News

Representatives from more than 90 Cambodian businesses gathered yesterday at the Council of Ministers building in Phnom Penh to hear about a new initiative that aims to encourage private sector investment in agriculture. The $55.6 million project is an extension of the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) ...

The newly appointed Kompong Thom provincial governor on Tuesday promised more than 500 families who were forcefully evicted by a Vietnamese rubber plantation more than three years ago that they would be given replacement land to farm on early next month. Security forces evicted villagers from ...

The newly appointed Kompong Thom provincial governor on Tuesday promised more than 500 families who were forcefully evicted by a Vietnamese rubber plantation more than three years ago that they would be given replacement land to farm on early next month. Security forces evicted villagers from ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen will travel to China on Saturday to meet with the rising superpower’s new leadership, in a trip the government expects to yield nearly $2 billion in loans and aid. Most significantly, the Government is hoping to secure Chinese funding for a 1.67 ...

Mondolkiri and Kompong Thom provinces could suffer some of the most extreme effects of climate change in the Lower Mekong Basin region, such as a high incidence of flash floods and droughts by 2050, according to a new study. Analyzing temperature and rainfall from 84 provinces ...

Preah Vihear province – The residents of this sleepy district, on the edge of the Boeng Per Wildlife Sanctuary, grow rice, cassava and cashew nuts. But in a few short years, Chinese investors envisage that Rovieng will be rapidly transformed into an industrial town. ...

More than 400 activists fighting the destruction of the Prey Lang forest held a ceremony yesterday in which they tied Buddhist monk’s robes around the trunks of trees – a gesture of protection – to stop them from being cut down. Six monks and villagers from ...

The Kompong Thom Provincial Court yesterday charged two men with illegally logging 65 pieces of rosewood, the courts director Pen Sarat, said. Provincial police said the two 19 year old men were arrested Saturday morning while transporting about 1 105 kg of rosewood in Prasat ...

With two Chinese firms due to start work on a 400-km railway, steel mill and port in July, an environmental impact assessment (EIA) has yet to be conducted, and affected provinces are still largely in the dark about the massive infrastructure project. In a ceremony in ...

Villagers in the Prey Lang forest in Kompong Thom province have filed the complaint with the provincial court and the Forestry Administration accusing a commune police chief of involvement in logging high-grade timber, officials and villagers said yesterday. The complaint, thumbprinted by 210 people, alleges that ...

Kompong Thom provincial officials will stop illegal gold mining in seven locations in Sandan district’s Meanrith commune come November, provincial and district officials said. About 100 residents of Meanrith have been illegally digging for gold in the district for several years, provincial deputy governor King Vimean ...

Hundreds of indigenous people called on government to pick up the pace in granting them communal land titles at a ceremony marking the U.N.-sponsored International Day of the World’s Indigenous People in Kompong Thom province yesterday. “The gathering today is to mark the 8th anniversary of Indigenous Day ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday questioned six people, including a provincial director of water resources and a commune chief, over allegations that they cleared part of a flooded forest in Kompong Thom to illegally construct reservoirs on the Tonle Sap. Earlier this month, military ...

Koh Thom district, Kandal province – On a quiet stretch of road in this sleepy border town, there are some telltale signs of an unusual trade: A trail of discarded dead rats, some upturned with their paws stiff in the air, others covered with a ...

Forestry Administration officials have confiscated 15 cubic meters of luxury-grade wood from a truck belonging to hotel and casino magnate Try Pheap in Kompong Thom province. Soth Mary, a division director for the Forestry Administration in the province, said yesterday that his staff stopped a truck ...

The government on Friday denied it had violated a moratorium on granting new land concessions when Prime Minister Hun Sen signed off on more than 20,000 hectares of land to three rubber companies 11 days after the ban was announced on May 7. According to documents ...

Kompong Thom provincial authorities have denied a request by the SRP to hold a peaceful demonstration to draw attention to severe power outages that have plagued the province for almost two months. Men Sothavarin, SRP senator for Kompong Thom province, said that his party had received ...

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 ...

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 ...

Days after Prime Minister Hun Sen announced a blanket pardon for all suspects and convicts jailed for small-time fisheries crimes, the premier yesterday signed into effect an expected sub-decree canceling fishing lots across the country. Last month, Mr. Hun Sen announced that he would cancel ...

Government officials in Kompong Thom province said yesterday that they are investigating the ownership of more than 2,000 hectares of land currently being held by an unknown number of individuals who are suspected of illegal land grabbing. An Agriculture Ministry official pointed the finger of ...

Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun said yesterday that Cambodia currently produces only half as many vegetables as it needs to meet demand and that more needs to be done to remedy the situation. “Cambodia only produces 40 to 60 perent of its needs and imports, the ...

The US government is working with a Cambodian microfinance institution to finance $2.7million in loans to farmers and small- and medium-sized agro-businesses in Battambang, Kompong Thom, Pursat and Siem Reap provinces in order to improve their access to credit, the US Embassy said. USAid will work ...

Faced with continued illegal logging in Prey Long forest, villagers in Kompong Thom province’s Sandan district once again took the initiative to seize a large haul of illegal timber from local loggers. Villagers, however, said that local officials are complicit in the logging ring and ...