News
Gold Mining Reporting Must Be More Open: NGOs
On Dec. 20, the Fair Finance Coalition, the NGO Forum on Cambodia (NGOF), and Oxfam in Cambodia issued studies on gold mining businesses at six locations in Preah Vihear, Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri provinces. ...
Lay Sopheavotey
https://cambodianess.com/article/gold-mining-reporting-must-be-more-open-ngos
Mining ESG compliance highlighted by study
Fair Finance Cambodia (FFC), a coalition originally created to help secure funding for the well-being of the country’s most vulnerable, has recently published a comprehensive study titled “Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) Compliance” on the gold mining industry in the Kingdom. ...
Sok Raksa
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/mining-esg-compliance-highlighted-by-study
Public has little say in gov’t spending, says NGO
Cambodia’s legal and policy framework provides little opportunity for citizens and civil society organisations to have a say in public financial management at the national level, said a study by NGO Forum which was released on Tuesday. ...
Mom Kunthear
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/public-has-little-say-govt-spending-says-ngo
UN official urges government to reduce use of plastic
A senior environment officer for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on Monday urged the Ministry of Environment to prepare a waste management system for plastics and to strive for clean air in the country, particularly in Phnom Penh. Erik Solheim, the executive director of ...
Soth Koemsoeun
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/un-official-urges-goverment-reduce-use-plastic
Environmental groups call on Cambodia to reject new Laos dam
Cambodian environmental groups on Friday asked the government to reject Laos’ 912-megawatt Pak Beng hydropower project, alarmed by the potential impacts on fisheries and sediment flow in the Mekong. ...
Cambodia groups urge to reject new Laos dam at talks
t the forthcoming regional consultation forum on Laos’ Pak Beng hydropower dam in Luang Prabang, Cambodian environmental groups will urge relevant stakeholders, including the Cambodian government, to reject the 912-megawatt project, alarmed by the potential impacts on fisheries and sediment flow in the Mekong. ...
Sun Narin
http://www.voacambodia.com/a/cambodia-groups-urge-to-reject-new-laos-dam-at-talks/3709493.html
Government needs $620M to cope with climate: org
Cambodian ministries are currently facing a $620 million funding shortfall if they are to implement their climate change adaption action plans by 2018, according to figures announced by NGO Forum at a press conference yesterday. ...
Touch Sokha
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/government-needs-620m-cope-climate-org
Affordable public housing needed: official
A senior official at the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction appealed yesterday to institutions, private companies and related parties to help increase public housing for low and middle income families. In the first annual national forum on housing yesterday, Chhan Saphan, a secretary ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/31108/affordable-public-housing-needed--official/
Call for faster land titling for indigenous communities
NGO Forum director Tek Vannara yesterday called on the Ministry of Land Management to speed up collective land titling for indigenous communities. ...
Thik Kaliyann
http://bit.ly/2afc0Mv
Most ELC disputes still unresolved
More than two-thirds of the 158 land disputes triggered by large-scale plantations over the past two decades have yet to be fully resolved, according to a new report by the NGO Forum on Cambodia. ...
Khuon Narim
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/most-elc-disputes-still-unresolved-114786/
River Coalition of Cambodia: say no to Lao dam
The River Coalition of Cambodia, along with 13 other NGOs, released a letter yesterday requesting Prime Minister Hun Sen demand the Lao government to cancel the construction of their Don Sahong hydropower dam and also pause all hydropower projects along the Mekong River due to ...
May Titthara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/21318/river-coalition-of-cambodia--say-no-to-lao-dam/
Cambodia’s budget transparency dismal, survey finds
Cambodia fared dismally in the 2014 budget transparency index compiled by the US-based International Budget Partnership, scoring only eight out of 100 and coming in near the bottom of the 102 countries surveyed, at 94. ...
Pav Suy
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/17911/cambodia---s-budget-transparency-dismal--survey-finds/
Dam fuels desperation on banks of Se San river
A hand-painted sign nailed to a tree at the entrance of Sre Ko village along the southern banks of the Se San River in Stung Treng province greets visitors with a disturbing message – one made even more alarming by the seemingly tranquil environment and ...
Chea Vannak
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/17729/dam-fuels-desperation-on-banks-of-se-san-river/
Gov’t asks Laos to keep studying pending dam
Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong asked Laos’ deputy prime minister for further study of the Don Sahong hydropower dam before construction begins during a meeting with the envoy in Phnom Penh on Tuesday. ...
Khuon Narim
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-asks-laos-to-keep-studying-pending-mekong-dam-96673/
Gov’t warns of lawsuit over new illegal logging report
Environment and agriculture ministry officials Wednesday warned the authors of a new report accusing the government of colluding with timber magnate Try Pheap to illegally log the protected forests of northeastern Cambodia that they could be sued unless they made changes to the text. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-warns-of-lawsuit-over-new-illegal-logging-report-92665/
Local push on climate change
NGOs yesterday called on the government to make funds for combating the effects of climate change available to local governments, rather than concentrating them at the national level. ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/local-push-climate-change
Too soon to issue new loans, NGOs tell World Bank
A group of NGOs on Monday told the World Bank to fix the land-rights problems surrounding its past projects in Cambodia before lifting a freeze on new lending to the country it imposed in 2011 to protest the mass eviction of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak ...
Zsombor Peter
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/too-soon-to-issue-new-loans-ngos-tell-world-bank-88151/
Gov’t says debate is open, but NGOs boycott LANGO workshop
The human rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs) Licado and Adhoc both say they will not attend Wednesday’s consultation workshop on the controversial draft Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organizations (LANGO) hosted by the National Assembly. ...
Muny Sithyna and Ros Chanveasna
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/12920/gov---t-says-debate-is-open--but-ngos-boycott-lango-workshop/
NGO gives Hun Sen’s land titling project mixed marks
In perhaps the most comprehensive review to date of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s 2012 land titling project, the NGO Forum on Tuesday said the campaign has yielded major benefits, but not without some serious costs—particularly for the country’s beleaguered indigenous communities. ...
Kuch Naren
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ngo-gives-hun-sens-land-titling-project-mixed-marks-85297/
Ministry official rejects NGO report on city’s slums
A government official rejected calls from a pair of NGOs on Tuesday to do more for Phnom Penh’s slums amid what they described as an opaque land-titling system that has routinely failed poor communities. In a joint report, “The Exclusion of Urban Poor Communities From Systematic ...
Khuon Narim and Zsombor Peter
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ministry-official-rejects-ngo-report-on-citys-slums-81606/
NGOs to boycott election law workshop
Dozens of NGOs are planning to boycott a workshop Monday to discuss the new election law, saying that the CPP and CNRP have not given them enough time to review the draft and that they do not want to give the event a veneer of ...
Alex Willemyns and Hul Reaksmey
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ngos-to-boycott-workshop-on-election-law-79285/
Clash at Koh Kong SEZ protest
A 60-year-old woman was injured and sent to hospital yesterday when police cracked down on anti-eviction protesters blocking a busy bridge in Koh Kong province, villagers said. More than 100 villagers locked in a dispute with the company that manages the Koh Kong Special Economic ...
Sen David and Pech Sotheary
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/clash-koh-kong-sez-protest
Villagers in the dark over dam relocation
Communities living close to the Lower Sesan II dam site in Stung Treng province have called on the government to publicly disclose what compensation they will receive. Logging continues as the area is cleared ahead of construction, but those who will be forced to leave their ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/post-weekend/villagers-dark-over-dam-relocation
Economic growth has come at high cost, experts warn
Experts say that Cambodia’s economic growth remains fragile and unsustainable, bringing environmental degradation, social inequality and, at times, unrest to the country. Cambodia has maintained a high economic growth rate in recent years, up to 8 percent, “but that high growth comes with high costs,” said ...
Khoun Theara
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/economic-growth-has-come-at-high-cost-experts-warn/2427241.html