News
Living on a dwindling trade
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 ...
Kevin Ponniah and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/living-dwindling-trade
‘Tiger’ attacks man in forest
A Pursat man’s reported encounter with a tiger in the Cardamom Mountains has left him injured and in fear, but it has left experts in doubt. On Sunday afternoon, Ngem Nget, a 51-year-old farmer in Phnom Kravanh district’s Santre commune, walked into the woods to forage ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98tiger%E2%80%99-attacks-man-forest
A new species of wolf snake found in Cambodia
A team of international researchers have discovered a unique species of wolf snake in South East Asia. Some magnificent creatures still lay hidden in Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains, waiting to be found, analysed and categorised by researchers working in the area. Since 2000 scientists working for Fauna and ...
Science Alert News Staff
http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20141106-25656.html
To honour Chut Wutty
Nearly two years have passed since Cambodia’s leading forestry activist, Chut Wutty, was gunned down in the Cardamom Mountains. After a long wait, more than 100 activists, supporters and monks will finally make the pilgrimage on Saturday to the spot where he was killed to pay ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/honour-chut-wutty
PM to fete controversial dam
In the wake of several international scandals, the 120-megawatt Stung Atai hydropower plant in Pursat province and its transmission line will be inaugurated today in a celebration headed by Prime Minister Hun Sen. The $255 million hydropower project financed by China Development Bank has been operating ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pm-fete-controversial-dam
Power couple linked to Sinohydro project
Two of the country’s most powerful and politically connected business owners are on the board of governors of the company thought to have brokered a controversial deal between the world’s largest hydropower developer and the Cambodian government, documents obtained by the Post show. Cambodian People’s Party ...
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/power-couple-linked-sinohydro-project
A burden to bear
Among the exotic wildlife that prowls Cambodia’s forests are large furry creatures that may be far more familiar to European and North American visitors than the ever-dwindling populations of large cats and beastly elephants. The Kingdom’s bears climb trees and devour honey just like their ...
Bennett Murray
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/7days/burden-bear
Koh Kong’s Rainbow Lodge Plans on Paying It Forward
KOH KONG – The dullness of a rainy day accentuates the lush shades of green rainforest of the Cardamom Mountains in Koh Kong province. Float down the Tatai River and you see bobbing turquoise, red and yellow canoes tied up along the banks—in their vivid ...
Lindsey Peterson and Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/koh-kongs-rainbow-lodge-plans-on-paying-it-forward-44775/
On Coast, Chinese Development Pushes Thousands From Land
Thousands of villagers in a remote district of the coastal province of Koh Kong have been evicted or are facing eviction in the face of a Chinese resort development project. Some families have moved unwillingly to relocation sites. But others are refusing to leave, setting the ...
Facing Chinese Dam, Monks Fight for Temple
Monks residing in Koh Kong’s remote Areng Valley have begun raising funds online to renovate their local temple, despite plans in store for a large Chinese backed hydropower dam that would leave the site completely inundated. The 108-MW hydropower dam, to be built by ...
Kuch Naren and Kene-Hern Chen
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/facing-chinese-dam-monks-fight-for-temple-31987/
Try Pheap given OK to harvest yellow vine
Logging baron Try Pheap’s MDS Import Export Co, Ltd has been granted a licence to collect and process the controversial plant known as yellow vine around the Stung Atay hydropower dam in the Cardamom Mountains, according to documents received by the Post yesterday. The vine has ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013060466045/National/try-pheap-given-ok-to-harvest-yellow-vine.html
Luxury tourism slowly on the rise
A helicopter flight tour to Preah Vihear is just one part of the 10-day Cambodia Immersion for Millionaires Tour launched this week. The cost per person? $25,000. According to Christopher Gramsch, sales manager for organiser Khiri Travel Cambodia, there is increasing demand among high-spending travellers and ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013042565220/Business/luxury-tourism-slowly-on-the-rise.html
PM’s Logging Decree ‘Too Late’
Activists are welcoming Prime Minister Hun Sen’s public vow to prevent logging and rosewood trafficking, but they also say it’s too little too late to have any serious impact on protecting Cambodia’s already decimated forests. In a speech on Friday at the Ministry of Interior, Hun ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022561589/National/pm-s-logging-decree-too-late.html
Last days of a valley damned
Yong Yim’s voice rises to a high-pitched quiver when she talks about a planned dam in the Areng Valley that would inundate land her family has inhabited for hundreds of years to form what amounts to a giant battery. Now they are staring at ...
May Titthara, David Boyle and Danson Cheong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020861238/National/last-days-of-a-valley-damned.html
Dam collapse in Cambodia leaves four workers missing
Four workers have gone missing after the collapse of an in-progress hydropower dam in Western Cambodia, apparently due to a leak in the structure. The Associated Press reports that the Saturday collapse occurred at the Stung Atay Hydroelectric Project, a $255-million dollar dam on the Atay ...
Last link in Wutty case freed
The only man convicted in relation to a murder case that made global headlines, the killing of environmentalist Chut Wutty and military police officer, In Rattana, walked free on Friday, less than two weeks after his sentencing, rights group Licadho said. Ran Boroth, who was ...
By David Boyle
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012110559571/National-news/last-link-in-wutty-case-freed.html
Verdict Delayed in Case Linked to Chut Wutty
The Koh Kong Provincial Court had postponed until October 22 the verdict of Rann Boroth, the man charged with the accidental killing of a military police officer who allegedly killed environmental activist Chut Wutty in the Cardamom Mountains in April. Though rights groups have criticized the ...
Land concession cancelled by PM
The Cambodian government has cancelled a 14,981-hectare concession in the Cardamom mountains granted to an Australian firm for a banana plantation, the conservation group Wildlife Alliance has reported. Wildlife Alliance has long lobbied against the concession in Koh Kong province’s southern cardamom forest on which Indochina ...
Cardamom solution remains an option
Dr. Tim Killeen, author of The Cardamom Conundrum, Reconciling Development and Conservation in the Kingdom of Cambodia, discusses his recently released book, which argues that Cambodia is well positioned to reap the benefits of ‘green development’. Why did you select the Cardamom Mountains as the area ...
Cardamom Mountains Need Green Economy And Development
In a ceremony of launching new book highlighted solutions to Cambodia’s cardamom conundrum, Author and scientist Timothy Killen explains the potential for Cambodia to become a world leader by pursuing an innovative, low carbon, green development pathway that will foster economic growth and create opportunities for its people, while conserving the natural environment. “Cambodia is ...
Book Outlines Best of Both Worlds for Cardamom Mountains
The protectionist bent of conservation groups and the development agenda of the government can come together in Cambodia to create a green economy. That is the message of a new book Conservation International (C.I.) launched yesterday in Phnom Penh, outlining practical options for saving the environment ...
Zsombor Peter, P. 19
Shadow Cast Over Future of Forest Patrols
More than two weeks after the murder of conservationist Chut Wutty in the forests of the Cardamom Mountains, the future of his small NGO remains in doubt. But NGOs and communities who worked with Chut Wutty over the years say the larger fate of his ...
Chut Wutty Remembered in Koh Kong Memorial
Mondol Seima district, Koh Kong province – It was a gesture the late conservationist and outspoken anti-logging activist would have appreciated. After blessing the site where Chut Wutty was shot dead just over two weeks ago under still mysterious circumstances in this remote patch of the ...
In Koh Kong, Hundreds to Commemorate Chut Wutty’s Death
More than 600 people, including 50 Buddhist monks, who have been affected by illegal logging across the country arrived in Koh Kong province yesterday ahead of a memorial service to be held today at the site where well-known forestry activist Chut Wutty was shot dead ...