Environment and natural resources

A Vietnamese national reputed to be a prominent illegal timber trader is believed to have fled to her native country after the Oddar Meanchey provincial governor ordered her arrest last week. ...

Two farmers caught with dead monkeys in Mondolkiri province’s Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary have been charged with poaching endangered wildlife.   ...

About 30 villagers escorted two environmental activists from Kandal province’s Sa’ang district to the relative safety of Phnom Penh yesterday after the pair were allegedly harassed by local police for helping coordinate a protest against sand dredging in the area the day before. ...

The increase in commercial dry-season rice cultivation in Cambodia’s Tonle Sap floodplain is threatening the survival of the critically endangered Bengal florican, a new study suggests. ...

Cambodia plans to have an ambitious environmental code adopted by the end of this year, according to a legal adviser with the law firm helping to write the legislation, though conservationists yesterday remained wary about how it would be implemented. ...

In the first and only day of her trial yesterday, prominent alleged timber trader Heng Samnieng claimed that Military Police officers had tried to sell off pieces of timber confiscated by authorities in Stung Treng, where she was arrested in October while allegedly attempting to ...

A Cambodian official has said US President Donald Trump’s decision to leave the Paris Climate Agreement is “unethical” and “irresponsible”. Tin Ponlok, secretary general of the National Council for Sustainable Development at the Ministry of Environment, said it was “regretful” that Trump decided to abandon the ...

Phnom Penh’s sole garbage hauler says it will need another week to collect thousands of tons of fetid garbage that piled up over the weekend when workers left the capital to vote in Sunday’s commune elections. ...

Massive deforestation is playing a crucial role in the droughts that have devastated Cambodia. But despite an official ban on timber exports, forests continue to be cut down at a record rate.The Cambodian government awarded between 30 and 40 logging concessions to private companies during ...

A man and woman have been arrested after police and Forestry Department officers were tipped off about a pick-up truck carrying luxury timber across Kampong Thom province. ...

Sixteen Cambodians were arrested on Monday for illegally crossing the border to log luxury rosewood trees in Thailand’s Sa Kaeo province. The men, aged between 16 and 55, were all residents of Battambang province. They were arrested in Pang Sida National Park with logging tools and ...

A truck full of high-grade timber was seized in Kampong Speu’s Oral district on Monday afternoon by District Military Police forces and the NGO WildAid’s crime interception team, but the driver remains at large. .. ...

A man was accused of illegally collecting and transporting timber after Military Police officials arrested him with over 2 tonnes of illicit rosewood in Stung Treng on Sunday morning. ...

Fishermen and passengers travelling by sea have been warned to take care as rainstorms lash coastal areas from tomorrow until Saturday. The Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology said big waves were expected off  Preah Sihanouk, Kampot, Kep and Koh Kong provinces.   ...

Exports of fish fell in the first four months of 2017, but income from the fisheries sector increased by nearly half compared with the same period last year. According to an Agriculture Ministry report, income from the fisheries sector between January and April was $230,653, up ...

More than 60 cows and buffalo in Stung Treng’s Siem Pang district have died over the past two weeks following a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, while 200 cattle have been vaccinated to prevent further spread, officials said yesterday.​ ...

A national police spokesman yesterday said a report alleging that tycoon Kith Meng’s Royal Group was colluding with loggers to launder timber was mistakenly posted on the body’s official site by a “tired” employee who meant to share the information with local reporters but not ...

The government is looking at ways to tackle Cambodia’s waste problem with a $1 charge on airline tickets touted to raise the cash. The move comes after footage emerged showing the capital’s canals remain clogged with rubbish a year after video of the pollution was shown ...

More than 400 pieces of luxury thnong wood suspected to be felled by a local community were seized by authorities in Pursat province’s Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary on Thursday following a tip-off from a local reporter. ...

In a tributary in Phnom Penh’s Phum Prek Toal district that flows into Boeng Tompun, a mountain of plastic, garbage and waste has built up to the point where it stifles the water from flowing. Embattled residents who live next to the pile of waste ...

A representative of business mogul Kith Meng’s Royal Group yesterday hit back at a report published by the National Police accusing the company of laundering illegal timber through the Lower Sesan II hydro power project. ...

The U.K. NGO that last week exposed a major new timber trafficking operation between Cambodia and Vietnam has released more evidence in hopes of supporting Phnom Penh’s investigation into its claims, including invoices from Cambodia-based companies breaking the country’s timber export ban. ...

Police officers, gendarmes and Forestry Administration officials yesterday discovered a large cache of valuable, illegally felled wood – which locals say was destined for Vietnam – after raiding a house in Stung Treng province linked to a prominent timber trader. ...

Authorities in Svay Rieng province on Wednesday said the latest outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease had been brought under control by timely treatment, though their numbers on how many cows the contagious virus had infected varied wildly.Meas Sok, chief of Svay Chrum district’s Chhoeuteal commune, said ...