បរិស្ថាន និងធនធានធម្មជាតិ
An unsettling prospect
Resettlement studies are being carried out at the site of the proposed Stung Cheay Areng hydropower dam in Koh Kong province, officials said yesterday, amid suggestions that yet another Chinese company is now involved in the controversial project.Tou Savuth, Thma Bang district governor, said staff ...
Shane Worrell and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/unsettling-prospect
Luxury wood stash seized in R’kiri raid
A house in Ratanakkiri owned by a provincial deputy police chief was raided on Saturday, yielding seven cubic metres of luxury timber. Ratanakkiri Provincial Court and Forestry Administration officials carried out the raid on the property where the deputy police chief is the landlord, but he ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/luxury-wood-stash-seized-r%E2%80%99kiri-raid
Monks and Cash Rewards Save Softshell Turtles
SAMBOR DISTRICT, Kratie Province – A sharply dressed usher in a crisp black shirt, black pants and a shiny black tie escorted guests to one of several bungalow-style, private booths at the Mloub Dong restaurant on a recent evening. While the privacy the restaurant offers is ...
Khy Sovuthy and Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/monks-and-cash-rewards-save-softshell-turtles-49329/
Government Drops Challenge to Official Forest Cover Figure
The Forestry Administration on Thursday said it could not comment on the accuracy of new, satellite-generated maps that suggest the government has been vastly overstating the country’s forest cover. Open Development Cambodia, an open data website, on Wednesday published a series of maps using U.S. satellite ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-drops-challenge-to-official-forest-cover-figure-49264/
Rainsy ‘Twisting Facts’: Vietnamese embassy
The Vietnamese embassy fired back yesterday at opposition party leader Sam Rainsy’s claim that Vietnamese companies granted economic land concessions in Prey Lang forest are turning the area into a Vietnamese “colony”. On Wednesday, Rainsy visited the forest and claimed that CRCK, a Vietnamese firm granted ...
Meas Sokchea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rainsy-%E2%80%98twisting-facts%E2%80%99-vietnamese-embassy
Way of life vanishing: villagers
Since 2011, an estimated 3,000 resin trees have been illegally razed by rogue loggers and a land concessionaire operating in Mondulkiri’s Sen Monorom district, villagers claimed yesterday. Resin trees are a vital source of income for the Phnong ethnic community in Sokdom commune, according to Thleuk ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/way-life-vanishing-villagers
Credit Suisse’s HAGL holdings drawing fire
Credit Suisse, a financial services firm based in Switzerland, has been accused of aiding land grabbing in Cambodia by becoming a major shareholder in Vietnamese rubber giant Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) Group. In a statement released today, Global Witness (GW), an NGO based in England, ...
Shane Worrell
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/credit-suisse%E2%80%99s-hagl-holdings-drawing-fire
Cambodia Opposition Leader Urges Halt to Forest Land Concessions
Cambodia’s opposition leader called Wednesday for a halt to land concessions granted by the government to foreign companies in the country’s vast Prey Lang Forest, calling for greater protection of one of Southeast Asia’s last remaining lowland evergreen woodlands. Cambodia National Rescue Party President Sam ...
Radio Free Asia News Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/prey-lang-12112013181039.html
Forest Falls in Ratanakkiri to the Tune of Chainsaws, Trucks
LUMPHAT WILDLIFE SANCTUARY, Ratanakkiri Province – From behind the corrugated metal walls of Daun Penh Agrico’s wood depot, the raspy buzz of a chainsaw rattled through the surrounding forest on Monday afternoon. As the chainsaw revved and cut, a heavy-duty truck packed full of long, sawn ...
Zsombor Peter and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/forest-falls-in-ratanakkiri-to-the-tune-of-chainsaws-and-trucks-49134/
Man fronts court over Pheap row
A man facing defamation charges was questioned in Kandal Provincial Court yesterday following his comments in a report that alleged tycoon Try Pheap was illegally logging. San Sen was quoted in a Cambodian Human Rights Task Force (CHRTF) report last month that implicated the tycoon in ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/man-fronts-court-over-pheap-row
Gibbons to Be Reintroduced to Angkor Forest
A pair of endangered pileated gibbons will be released today into the forest in the Angkor Archaeological Park, the beginning of a project that could see the resettlement of many other animals that had been extirpated from the area, wildlife experts said. “We are hoping that ...
Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/gibbons-to-be-reintroduced-to-angkor-forest-49157/
Villagers Ask Chinese Embassy to Intervene Against Dam Investors
Communities threatened by the planned construction of three hydropower dams in Stung Treng and Ratanakkiri provinces will today submit to the Chinese Embassy a petition demanding that the embassy intervene against Chinese companies investing in the dams. The petition, to be presented in Chinese, Khmer and ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-ask-chinese-embassy-to-intervene-against-dam-investors-49144/
Can’t see the forest …
The percentage of Cambodia covered in forest has fallen from about 72 per cent in 1973 to only about 46 per cent in 2013, satellite image data released yesterday shows. A series of animated maps that Open Development Cambodia (ODC) produced from NASA satellite images detail ...
Shane Worrell
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/can%E2%80%99t-see-forest-%E2%80%A6
Kratie wood trucked to Vietnam nightly: NGO
A Vietnamese company has been transporting thousands of dollars’ worth of illegally logged luxury timber from Kratie’s Snuol district to Vietnam on a nightly basis under the nose of authorities, an environmental protection NGO said yesterday. At least 10 trucks with an estimated five cubic metres of ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/kratie-wood-trucked-vietnam-nightly-ngo
Flooding Caused Evacuation of 31,000 Houses
More than 31,000 households were evacuated and 168 people died across 20 provinces during this year’s rainy-season flooding, according to the Humanitarian Response Forum (HRF), which released its final report on the flooding Monday. In general, flooding did not affect Cambodia as badly as in 2011, ...
Denise Hruby and Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/flooding-caused-evacuation-of-31000-houses-48969/
Kids key in disaster planning
Stronger disaster planning is needed to avoid future devastation and loss of life caused by flooding, according to a report published by World Vision yesterday. The report, titled Cities Prepare, recommends that the Cambodian government and civil society work to place “a stronger emphasis on disaster risk ...
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/kids-key-disaster-planning
Illegal logging suspects arrested
Two men were arrested and charged on Sunday with smuggling more than 2,000 kilograms of luxury-grade rosewood from Kampong Thom to Siem Reap town, anti-crime officials said yesterday. Thanh Ti, 21, and Viet Thy Thanh, 19, were caught manning a truck transferring 2,400 kilograms of rosewood ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/illegal-logging-suspects-arrested
Air Pollution—The Latest Threat to Angkor Park
Air pollution from vehicles and electric generators inside the Angkor Archeological Park and in Siem Reap City is soiling and darkening the monuments at the World Heritage Site, an official at the Apsara Authority, which is responsible for the park, said Friday. Options to decrease ...
Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/air-pollution-the-latest-threat-to-angkor-park-48814/
Suy Sem Set for Reinstatement as Minister of Mines and Energy
The National Assembly will vote this month to decide whether the ruling CPP’s recently removed Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy, Suy Sem, will be appointed as the new Minister of Mines and Energy, CPP lawmaker Chheang Vun said Friday. Mr. Sem’s return to his old, ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/suy-sem-set-for-reinstatement-as-minister-of-mines-and-energy-48820/
‘Wintery’ weather warning
As temperatures drop during the cool season, children, infants and the elderly should take extra measures to ward off common seasonal illnesses, officials from the Ministry of Health said on Wednesday. In a press release issued by the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization’s ...
Mom Kunthear and Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98wintery%E2%80%99-weather-warning
To Celebrate Relations With China, Hun Sen Plants Rosewood Tree
Prime Minister Hun Sen and the visiting president of the China-Cambodia Friendship Association (CCFA) each planted a tree inside the Peace Palace compound in Phnom Penh on Wednesday to celebrate the 55th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Gu Xiulian, president of the CCFA, ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/to-celebrate-relations-with-china-hun-sen-plants-rosewood-tree-48609/
After Reform Promise, a Return to Statecraft as Usual
In an epic, six-hour address in September, Prime Minister Hun Sen apologized for the government’s many “problems” and promised a more reformist government over the next five years of his rule. Targeting corruption, deforestation and the lack of transparency across government sectors, the prime minister made ...
Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/after-reform-promise-a-return-to-statecraft-as-usual-48602/
Try Pheap Firm in Talks to Replicate Timber Deal
Well-known timber magnate Try Pheap is preparing to expand cross-country with a scheme that already gives him exclusive rights to buy all the wood felled on economic land concessions (ELCs) in Ratanakkiri province, a spokesman for the businessman said. The Agriculture Ministry’s Forestry Administration in February ...
Zsombor Peter and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/try-pheap-firm-in-talks-to-replicate-timber-deal-48511/
Official blames villagers for deforestation
Government officials yesterday laid the blame for Cambodia’s deforestation on villagers gathering firewood. “Every day, they need fuel for cooking – that’s a lot of logging,” Chheng Kimsun, director general of the Forestry Administration, said at a workshop aimed at addressing sustainable forest management. Gathered at the ...
Phak Seangly and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/official-blames-villagers-deforestation