Forest almost gone: Adhoc
About 200 families from Mondulkiri’s Keo Seima district filed a complaint on Sunday against a Vietnamese-owned company alleged to have razed more than 3,500 hectares of community forest since 2010, villagers and a rights group said yesterday. A rubber concessionaire identified as Sovan Reachsey has been clearing swaths of forest in Sre Khtum commune, said Sok Ratha, a provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc. “The forest covers 3,500 hectares of land but the company has logged, cleared and burned down almost all of it for rubber trees,” Ratha said, adding that he and two other Adhoc officials had visited the area on Sunday only to discover that just 200 hectares of forest remains. Rights monitors are drafting a letter on the results of their own internal investigation with the intention of submitting it to provincial authorities today, he added. …
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/forest-almost-gone-adhoc
