បរិស្ថាន និងធនធានធម្មជាតិ
ព្រៃឈើ និងរុក្ខាប្រមាញ់
Tensions rise as villagers, armed police ready for protests
After several days of grassroots campaigning by local villagers to save Prey Long forest, tension in this part of northern Kompong Thom province is rising. The 300-strong group of campaigners seemed to be heading for a confrontation with provincial authorities, as officials warned yesterday that ...
Striving to save the forest, Prey Long villagers launch patrols
For the several hundred villagers who have been camping and patrolling in a remote part of the jungle in northern Kompong Thom for several days as part of their campaign to save Prey Long forest, the strain is starting to show. Human rights workers say that ...
Villagers campaigning to save forest harassed, NGO says
As hundreds of villagers belonging to the Prey Long People’s Network began a week-long campaign to save Prey Long forest, Kompong Thom province military police intervened Sunday and prevented a group of about 80 villagers from joining the campaign, an environmental activist said yesterday. Chut Wutty, ...
Villagers campaign in Kompong Thom to protect Prey Long Forest
Hundreds of villagers living around Prey Long forest have begun a weeklong campaign in the north of Kompong Thom province to protect Prey Long, one of Cambodia’s largest remaining primary forests, the Prey Long People’s Network said yesterday The group of villagers planned to protest later ...
Wildlife sanctuary shrinks again
The Royal Cambodian Government has given another slice of the Boeung Per Wildlife Sanctuary to the agro-industry. A report in the Royal book released on October 12 states that 1,410 hectares had been granted to two unidentified private businesses for development, particularly the planting of rubber ...
Rare giant ibis loses habitat
The latest in a series of land concessions granted in protected forests has cut nearly 10,000 hectares from Cambodia’s largest wildlife sanctuary – home to the Kingdom’s critically endangered national bird, the Giant Ibis. A September 7 sub-decree, released on Monday evening, reclassified 9,237 hectares of ...
Boosting of resin production a way to increase rural incomes
Environmental groups that gathered at the Himawari Hotel in Phnom Penh on Friday said that tens of thousands of rural Cambodians could benefit from the development of the country’s resin industry. At a conference held by the Non-Timber Forest Products Exchange Program for South and Southeast ...
500 hectares of sanctuary granted to rubber company
Five hundred hectares of Mondolkiri land inside a protected wildlife sanctuary have been granted to a rubber company, sparking concerns among indigenous minorities who rely on the forest. According to a sub-decree dated August 31 and signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen, the government approved an ...
Rare tiger prey at risk from land concessions
Surveys conducted by the World Wildlife Foundation have revealed that the world’s largest population of banteng, an endangered species of cattle that once thrived in the Kingdom, remains at risk due to economic land concessions and poaching inside protected areas The number of banteng in Cambodia ...
Business boom depletes forests
During the past four years, Cambodia has seen drastic decreases in rare species of trees due to illegal logging, community research from the National Resource Protection Group indicates. If continued unabated, illegal logging threatens to wholly deplete Cambodia’s rare tree species, Chut Wutty said. Cambodia’s ...
USAID Report Offers New Way to Protect Prey Long Forest
The government should abandon its current management of Prey Long forest and shift to a plan that conserves the forst while also optimizing its economic uses, such as agriculture, carbon credits and controlled timber exploitation, according to a recent report by the US Agency for ...
Natural Resources
Lists and describes protected areas and community forests in Cambodia, which may also be viewed on an interactive map. ...
Land Tycoon Lavishes Largesse on Sanctuary Staff
Officials working in Boeng Per Wildlife Sanctuary and in nearby communities said yesterday that they were receiving new motorbikes and digital cameras from businessman Try Pheap, who in recent months received large-scale rubber concessions in the Preah Vihear province sanctuary. Earlier this week, it was ...
Homes torched in wildlife sanctuary
Government officials and armed police burnt down 25 homes in Oddar Meanchey province’s Anlong Veng district yesterday claiming they were in the protected Kulen Prumtep Wildlife Sanctuary, villagers and a rights group investigator said yesterday. The houses, which are part of larger community of about ...
Huge swaths of flooded forest protected by decree
Almost 650,000 hectares of ecologically-rich flooded forest surrounding the Tonle Sap lake has been protected by a sub-decree signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday. The 647,406 hectare area spans sections of Kampong Chhnang, Pursat, Battambang, Banteay Meanchey, Siem Reap and Kampong Thom provinces. ...
Hun Sen Establishes Protected Zone for Tonle Sap Floodplains
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday signed off on a sub-decree that officially created a 640,000-hectare protected zone covering the flooded forest and floodplains of Tonle Sap lake. The sub-decree determined that 647,406 hectares of flooded forest around Tonle Sap lake in Kompong Chhnang, Pursat, ...
Land Concessionaire Gives $130,000 to Officials
Businessman Try Pheap, who in recent months received large-scale economic land concessions in Boeng Per Wildlife Sanctuary in Preah Vihear province, has donated $130,000 to the sanctuary’s environmental management and the local CPP office, officials said yesterday. Recipients of the funds denied that there was ...
Villagers Block Road to Stop Threat of Evictions
A simmering land dispute in Kratie province’s Snuol Wildlife Sanctuary flared up Friday as hundreds of desperate villagers blocked National Road 76A for four hours in an effort to prevent the clearing of their homes and farms by a rubber company, villagers and human rights ...
Prey Long Forest Protesters Rounded Up, 'Reeducated'
Authorities in Phnom Penh briefly detained about 100 villagers yesterday who were distributing leaflets to raise awareness of the ongoing destruction of Prey Long, one of Cambodia’s largest remaining primary forests. The leaflet distributors had their materials confiscated and were escorted to six commune offices ...
HLH to Expand With Corn, Rice Plantations
Singapore-listed firm HLH Group is planning to expand its presence in Cambodia with 90,000 hectares of corn, rice and soybean plantations planned over the next decade in Kompong Speu and Koh Kong provinces, an official at the company said yesterday. HLH Group came under scrutiny ...
(Simon Marks and Kuch Naren, p 29)
http://www.camnet.com.kh/cambodia.daily/
Cambodian 'Avatars' Rally to Save Forest
More than one hundred villagers dressed as the forest people from the hit film “Avatar” protested in the Cambodian capital Thursday against the destruction of the country’s Prey Lang forestThey say the forest, which is a source of livelihood for some 200,000 mainly indigenous people, ...
Protected forest ‘is finished’
In the latest government backed appropriation of protected land, nearly 20,000 hectares of the Boeung Per wildlife sanctuary have been reclassified as state private land for agro-industrial development. Two sub-decrees, obtained by The Post this week and initialed by Prime Minister Hun Sen on July ...
Forest on the auction block
Almost 30,000 hectares of a wildlife sanctuary in Oddar Meanchey, Siem Reap and Preah Vihear provinces have been reclassified as state private land for agricultural development, drawing sharp criticism from rights groups. Four sub-decrees signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen on July 22 reclassify land ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011080950943/National-news/forest-on-the-auction-block.html
Mass Evictions Loom for Wildlife Sanctuary
Ms Sam On, 37, has already lost her house. It was one of three homes razed in April by Kratie provincial military police, environment officials and workers of the Sovannvuthy rubber company, after a tense stand-off with about 100 villagers that villagers said ended with ...