បរិស្ថាន និងធនធានធម្មជាតិ
Construction of Lower Sesan Dam in Stung Treng to Start in 2014
Construction of the Lower Sesan 2 Dam in Stung Treng province will begin in 2014 and the government will spend next year relocating some 5,000 people from villages that are located in the dam’s future reservoir area. Located near the confluence of the Sesan and Srepok ...
As Climate Changes, Farmers Need More Help
The government is not doing enough to help farmers weather the destructive effects of drought and flooding brought on by climate change, leaving NGOs to provide aid and emergency relief in cases of natural disaster, agriculture industry leaders said at a forum yesterday. ...
Laos holds "groundbreaking" ceremony for contentious Mekong dam
Laos held a “groundbreaking” ceremony on Wednesday for a $3.5 billion hydropower dam on the Mekong River that is opposed by environmentalists and some neighbouring countries because of the possible impact on livelihoods, fisheries and agriculture. But it was unclear when actual construction of the contentious ...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/07/laos-dam-idUSL3E8M77GG20121107
Illegal loggers, trafficker return
Fourteen Cambodian men jailed in Thailand for drug trafficking or illegal logging have been released in the past week after reaching the end of their sentences, a border official said yesterday. Touch Ra, director of the Chaom Sangam Cambodia-Thailand border checkpoint in Oddar Meanchey province, said ...
Villagers Accuse Police Chief of Illegal Logging
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 ...
Chorus of complaints greet Xayaburi plans
The US yesterday criticised Laos for announcing it will begin building the 1,285-megawatt Xayaburi dam on the Mekong River today without studying its potential effects on Cambodia and Vietnam. A spokesperson from the US State Department in Washington said the government was concerned construction of the ...
Concerns mount over dam
Sketchy details that fail to specify when construction of the Lower Sesan 2 hydro dam will begin, or name the Chinese company involved, have villagers fearing for their future, representatives and environmental groups say. Since the Council of Ministers announced on Friday it had signed off ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012110559575/National-news/concerns-mount-over-dam.html
Laos approves Xayaburi 'mega' dam on Mekong
Laos has given the go-ahead to build a massive dam on the lower Mekong river, despite opposition from neighbouring countries and environmentalists. A formal ceremony marking the start of full construction at Xayaburi would be held on Wednesday, the government said. ...
Cop nabbed in timber bust
The Anti-Corruption Unit has arrested a military police officer accused of involvement in an illegal luxury timber racket in Pursat province’s Krakor district – an area where government investigators conceded that complicity by the powerful was rife. On Saturday, the anti-graft agency arrested military police officer ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012110559576/National-news/cop-nabbed-in-timber-bust.html
Farming implicated in climate change
Food production accounts for almost one third of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, according to a study published last week by the agricultural research organisation CGIAR. Food systems, from growing crops and raising livestock to storage and transportation, contribute 19 to 29 per cent of global ...
US criticizes Laos decision to build Mekong dam
The United States on Monday criticized a decision by the struggling Asian nation of Laos to build the first dam across the mainstream of the Mekong River, a project that environmentalists warn could affect tens of millions of livelihoods and trigger a dam-building spree along ...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20121105/us-us-laos-dam/
Dam Firm Told to Build Homes for Affected Communities
Prime Minister Hun Sen has said that the company responsible for building the Lower Sesan 2 dam in Stung Treng province will be in charge of constructing homes for thousands of villagers that will be displaced according to a statement Friday by the Council of ...
A Dam Conundrum: Xayaburi Project Could Help Laos And Thailand, Hurt Cambodia And Vietnam
Officials in Laos announced that construction of the controversial Xayaburi dam will begin with a kickoff ceremony at the construction site Wednesday. Protests from human rights activists and environmental groups have delayed the project for 18 months, but the joint Laotian and Thai project is apparently ...
Sesan Dam Approval Angers Villagers, Human Rights Groups
The government approved the Lower Sesan 2 dam project in Stung Treng province without any prior consultation with the most affected communities in Sesan district, where at least 5,000 people stand to be displaced, rights groups and villagers said yesterday. A study published earlier this ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sesan-dam-approval-angers-villagers-rights-groups-5231/
Alleged rosewood loggers shot dead by Thai troops
Three Cambodians were shot and killed early on Saturday morning after engaging in a firefight while illegally logging along the Thai border, officials said yesterday. The three are believed to have been shot after crossing from Battambang’s Samlot district into Thai territory while logging luxury rosewood “The ...
Last link in Wutty case freed
The only man convicted in relation to a murder case that made global headlines, the killing of environmentalist Chut Wutty and military police officer, In Rattana, walked free on Friday, less than two weeks after his sentencing, rights group Licadho said. Ran Boroth, who was ...
Thai soldiers kill 3 Cambodian loggers
Thai soldiers have shot dead three Cambodian men for illegally cutting rosewood on the frontier of Thai territory He [Prach Chan, governor of Cambodia’ s Battambang province] said the Thai side claimed that the men illegally entered Thai territory for logging purposes on Saturday, in an ...
Government Approves Dam On Lower Sesan
The Council of Ministers on Friday signed off on the Lower Sesan 2 dam project in Stung Treng province, despite long-standing criticism leveled against the project by environmental groups who say it would adversely affect 100,000 people as a consequence of reduced access to fish. The ...
Killer in Chut Wutty Case Walks Free Six Months Later
Rann Boroth, the only man convicted in the double killing six months ago of the country’s leading environmental activist, Chut Wutty, and military police officer, walked free from prison on Friday after the Koh Kong Provincial Court issued an order for his release. On October ...
Cambodia approves Lower Sesan 2 hydroelectric dam
Cambodia’s government has approved a controversial hydroelectric dam on a tributary of the Mekong River. The joint venture involves Cambodian, Chinese and Vietnamese investment of $781m (£488m) and is due to be completed within five years. The project in northern Stung Treng province is known as Lower ...
Protected forest reclassified as private land
The entirety of three protected forests are now classified as private land, an investigation from rights group Adhoc has found, along with tens of thousands of additional hectares of what has once been state public land In three cases, Adhoc’s findings show that entire protected forests ...
Scrutiny over Finnish firm’s ties to Xayaburi
The Finnish government will investigate multinational consulting and engineering firm Pöyry over its involvement in Laos’s Xayaburi dam project, a letter obtained by the Post yesterday reveals. According to the letter from Finland’s Ministry of Employment and the Economy, dated October 16, a complaint filed by ...
Flood money runneth over
Flooding this year cost the government significantly less than expected due to better preparation and lower water levels than in previous years, first vice president of the National Committee for Disaster Management Nhim Vanda announced yesterday. The NCDM could not yet report the precise amount spent on flood ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012103159481/National-news/flood-money-runneth-over.html
Bunong Minority Villagers Protest Against Rubber Company
About 80 ethnic Bunong villagers living in Mondolkiri’s Pech Chreada district staged a protest against the Socfin-KCD rubber company Monday, demanding that the firm honor its long-standing pledge to return 1,000 hectares of farmland located inside its concession. Socfin-KCD, a join venture between Socfin, a ...