Forestry Industry

Forestry officials arrested four men and confiscated two pickup trucks containing illegally logged luxury timber en route to Vietnam on Sunday in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadav district before releasing both the men and the timber after fining them thousands of dollars, officers and a rights group representative ...

A deputy district military police chief in Kampong Thom’s Santuk district is under scrutiny for allegedly clearing up to seven hectares of community forest land for personal gain, and district officials are investigating the case with the aim of presenting it at the provincial court ...

Military police and local forestry officials in Stung Treng province confiscated more than 90 pieces of luxury-grade Thnong wood from a private farm on Sunday, but only after the suspected owner escaped, according to officials. Provincial court prosecutor Chroeng Khmao said a joint force of military ...

Nearly two years have passed since Cambodia’s leading forestry activist, Chut Wutty, was gunned down in the Cardamom Mountains. After a long wait, more than 100 activists, supporters and monks will finally make the pilgrimage on Saturday to the spot where he was killed to pay ...

The Club of Cambodian Journalists has condemned the alleged beating by military police of three journalists while were covering illegal logging and called for the government to open an investigation and take legal action. In a statement published on Friday, the CCJ voiced its concern for ...

The Club of Cambodian Journalists (CCJ) released a statement on Friday expressing concern over three recent cases of reporters facing harassment while attempting to document illegal logging in Preah Vihear, Pursat and Kompong Cham provinces. Sorn Mongkul, a reporter for Kampuchea Thmey newspaper based in Preah ...

The scale of mass logging in once-dense woodlands in Cambodia’s north now more closely resembles the free-for-all of a gold rush than the sustainable forestry more often associated with these communities. With the financial backing of powerful businessmen, villagers in three districts of Preah Vihear are ...

The governor of Ratanakkiri province’s Lumphat district will face arrest if he fails to appear for a second summons to Ratanakkiri Provincial Court to answer questions about his alleged involvement in the illegal logging of protected land around the Ou’Sinlair waterfall, the court said yesterday. The ...

A man was seriously injured on Saturday by an anti-personnel landmine that exploded under him as he tried to sneak across the Thai-Cambodian border to illegally log rosewood, local officials said. [O’Smach commune chief] Mr. [Phang] Sam Ath said the border area where the men ...

Smugglers sank two boats filled with illegally logged rosewood into Koh Kong’s Sre Ambel River as they shook off pursuing rangers from Wildlife Alliance on March 22, the NGO has said. An anonymous informant tipped off rangers in Sre Ambel district to the boats, allegedly filled ...

Siem Reap Provincial Court on Wednesday charged four soldiers from the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) with illegally logging rosewood and placed them in pre-trial detention, an official said. “We charged them under article 96 of the Forestry Law,” said Hok Pov, an investigating judge at ...

While Cambodian officials say the Thais have not responded to a request for an inquiry into the shooting death of a man they say illegally crossed the border, Thailand is denying the incident even occurred. Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs last month called for an investigation ...

Police raided a guesthouse in Poipet City on Monday and arrested 23 men as they waited to be paid for illegally logging rosewood across Cambodia’s border with Thailand, police officials said. Um Sophal, Poipet City police chief, said the men were arrested Monday following a tip-off ...

Ethnic Jarai villagers in Ratanakkiri province have once again accused the Vietnamese owners of a rubber plantation of illegally logging their ancestral forests in a complaint filed with rights group Adhoc. A district official, however, said the plantation owner, Company 72, was granted an extension on ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen’s brother Hun Neng and a Vietnamese state-owned rubber firm are involved in an illegal logging cartel involving several well-connected companies operating on a “massive scale” in the embattled Prey Lang forest, forest monitors working in the area allege. Video footage and photographs ...

A company in Mondulkiri’s Sok San commune has been gradually cutting down a community forest, pushing more than 100 families off their land, villagers said yesterday. “That land belongs to us, the government granted it to us in 1999. But the company invaded and let us ...

A forest patrol in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadav district spotted five loggers clearing the community’s ancestral forest on Tuesday, villagers and rights group Adhoc said yesterday. Adhoc provincial coordinator Chhay Thy said that three representatives of nearly 200 ethnic Jarai families in Pak Nhai commune asked for help ...

The director of the Lumphat district forestry department in Ratanakkiri province was charged and put in pre-trial detention on Monday for allegedly logging on protected land around Ou’Sinlair waterfall, police and court officials revealed yesterday. Deputy Police Chief Klol Thoeun said that Meung Bunthin was picked ...

For three days last week, the Preah Roka forest in Preah Vihear province was silent, the usual cacophony of chainsaws notably absent. The buzz of trucks arriving empty and later leaving heavily loaded with timber had been replaced by ethnic Kuoy villagers, about 300 in all, ...

Three Cambodian illegal loggers arrested more than a year ago in Thailand were released by the Thai authorities yesterday, and returned to their home country, officials said. ...

Logging by Vietnamese-owned concessionaire Company 72 has once again spilled the boundaries of its land in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadav district, this time without paying proper taxes to the Forestry Administration (FA), local forest conservation activist Romas Svang said yesterday. ...

Members of six ethnic communities in Mondulkiri’s Sen Monorom town yesterday accused local authorities of blocking their efforts to protect community and wildlife sanctuary forests, where they say luxury timbers are logged by Villas Development, a company co-owned by the wife of Mondulkiri Deputy Governor ...

The Mondolkiri Provincial Court on Tuesday charged 15 Vietnamese nationals with illegally crossing the border and logging protected forest, four days after the group was de­tained by members of the ethnic Bunong minority in a community forest 20 km from the border. Ya Narin, director of ...

The Kratie Provincial Court on Sunday charged three villagers with illegally clearing community forest, and six more for clearing state-owned land, officials said Monday. The three people were arrested in Snoul district’s Khyoem commune and accused of clearing protected forest while the other six were arrested ...