Ministries and other national bodies
Ministry of Environment
Prek Toal wetlands sanctuary gets international recognition
Sixteen years after the Ministry of Environment and conservation groups began to protect the Prek Toal wetlands on the western edge of Tonle Sap Lake, the area has been designated a site of global importance. ...
James Reddick
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/18304/prek-toal-wetlands-sanctuary-gets-international-recognition/
Minister calls for more reporting on climate change
In the lead-up to the global climate change conference in Paris later this month, Information Minister Khieu Kanharith yesterday urged the media to increase reporting on the effects of climate change in Cambodia so that citizens can be better prepared for it. ...
Pav Suy
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/17957/minister-calls-for-more-reporting-on-climate-change/
City meets with Cintri to draft new waste disposal contract
Phnom Penh municipal authorities met on Wednesday with the city’s embattled trash-collection company, Cintri, to draft a new contract, according to a statement posted to City Hall’s Facebook page. ...
Minister vows justice for slain forest rangers
Minister of Environment Say Samal yesterday vowed that those responsible for the murder of two forest rangers shot dead while patrolling a protected forest near Preah Vihear temple Saturday morning will be brought to justice. ...
Chea Takihiro
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/17610/minister-vows-justice-for-slain-forest-rangers/
Environment ministry ends ELC assessments
The Environment Ministry has reduced the terms of six economic land concessions (ELCs) to 50 years from between 70 and 90 years after seven of eight carbon credit investment projects were revoked. ...
Chea Vannak
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/16889/environment-ministry-ends-elc-assessments/
Indonesian haze may be choking Cambodia
Fires set by plantation owners in Indonesia may be to blame for the smog hanging over Phnom Penh, the Ministry of the Environment said yesterday. “I know there is a serious problem with haze,” Ministry spokesman Sao Sopheap told Khmer Times. “We have noticed haze ...
Jonathan Cox
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/16585/indonesian-haze-may-be-choking-cambodia/
Gov’t gets tough on environment
Cambodian environmental leaders came together yesterday to discuss the country’s contributions to the upcoming Paris Climate Conference in December. ...
Va Sonyka
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/15818/gov---t-gets-tough-on-environment/
Cambodia turns to Malaysia for renewable energy boost
Cambodia and Malaysia have reached an agreement to collaborate on renewable energy and green technology, officials confirmed yesterday. ...
James Reddick
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/15751/cambodia-turns-to-malaysia-for-renewable-energy-boost/
Gov’t and NGOs join to settle land dispute
Environment Minister Say Sam Al and a group of NGOs on Monday agreed to cooperate to resolve a years long dispute between hundreds of families in Koh Kong province and a Chinese company they accuse of stealing their land. ...
Khy Sovuthy
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-and-ngos-join-to-settle-land-dispute-92392/
Ministry of environment collects inputs for a draft on environmental code
The Ministry of Environment today held a workshop to collect inputs from all stakeholders for drafting the environmental code for orienting Cambodia in walking in the right way, and reflecting the people’ need. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/ministry-of-environment-collects-inputs-for-a-draft-on-environmental-code-8864
Minister helps open controversial tycoon’s new rubber farm
Environment Minister Say Sam Al was in Preah Vihear province on Sunday to help inaugurate Try Pheap’s newest project, a $52-million rubber plantation and additional facilities that the timber magnate has cleared thousands of hectares of protected forest to build. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/minister-helps-open-controversial-tycoons-new-rubber-farm-88896/
Gov’t mulls green incentives
The Ministry of Environment said it is working to make eco-friendly and green technologies tax-free, in order to reduce the cost barriers associated with importing and implementing these technologies, such as the use of solar panels. Speaking at EuroCham’s Green Business Forum in Phnom Penh, Environment ...
Ananth Baliga
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/govt-mulls-green-incentives
Gov’t to raise taxes to clean up litter in cities
Environment Minister Say Sam Al on Wednesday announced the creation of a recurring annual $5-million fund to help Phnom Penh and every provincial capital clean up their trash-strewn streets, especially outside homes and restaurants. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-to-raise-taxes-to-clean-up-
Meeting between Koh Kong families, development firm fruitless
Representatives for some 200 families in a yearslong land dispute with the Union Development Group (UDG) in Koh Kong province met for the first time with both company and government officials Tuesday but left with little to show. ...
Hul Reaksmey
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/meeting-between-koh-kong-families-development-firm-fruitless-81149/
New Sesan, new study: NGO
Rights advocates have called for construction of the Lower Sesan II hydropower dam in Cambodia’s Stung Treng province to be halted until new environmental and social impact assessments can be carried following changes allegedly made to the project’s plans. ...
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/new-sesan-new-study-ngo
Cambodia orders temporary halt to sand dredging
Cambodia has ordered a temporary halt to all sand dredging operations in the country’s rivers and lakes in order to study the environment and social impact of a practice that has caused deadly river bank collapse incidents. ...
Samean Yun
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/cambodia-dredging-03252015170821.html
Minister says minorities should rely less on forests
Environment Minister Say Sam Al on Friday pledged to protect the culture of Cambodia’s indigenous minorities, before going on to say that those groups need to learn to survive without relying on the forests they have depended on for centuries. ...
Matt Blomberg
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/minister-says-minorities-should-rely-less-on-forests-80498/
Environment officials to monitor conditions
The Ministry of Environment is set to join the Ministry of Labour in the monitoring of garment factory workplaces, after creating a working group that will probe the environmental safety of all plants in Cambodia. At a press conference at the ministry yesterday, Minister of Environment ...
Mom Kunthear and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/environment-officials-monitor-conditions
Plantations lose land for encroaching on farms
Environment Minister Say Sam Al on Monday said that more than 9,000 hectares granted to companies as economic land concessions (ELCs) were recently taken back from the owners because local villagers had been farming the land first, and announced that 14 companies had been put ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/plantations-lose-land-for-encroaching-on-farms-79364/
Government: over 14,000 hectares of land cut off to hand over to people in Koh Kong, Preah Vihear provinces
Environment Minister, Say Sam Al, said on Monday that the Royal Government of Cambodia has cut off over 14,000 hectares of land and handed over to citizens, and military forces. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://bit.ly/1AZj6oE
Fund intended to improve country’s urban sanitation
The government will set up a $5 million fund to allow Cambodia’s 26 provinces and municipalities to take responsibility for waste management in their cities, it was announced recently. With a focus on garbage management, the decentralisation initiative, revealed at a two-day workshop in Phnom Penh ...
Shaun Turton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/fund-intended-improve-countrys-urban-sanitation
Soldiers train rangers to fight illegal logging
A group of 56 rangers from the Ministry of Environment last week completed a one-month training course in Phnom Penh run by the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) to help save Cambodia’s protected areas from illegal loggers, a first for the country’s rangers. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/soldiers-train-rangers-to-fight-illegal-logging-78016/
Council of ministers calls for review of contract with Cintri
The government’s faith in Phnom Penh’s embattled trash-collection company appears to have finally been lost after the Council of Ministers announced in a letter on Tuesday that a shake-up was on the way as it considers rescinding Cintri’s exclusive right to manage the city’s garbage ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.opendevelopmentcambodia.net/wp-admin/post-new.php?post_type=news
Illegal wood found near military police base
Environment Ministry officials on Thursday found a cache of more than 400 pieces of illegally logged first-grade wood in Ratanakkiri province’s Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary, which the ministry oversees, and suspect officers from a nearby military police base of being involved. Thin Ngoal, the sanctuary’s deputy director, ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/illegal-wood-found-near-military-police-base-77008/