News
Government timber figures belie ‘ban’ on Vietnam trade
A series of quarterly reports from the National Bank of Cambodia raises questions about the government’s ban on timber exports, as they show that last year, more than $5 million in sawn timber was exported from the Kingdom. The latest report, released earlier this month ...
Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/government-timber-figures-belie-ban-exports
Promised Areng road will bring logging: org
Activists from environmental group Mother Nature yesterday cautioned that a proposed road pledged by Prime Minister Hun Sen for the Areng Valley could cause an increase in illegal logging and drug abuse. ...
Lay Samean
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/promised-areng-road-will-bring-logging-org
Government pledges thirty percent boost in forest rangers by 2017
The government said this week it wanted to increase by at least 30 percent the number of forest rangers working next year in Cambodia’s wildlife sanctuaries, national parks and other protected areas to guard against encroaching logging, poaching and farming. ...
Rayna Stackhouse
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-pledges-thirty-percent-boost-forest-rangers-2017-117134/
The deforestation continues
The high-pitched whine of chainsaws drowned out the sound of birds and bugs you usually hear during any trek through Prey Lang forest. What was once an area full of animals scurrying under the shade of gargantuan trees is now largely populated by stumps and ash. The ...
May Titthara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/28863/the-deforestation-continues/
Environmental groups given chance to address PM Hun Sen at forum
With a mixture of hope and hard-earned scepticism, environmentalists from around the country will today get an opportunity most had never dreamed possible: an audience with the prime minister. About 500 civil society activists have been invited to Phnom Penh for the first National Forum ...
Cristina Maza and Kong Meta
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/environmental-groups-given-chance-address-pm-hun-sen-forum
Returned UDG evictees want double the land
The 529 families who in 2010 traded their homes inside a $3.8 billion Chinese development project in Koh Kong province for land about 20 km away have petitioned local authorities to double the size of their replacement plots, officials said on Wednesday. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/returned-udg-evictees-want-double-land-115129/
Prey Lang still logged: community
Continued widespread logging in the Prey Lang forest is evidence that the government’s recent push to have more than 400,000 hectares of land protected is toothless, according to activists as well as a Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN) report released yesterday. ...
Pav Suy
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/26693/prey-lang-still-logged--community/
Rosewood exports undercut UN protections
Cambodia exported hundreds of millions of dollars worth of threatened Siamese rosewood in the 18 months after ratifying a 2013 international protocol designed to protect the species from destructive trade, according to a report released on Friday. ...
Ben Paviour
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/rosewood-exports-undercut-un-protections-114612/
Environment focus for UNDP
Monday’s World Environment Day was recognized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) when the organization’s headquarters in Cambodia issued a press release outlining the importance of environmental protection in the Kingdom. ...
Tin Sokhavuth
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/25923/environment-focus-for-undp/
Species in ‘dramatic decline’ in east: WWF
Multiple animal species are in “dramatic decline” on Cambodia’s Eastern Plains as a result of habitat loss, road incursion, insufficient law enforcement and poaching, the World Wildlife Fund said in a statement yesterday. ...
Igor Kossov
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/species-dramatic-decline-east-wwf
Cambodia heaps praise on U.S.-Vietnam climate accord
Officials and environmentalists have congratulated Vietnam and the United States on a recent climate changed agreement signed between the two former adversaries, saying the co-operation will have a positive impact on mitigating the effects of the phenomenon in the region. ...
Phorn Bopha
http://www.voacambodia.com/a/cambodia-heaps-praise-on-us-vietnam-climate-accord/3347270.html
Government will start chipping away at protected areas
Between 2009 and 2012, the Ministry of Environment went on nationwide leasing spree, signing over vast swaths of the country’s nominally protected areas to private companies for rubber plantations and other agribusiness ventures. ...
Zsombor Peter and Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-will-start-chipping-away-at-protected-areas-113127/
Cambodia declares protected area in hotly contested Prey Lang forest
A landmark decision by Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen could see almost a million hectares of forest reclassified as protected areas in a country with one of the highest deforestation rates in the world. But the order, circulated on Friday, to transfer control of the sites ...
Daniel Pye
https://news.mongabay.com/2016/05/cambodia-protected-areas/
Prey Lang shorted in new protected areas
The core of one of Cambodia’s most important and abused forests —Prey Lang—was officially declared a protected area this week after years of campaigning by local activists and foreign conservationists. ...
Kuch Naren
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/prey-lang-shorted-in-new-protected-areas-111963/
Preah Vihear excluded from protection plan
The Ministry of Environment conducted a workshop yesterday to discuss the government’s plan to designate five forest areas, totaling about one million hectares of land, as protected. ...
May Titthara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/24212/preah-vihear-excluded-from-protection-plan/
In Phnom Penh, a looming sewage crisis
Renderings of Casa Meridian, a new condominium complex, suggest that its wealthy buyers are investing in a glistening 414-unit skyscraper overlooking a placid, ocean-blue body of water surrounding Koh Pich island, which is sprouting a number of luxury towers developed by the Overseas Cambodian Investment ...
Ben Paviour
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/111364-111364/
Gov’t asked to protect nearly 1 million hectares of forest
The Ministry of Environment has proposed the government establish nearly one million hectares of newly protected forest, an area that will include the Prey Lang forest, according to ministry spokesman Sao Sopheap. ...
May Titthara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/23420/gov---t-asked-to-protect-nearly-1-million-hectares-of-forest/
Ministry encourages conservation, domestication of wild animals
The Ministry of Environment is encouraging people living in or around protected areas to start feeding and domesticating wild animals, and to abstain from eating them, with similar strategies in animal conservation being attempted in communities in Preah Vihear province. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/23236/ministry-encourages-conservation--domestication-of-wild-animals/
Tonle bassac dredging necessary, say officials
In order to aid waterway transport, sand-dredging – largely banned since a 2011 decree – will soon begin reappearing at dozens of locations along the Tonle Bassac river, a spokesman from the Ministry of Mines and Energy confirmed yesterday. ...
Niem Chheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/tonle-bassac-dredging-necessary-say-officials
Kingdom ranks low on global green list
Cambodia has performed poorly in the 2016 edition of a recent environmental report, ranking a dismal 146 out of 180 countries.The Kingdom returned one of the lowest Environmental Performance Index (EPI) scores in the region, narrowly edging ahead of Myanmar and Laos. ...
Erin Handley
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/kingdom-ranks-low-global-green-list
Cambodia preparing for the impacts of climate change, says official
Cambodia is beginning to coordinate efforts to respond to climate change, a government official said ahead of high-level talks in California at which the environment is set to be on the agenda. ...
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/cambodia-preparing-for-the-impacts-of-climate-change-says-official/3193231.html
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/cambodia-preparing-for-the-impacts-of-climate-change-says-official/3193231.html
Ministry of environment opens new building
The Ministry of Environment on Monday inaugurated its palatial new headquarters in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district, the result of a state-private land swap. ...
Khy Sovuthy
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ministry-of-environment-opens-new-building-104401/
Police accuse firm, Oknha of illegal logging
In a rare move, the National Police on Monday leveled accusations of illegal logging against a number of government-granted economic land concessions (ELCs) in the eastern province of Mondolkiri, singling out a Chinese-owned rubber plantation and wealthy businessman Soeng Sam Ol. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/police-accuse-firm-oknha-of-illegal-logging-104389/
Gov’t takes back Phnom Kulen from CPP lawmaker
The Environment Ministry has revoked the rights of a company owned by government lawmaker and tycoon Sieng Nam to manage the Kulen Mountain Resort in the Preah Bat Jayavarman-Nordom National Park in Siem Reap province, saying the move was in the national interest. ...
Taing Vida
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/19006/gov---t-takes-back-phnom-kulen-from-cpp-lawmaker/