Ministries and other national bodies
Ministry of Environment
Plastic waste to be put to good use
A Japanese firm, Gomi Recycle 110, plans to invest in a factory in Svay Rieng province to recycle plastic waste into finished products for local markets. Yusuke Okumura, director of Gomi, met with Cambodia’s Minister of Environment Say Samal on Tuesday seeking support from the government ...
May Kunmakara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/27468/plastic-waste-to-be-put-to-good-use/
Returned UDG evictees want double the land
The 529 families who in 2010 traded their homes inside a $3.8 billion Chinese development project in Koh Kong province for land about 20 km away have petitioned local authorities to double the size of their replacement plots, officials said on Wednesday. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/returned-udg-evictees-want-double-land-115129/
Rosewood exports undercut UN protections
Cambodia exported hundreds of millions of dollars worth of threatened Siamese rosewood in the 18 months after ratifying a 2013 international protocol designed to protect the species from destructive trade, according to a report released on Friday. ...
Ben Paviour
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/rosewood-exports-undercut-un-protections-114612/
Fee proposed on plastic bags
The government has proposed slugging shoppers 500 riel for plastic bags in a bid to reduce environmental pollution. A draft prakas on plastic bags that would include the fee was reviewed yesterday in a Department of Environment workshop attended by government representatives along with mall and ...
Kong Meta
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/fee-proposed-plastic-bags
Government sets dates for auction of final lots of seized timber
The government has set the dates to auction off the last of the 71,000 cubic meters of illegally logged timber seized by authorities this year, carrying on a practice riddled with signs of corruption in the past. ...
Minister claims logging has ended
Environment Minister Say Samal claims Cambodia has put an end to illegal logging and timber exports to Vietnam, despite reports of continued, and even rising, levels of forest clearing and timber being transported to the Kingdom’s neighbor. ...
May Titthara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/25786/minister-claims-logging-has-ended/
Government will start chipping away at protected areas
Between 2009 and 2012, the Ministry of Environment went on nationwide leasing spree, signing over vast swaths of the country’s nominally protected areas to private companies for rubber plantations and other agribusiness ventures. ...
Zsombor Peter and Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-will-start-chipping-away-at-protected-areas-113127/
Koh Kong families reach agreement with UDG
About 100 additional families have accepted compensation packages from Union Development Group (UDG) to relocate and make way for the massive development project the Chinese firm is building along the coast of Koh Kong province, according to the Environment Ministry. ...
Khuon Narim
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/koh-kong-families-reach-agreement-with-udg-112713/
Nearly six million hectares to be protected
Minister of Environment Say Sam Al has sent a letter to the Minister of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction asking to register nearly six million hectares of land as protected under the Ministry of the Environment. ...
May Titthara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/24932/nearly-six-million-hectares-to-be-protected/
Preah Vihear excluded from protection plan
The Ministry of Environment conducted a workshop yesterday to discuss the government’s plan to designate five forest areas, totaling about one million hectares of land, as protected. ...
May Titthara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/24212/preah-vihear-excluded-from-protection-plan/
Green light for protected forest plans
The Ministry of Environment has given two NGOs the go-ahead to implement their proposed management plans for five protected community forest areas in Battambang and Pursat provinces, projected to cover 1,064 families and 2,761 hectares. ...
Kong Meta
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/green-light-protected-forest-plans
In Phnom Penh, a looming sewage crisis
Renderings of Casa Meridian, a new condominium complex, suggest that its wealthy buyers are investing in a glistening 414-unit skyscraper overlooking a placid, ocean-blue body of water surrounding Koh Pich island, which is sprouting a number of luxury towers developed by the Overseas Cambodian Investment ...
Ben Paviour
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/111364-111364/
New protected forests test overstretched ministry
The nearly 1 million hectares of newly protected forests the Environment Ministry wants to create by the end of the year will add nearly a third more land to the portfolio of an agency already struggling to manage the 3.2 million hectares it has. And ...
Zsombor Peter
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/111001-111001/
Environmental code aims to safeguard natural resources
A new plan to protect the environment started taking shape yesterday when the Environment Ministry held a workshop to discuss ideas on how to convert numerous laws into a single code to govern the county’s natural resources. It is expected the process will take two years ...
Ros Chanveasna
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/23704/environmental-code-aims-to-safeguard-natural-resources/
Algal blooms off Kep coast lead to swimming and seafood scares
A massive algal bloom off the coast of Kep that has left scores of dead coastal crabs and fish in its wake resulted in warnings from the Ministry of Environment and Prime Minister Hun Sen this weekend to avoid eating seafood or swimming in the ...
Brent Crane and Pech Sotheary
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/algal-blooms-kep-coast-lead-swimming-and-seafood-scares
PM decides to protect 1 million hectares of forest
Prime Minister Hun Sen has agreed to legally protect nearly 1 million hectares of the Kingdom’s forest land, including the Prey Lang forest. Speaking during the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport’s annual meeting at the Institute of Technology of Cambodia, Mr. Hun Sen said he ...
May Titthara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/23482/pm-decides-to-protect-1-million-hectares-of-forest/
Gov’t asked to protect nearly 1 million hectares of forest
The Ministry of Environment has proposed the government establish nearly one million hectares of newly protected forest, an area that will include the Prey Lang forest, according to ministry spokesman Sao Sopheap. ...
May Titthara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/23420/gov---t-asked-to-protect-nearly-1-million-hectares-of-forest/
‘Eco-schools’ to try for a clean sweep in coming year
The Environment and Education Ministries will expand their eco-school program to all primary and secondary schools across the country over the course of 2017, provided they have the necessary human and financial resources to do so. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/23235/---eco-schools----to-try-for-a----clean-sweep-in-coming-year/
Ministry encourages conservation, domestication of wild animals
The Ministry of Environment is encouraging people living in or around protected areas to start feeding and domesticating wild animals, and to abstain from eating them, with similar strategies in animal conservation being attempted in communities in Preah Vihear province. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/23236/ministry-encourages-conservation--domestication-of-wild-animals/
Bodies swap control over ELCs, preserves
Authority over economic land concessions (ELCs) currently under the purview of the Ministry of Environment will be transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture, while all protected areas and nature preserves currently under the Ministry of Agriculture will pass to the Ministry of Environment, according to ...
Niem Chheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/bodies-swap-control-over-elcs-preserves
Tonle bassac dredging necessary, say officials
In order to aid waterway transport, sand-dredging – largely banned since a 2011 decree – will soon begin reappearing at dozens of locations along the Tonle Bassac river, a spokesman from the Ministry of Mines and Energy confirmed yesterday. ...
Niem Chheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/tonle-bassac-dredging-necessary-say-officials
Kingdom ranks low on global green list
Cambodia has performed poorly in the 2016 edition of a recent environmental report, ranking a dismal 146 out of 180 countries.The Kingdom returned one of the lowest Environmental Performance Index (EPI) scores in the region, narrowly edging ahead of Myanmar and Laos. ...
Erin Handley
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/kingdom-ranks-low-global-green-list
Ministry of environment opens new building
The Ministry of Environment on Monday inaugurated its palatial new headquarters in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district, the result of a state-private land swap. ...
Khy Sovuthy
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ministry-of-environment-opens-new-building-104401/
Mother nature’s youthful ambassadors get to work
Forty young environmental envoys began training on December 5 to become Young Eco Ambassadors, tasked with raising awareness of the need to protect the environment. ...
Duch Lalin
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/18498/mother-nature---s-youthful-ambassadors-get-to-work/