News

The Cambodian government has awarded another large swath of Botum Sakor National Park to local conglomerate Royal Group, carving out yet more land from this ostensibly protected area to hand over to private developers. ...

Tycoon Kith Meng’s Royal Group company received 9,968 hectares inside Botum Sakor National park in Koh Kong province, according to a January 25 sub-decree signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen and published earlier this month. ...

A company linked to the son of tycoon Ly Yong Phat received a 6,234 hectare concession inside Botum Sakor National Park, according to a January sub-decree signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen and published on Wednesday. ...

New satellite data reveals that Cambodia’s remaining dense forests were further depleted last year, with four major protected areas and national parks registering higher deforestation than in 2021. ...

Residents in Botum Sakor district, Koh Kong province, ask the government to intervene with the  authorities to expedite the resolution of land disputes as soon as possible and transparently as the authorities accused them of illegally entering the Botum Sakor National Park. ...

Koh Kong Provincial Administration is examining a request from Anko Ahran Niharan company to invest on 6,145 hectares of land inside Botum Sakor National Park. ...

The Royal Group of Companies Ltd, a leading local conglomerate, will invest in the construction of a 100sq km special economic zone (SEZ) in Koh Kong province’s Botum Sakor National Park. This is an apparent bid to capitalise on the ongoing inflow of investment to ...

Authorities in Koh Kong province are on the hunt for people who illegally planted fruit trees at Botum Sakor National Park in Botum Sakor district. Provincial governor Mithona Phouthorng told The Post on November 17 she had ordered an investigation into the illegal planting of ...

The Kingdom’s tycoon Kith Meng’s Royal Group has secured 168.8 hectares of land in Koh Kong’s Botum Sakor National Park under a leasing agreement to develop a 700 megawatt (mW)  coal power plant, according to a government sub-decree. ...

The Koh Kong provincial administration has warned that it will take legal action against anyone who attempts to grab land in an area that used to belong to the Botum Sakor National Park. The 9,306ha located in Kiri Sakor and Botum Sakor districts has been ...

The rural southwestern province of Koh Kong, previously off the international community’s radar screen, has drawn the global spotlight. That’s because a massive runway stretching approximately 3,200 meters appeared suddenly at a resort being developed by a Chinese company in this otherwise out-of-the-way province, about a ...

The Koh Kong Provincial Administration is probing a news report that a private company had colluded with the local authorities to buy 40ha in the Botum Sakor National Park. Provincial hall spokesman Sok Sothy said on Sunday that the administration was only aware of one ...

A villager representing 50 families in a long-running dispute with a company owned by ruling party Senator Ly Yong Phat is in pre-trial detention after his Saturday arrest for allegedly installing boundary markers on disputed company land. Lay Tiro, deputy head of the felonies office at ...

Authorities are to force about 40 families in Koh Kong province to relocate from their homes in Botum Sakor National Park. The villagers asked authorities to provide them with social land concessions, because they have no other place to live. ...

Koh Kong provincial authorities on Monday ordered 40 families living in Botum Sakor district to vacate their land and homes after it was determined they were illegally occupying a national park.​ On Friday, authorities went to inspect Botum Sakor National Park and found 40 families ...

The Natural Resource and Wildlife Preservation Organization, a conservation organisation in Kampong Speu, pledged yesterday to file a letter of complaint to authorities after learning that 6 hectares of protected forestland were cleared illegally. ...

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. ...

Botum Sakor national park is one of Cambodia’s biodiversity hotspots, where indigenous tribes have long lived in harmony with the forest and its wildlife, writes Rod Harbinson. But now they are being violently evicted as the park is being sold off piecemeal to developers for ...

Villagers in Koh Kong province involved in a land dispute with a Chinese company received notice on Saturday that the local government will soon implement a court order kicking them off their land, officials and a villager said. ...

Security guards from a Chinese firm building an airport to serve a planned resort in Koh Kong province Thursday destroyed the homes of 11 families and bulldozed 30 hectares of farmland in an area claimed by both the company and residents. The Union Development Group (UDG) ...

About 40 security guards armed with axes and AK-47s and working for the Chinese-owned Union Development Group (UDG) on Sunday demolished the homes of three villagers who claim to own land on UDG’s sprawling $3.8-billion beachside tourist development in Koh Kong province, villagers said. ...

Environment Minister Say Sam Al on Thursday met with U.N. and NGO representatives to discuss the ongoing dispute between the powerful Chinese-owned Union Development Group (UDG) and villagers in Koh Kong province who say they were kicked off their land and had their shelters torched. In ...

In Samrong Leu village, a picturesque community nestled deep in the verdant fields of Kors Kralor district, the acrid smell of smoke fills the air. Outside almost every house in this community, billows of smoke continuously emerge from the domes of homemade mud kilns, drifting around ...

Villagers in Koh Kong’s Botum Sakor district said Friday that Union Development Group (UDG) used military forces to prevent villagers from planting paddy rice on land that is locked in a longstanding dispute, a claim the military denied. Khun Thala, a 40-year-old villager, said Friday that ...