News
Thailand Says Border Logging Could Hurt Relations
The Thai Foreign Ministry has called on the Cambodian government to admit that its citizens are illegally logging for rosewood on Thai territory, The Bangkok Post reported yesterday. Cambodia should admit to the situation to preserve healthy bilateral relations between Phnom Penh and Bangkok, Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thongphakdi said ...
Villagers Accuse Armed Forces of Illegal Logging
Over the past half year, the military has established dozens of bases in protected community forests in Oddar Meanchey province and used them as an inroad for rampant illegal logging, villagers and forestry administration officials said yesterday. Nearly 2,000 villagers from local forest communities have thumbprinted ...
Timbergreen official questioned in Chut Wutty shooting
The “company” that military police have declined to identify but said sent staff to confront activist Chut Wutty shortly before he was shot last Thursday is Timbergreen, a firm the slain activist had attempted to expose for illegal logging. Documents obtained by the Post yesterday and sources have ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012050355957/National-news/company-man-arrested.html
Families of slain men question official version
Amid mounting calls for further investigation, officials said yesterday they were establishing a task force to look into the death of outspoken forestry activist Chut Wutty, while the family of the military police officer who allegedly killed Chut Wutty before turning the gun on himself ...
In Cardamom Mountains, Two Deaths Recounted
Deep in Koh Kong’s forested district on Thursday, Chut Wutty, 46, the founder of the Natural Resource Protection Group, and In Rattana, 32, a military police officer, were shot dead. Chut Wutty, a forestry activist who has dedicated himself to preserving Cambodia’s disappearing forests since ...
Suicide Cited in Military Police Officer’s Death
The military police officer who killed well-known anti-logging campaigner Chut Wutty, 46, on Thursday in Koh Kong province then died by his own hand after turning his AK-47 assault rifle on himself in an apparent act of instant suicide following the slaying of the forestry ...
Chut Wutty slain: another chapter in bloody history
With his slaying yesterday in the jungles of Koh Kong province, Chut Wutty becomes one of the highest-profile members yet on a dark list of Cambodian activists who have been killed for making a stand against greed and corruption. Although the details of his death remain ...
Chut Wutty's wife says he was target for murder
The wife of slain environmental activist Chut Wutty today rejected early police accounts of the circumstances around his shooting death, saying she believed he had been targeted for death for his work in protecting Cambodia’s endangered forests. Speaking to the Post by phone, 40-year-old Sam Chanthy, ...
Cambodian officer killed environment activist then took own life, army says
The Cambodian military has concluded that one of its own police officers killed a prominent environmentalist then took his own life in an incident in a forest rife with illegal logging. Chut Wutty had been taking photographs on Wednesday in a forest where a Chinese company ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/27/cambodian-soldier-environment-activist-army?INTCMP=SRCH
Environmental activist Chut Wutty shot dead
Cambodia’s most outspoken activist against illegal logging was shot dead today while escorting journalists near a protected forest in Koh Kong province, where he has repeatedly attempted to expose illegal logging rackets that include military officials. Chut Wutty, the director of Natural Resource Protection Group, was ...
Villagers take sawmill to task
Kampong Thom province Villagers patrolling Prey Lang forest claimed yesterday that about 600 resin trees they found inside a sawmill in the Kampong Thom province had been cut down illegally – an allegation government officials quickly denied. After resistance from police and soldiers monitoring their actions this ...
Activists arm with fire, photos
Kampong Thom province Villagers patrolling Prey Lang forest on motorbikes yesterday defended their decision to burn more than 360 cubic metres of timber, tear down 10 huts used by “illegal loggers” and confiscate a chainsaw, a villager representative said. “All the villagers who provide evidence about ...
Villagers Seize Large Hauls of Illegal Timber
Hundreds of villagers patrolling Prey Long forest for illegal logging discovered and burned more than 370 cubic meters of wood during the first four days of their campaign, an organizer said yesterday. About 400 villagers from Kompong Thom, Kratie, Stung Treng and Preah Vihear provinces who ...
Blind eye to forest's plight
Rangers paid by an internationally funded conservation organisation have been directly profiting for years from the very trade they are supposed to be preventing in southwest Cambodia, documents obtained by the Post allege. Former Conservation International (CI) staff members say when they spoke up about endemic ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012032655247/National-news/blind-eye-to-forests-plight.html
One Killed and One Injured While Logging Across Borders
One man was killed and one injured in two separate shooting incidents that took place last week at the borders with Thailand and Laos, officials said yesterday. In both cases, the Cambodians are believed to have been shot while illegally logging highly coveted luxury rosewood in ...
Prey Lang villagers on patrol
Kampong Thom province About 500 frustrated villagers, citing the authorities’ inaction as their motivation, rode some 250 motorbikes into Prey Lang forest over the weekend in yet another effort to combat illegal logging they say is decimating the area. The villagers from four provinces surrounding Prey Lang ...
Laos logging incident sees man shot, injured
A Cambodian man was injured last week after Lao authorities shot him while he was illegally logging rosewood in Laos’ Champasak district, near Stung Treng province, authorities said yesterday. Siem Pang district police chief Var Sophan told the Post yesterday that 27-year-old Sarin Da was accompanied ...
Fight Illegal Logging From Top, World Bank Says
Echoing longstanding calls from conservation groups, the World Bank says in a new report today that governments need to look past low-level criminals to tackle illegal logging and to follow the money the illicit trade generates instead. That trade of illegal logging generates up to $15 ...
Laos Sets Free Seven Cambodians; 16 Waiting
Laos yesterday released seven of 23 Cambodians who have been apprehended across the border since the start of the year on suspicions of illegal logging, according to a military and district official. ...
Officials Seize 100 Cubic Meters of Luxury Wood
Forestry officials in Ratanakkiri province, along with provincial officials, have carried out several operations in three districts this month that netted about 100 cubic meters of various types of luxury wood, but no suspects were arrested, officials said yesterday. ...
Villagers to police logging in Prey Lang
More than 600 villagers from four provinces and civil society organisation officials would embark on the largest community crackdown yet on the “anarchic logging” of Prey Lang forest in Kampong Thom, representatives said yesterday. ...
Proposed Prey Long Protected Area Shrinks by 20 Percent
The Forestry Administration’s proposal to create a conservation zone for Prey Long, one of Cambodia’s largest remaining primary forests, has been scaled down by more than 20 percent and now covers about 480,000 hectares, an official said. During consultation workshops in Phnom Penh last month, the ...
Villager defies loggers, claims life is in danger
A man fled his home in Kratie province’s Snuol district after three men threatened to kill him for confiscating their chainsaws during a patrol against illegal logging, he told the Post yesterday. Village representative Chea Horn said he was scared to return home after the men ...
Thais arrest 38 Cambodians on charges of illegal logging
A combined task force of Thai soldiers and national park officials yesterday arrested 38 Cambodian villagers who encroached on the Panom Dong Rak Wildlife Sanctuary in Thailand’s Si Sa Ket province, which borders Oddar Meanchey province. Thai National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department chief Damrong ...