land concessions in Mondolkiri province to illegally log a local wildlife sanctuary, but added that they would investigate ...
Aun Pheap and Zsombor Peter
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/officials-claim-ignorance-of-illegal-logging-report-by-police-104650/
Rosewood bust at Tbong Khmum pepper field
Officers from Tbong Khmum provincial police’s anti-economic crime unit yesterday seized 36 pieces of luxury rosewood timber dumped in a pepper field in Memot district’s Memot commune. ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rosewood-bust-tbong-khmum-pepper-field
Seized wood nears end of 120-km trip
After more than a week traveling along remote forest trails in eastern Mondolkiri province, police and forestry officials transporting 30 large pieces of valuable timber seized from Vietnamese loggers earlier this month are expected to reach the end of their 120-km journey today, an official ...
Saing Soenthrith
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/seized-wood-nears-end-of-120-km-trip-104078/
Rosewood exports down
In the first nine months of 2015, exports of Cambodian rosewood to China – the Kingdom’s largest market for the protected species – have declined by as much as 95 per cent compared with the same period last year, data released by NGO Forest Trends ...
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rosewood-exports-down
Stop harassing forest activists, gov’t told
A network of community activists protecting Prey Lang forest has appealed to the government to prevent all forms of intimidation against its members by courts, police and soldiers as well as local officials involved in the timber business. ...
May Titthara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/18714/stop-harassing-forest-activists--gov---t-told/
Thai border shooting injures two loggers
Thai soldiers opened fire on a group of 17 illegal loggers yesterday evening, wounding two, police said.The group had illegally crossed the border into Thailand in Oddar Meanchey province under cover of darkness when they encountered a Thai patrol, according to Brigadier General Men Leu, ...
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/thai-border-shooting-injures-two-loggers
Apsara acts on Koh Ker logging
The government’s Apsara authority will join forces with the Preah Vihear administration to establish a joint committee to prevent illegal logging and to manage state land in the protected areas around Koh Ker, officials said yesterday. ...
May Titthara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/18450/apsara-acts-on-koh-ker-logging/
Illegal loggers hard at work on Mondolkiri luxury timber
Authorities in Mondolkiri province seized three vehicles packed with illegally logged luxury timber at separate locations inside the Snuol Seima Biodiversity Conservation Area in the space of two hours Saturday night but failed to apprehend any of the drivers. ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/illegal-loggers-hard-at-work-on-mondolkiri-luxury-timber-101448/
Timber seizure nabs 30-plus cubic metres in Ratanakkiri
An estimated 30 to 40 cubic metres of protected luxury timber was intercepted in Ratanakkiri province on Wednesday night while being hauled to Vietnam, according to local officials. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/timber-seizure-nabs-30-plus-cubic-metres-ratanakkiri
Loggers return home after Thai prison time
Four Cambodians have been released and deported by the Thai authorities after they were detained for three months on charges of illegally entering the country to log rosewood, border officials announced yesterday. ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/loggers-return-home-after-thai-prison-time
Group of fifteen illegal loggers arrested in Thailand
A group of 15 Cambodians was arrested in Thailand on Tuesday for illegal logging in the country’s Sa Kaeo province, a Cambodian official said on Wednesday. ...
Saing Soenthrith
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/group-of-fifteen-illegal-loggers-arrested-in-thailand-100806/
Police chief abuses power, commune chief says
More than 200 villagers living on the fringe of a giant hydropower project in Stung Treng province are lobbying for their commune’s police chief to be removed, alleging that he habitually confiscates illegally logged wood from villagers on behalf of powerful business interests. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/police-chief-abuses-power-commune-chief-says-100217/
Forest patrol murder suspects charged with illegal logging
Six men suspected of involvement in the weekend murder of a local police officer and a forest ranger in Preah Vihear province were charged Wednesday with illegal logging, while authorities continue to search for evidence linking them to the double homicide, a court official said. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/forest-patrol-murder-suspects-charged-with-illegal-logging-100060/
Lull in battle for Battambang forest
Several weeks after villagers on the outskirts of a community forest in Battambang Province began clearing trees and seizing land, forestry administration officials say there has been a lull in deforestation. ...
James Reddick
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/17648/lull-in-battle-for-battambang-forest/
Police officer, official shot dead by illegal loggers
A police officer and a Forestry Administration official were shot dead by illegal loggers in Preah Vihear province early Saturday morning in an attack that also left a second officer injured, according to a local official who gave two different versions of the incident. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/police-officer-official-shot-dead-by-illegal-loggers-99694/
Ratanakkiri forest patrollers catch loggers
Members of the Jarai ethnic community in Ratanakkiri province turned to human rights NGO Adhoc for help yesterday after briefly detaining alleged illegal loggers. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ratanakkiri-forest-patrollers-catch-loggers
Reporters, police give wildly different accounts of border row
A border official and a reporter gave drastically different accounts Sunday of events that transpired after a group of journalists was blocked as they attempted to visit the Chambok border checkpoint in Banteay Meanchey province on Friday. ...
Vanful of luxury wood confiscated in Ratanakkiri after crash
Authorities in Ratanakkiri province said they confiscated a vanful of illegal luxury-grade timber on Wednesday after a van driver crashed into a motorbike on his way to the Vietnamese border with the wood, but let the driver go because he was injured. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/vanful-of-luxury-wood-confiscated-in-ratanakkiri-after-crash-98796/
Prey Lang patrol yields illegal loggers' chainsaws
During its latest round of patrols this week, the Prey Lang Community Network confiscated 12 chainsaws from alleged illegal loggers in Preah Vihear, which it plans to hand over to the local Forestry Administration. ...
Vong Sokheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/prey-lang-patrol-yields-illegal-loggers-chainsaws
Officials seize reptiles from smuggler; suspect flees
Customs officials in Kandal province Monday confiscated live snakes and turtles from a man attempting to smuggle the animals across the border into Vietnam, but failed to apprehend the suspect, who fled on foot, an official said. ...
Sek Odom
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/officials-seize-reptiles-from-smuggler-suspect-flees-97632/
Trafficked loggers returned from Thailand
Twenty-nine loggers were sent back to Cambodia from Thailand on Sunday after the group was arrested by Thai soldiers while logging rosewood across the border from Banteay Meanchey province, an official said Monday. ...
Saing Soenthrith
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/trafficked-loggers-returned-from-thailand-97617/