Environment and natural resources

Cambodia’s Beng Per Wildlife Sanctuary is symbolic of the country’s poor forestry management. Around 2,000 square kilometres (sq km) – around three times the size of Singapore – is lost to illegal logging in Cambodia every year where wildlife sanctuaries – despite their name – ...

Hundreds of cars, thousands of motorbikes and chainsaws and a haul of timber impounded as evidence at Mondulkiri province’s Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary are falling into disrepair and should be moved for proper care, said provincial environment department director Keo Sopheak. ...

The Agriculture Ministry collected more than $2 million in forestry revenue during the first three months of this year. A ministry report issued on April 22, and obtained yesterday, said it collected about $2.3 million in riel and also $69,281 in licensing and export revenue. ...

The director of Mondulkiri province’s Phnom Prich wildlife sanctuary, Han Sokhon, is set to face legal action from an indigenous community. The villagers allege he colluded to exploit the very forest he was meant to safeguard after villagers discovered illegal logging in the protected area. ...

WWF-Cambodia is collaborating with the Mondulkiri provincial Department of Environment to install “Source” hydro-panels to collect water from the air for use, the director of the Srepok Wildlife Sanctuary said on Monday. The technological breakthrough from the Arizona-based Zero Mass Water company aims to produce ...

Dozens of families in Preah Sihanouk province are concerned they will lose their land after hearing that a tycoon is seeking the local authority’s approval to transfer ownership of over 500ha to him, while the families claim the actual area of land he owns is ...

Wildlife and biodiversity conservation groups have called for an end to the use of snares to kill wild animals. They say it is the most destructive and inhumane method to hunt and denounced all killing of rare and endangered species – such as tigers, leopards, ...

The government plans to spend approximately $200 million on increasing the capacity of water treatment plants and organising sewage systems in Preah Sihanouk province to prevent wastewater from flowing into the sea and protect the environment. Finance Minister Aun Pornmoniroth and Transport Minister Sun Chanthol ...

Stung Treng provincial military police yesterday arrested four Vietnamese nationals caught poaching in a wildlife sanctuary in Sesan district. Sok Rithy, district military police commander, yesterday confirmed the arrests but referred questions to the provincial military police. Local media reported that provincial military officers arrested ...

The Ministry of Environment has chosen Battambang as the first province to launch its plastic reduction campaign, to be followed by Siem Reap and Preah Sihanouk. Ministry spokesman Neth Pheaktra told The Post on Wednesday that the ministry has seen improvements in waste management and ...

“I have my defence right to a court hearing as stated in an international covenant and Cambodian laws. My defence lawyer has tried for more than two-and-a-half years, since March 2016, to push for a hearing. The court dared not schedule a hearing until several ...

Speaking at a workshop entitled Disability Inclusion into Climate Change in Phnom Penh on Tuesday, Jolly, who is the climate change adaptation consultant at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), requested the government to consider the difficulties facing people with disabilities when drafting government policy ...

People who filled in more than a hectare of mangroves in Preah Sihanouk province to plant coconut trees have been given a month to restore the area to its former state or face legal action, Stung Hav district governor told The Post on Tuesday. ...

Dak Dam commune forestry community activists in Mondulkiri province’s O’Raing district on Sunday claimed that a deputy district governor was behind the recent clearing of their land. Toeuy Chren, head of the forest community based in Pou Treng village, told The Post on Sunday that ...

The Ministry of Environment on Friday approved the registration of the Yeak Laom Lake community natural protected area in Ratanakkiri province to support the preservation of natural resources, culture and eco-tourism. The indigenous community hailed the decision, but said it had come too late to ...

The Mekong River Commission yesterday announced new efforts to address natural disasters in the region, including a decision to upgrade and rename the Regional Flood Management and Mitigation Centre to the Regional Flood and Drought Management Centre. The announcement followed a two-day bi-annual meeting, which ...

Ministry of Environment spokesman Neth Pheaktra on Tuesday warned villagers not to believe ill-intentioned land agents and called on people to stop all illegal grabbing of state-owned land or face punishment in accordance with the law. He said that because land prices had increased dramatically, ...

Drought in many parts of Southeast Asia may become even more frequent and intense if action is not taken now to build resilience, according to the latest joint study by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Escap) and the Association ...

A dolphin conservation group has revealed it recently found a newborn Irrawaddy dolphin swimming among adults in the Mekong River in Kratie province, the sixth calf to be discovered this year. Mok Ponlok, provincial deputy director of the Fisheries Administration and head of the Irrawaddy ...

If you were disturbed by the damage done to Cambodian coastal fisheries by the industrial-scale dredging of sand for sale to Singapore, as shown in the new documentary short “The Lost World,” there’s good news: the practice has largely been shut down in Koh Kong, ...

A conservationist group said on Wednesday that a recent Ramsar site status for Cambodia’s Stung Sen wetland is crucial to help protect the habitat of a number of globally near-threatened species. The rich and biologically diverse Stung Sen wetland has been designated as a unique ...

The Stung Treng provincial department of agriculture, forestry and fisheries rejected a Radio Free Asia (RFA) report which claimed that on March 27, there was a resurgence of illegal timber trafficking activities near the Lower Sesan II Dam. ...

Considered one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to the effects of climate change, the Royal Government of Cambodia is taking major steps to improve its resilience and reduce its disaster risk with support from the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. To ...

A Phnom Penh resident was among the six winners of a green campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of disposing plastic waste in the river as the Mekong River Commission (MRC) on Friday commemorated the 24th anniversary of the signing of the agreement that ...