ដីធ្លី
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
NGO alleges bribery over titles
An environmental protection NGO is preparing to file a lawsuit with the Kampong Speu provincial court and a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Unit against an Agriculture Department official who was allegedly paid by a development firm to issue land titles to villagers squatting on state ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ngo-alleges-bribery-over-titles
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
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/
Land-title program ‘Ineffective’
Land certificates handed out by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s youth volunteers have been seized by local authorities in some parts of the country and sold on to companies, a forum on land rights was told yesterday, amid reports of rising numbers of land conflicts. Speaking at ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/land-title-program-%E2%80%98ineffective%E2%80%99
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
Debate on land reform takes place in absence of the CPP
Civil society groups held a workshop in Phnom Penh on Thursday in which government officials and lawmakers were invited to discuss post-election land grabs and land-based conflict, although the ruling CPP failed to turn up to the event. Though incidents of land-grabbing appeared to decrease ahead ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/debate-on-land-reform-takes-place-in-absence-of-the-cpp-49282/
Summonses for 30 in Ly Yong Phat spat
Thirty people locked in a land dispute with ruling party senator and sugar tycoon Ly Yong Phat received summonses yesterday to appear in Kampong Speu provincial court. Although the summonses don’t list a complainant, some of those called to appear in court next Tuesday said they ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/summonses-30-ly-yong-phat-spat
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
Russian Boulevard land prices rising
The west end of Street 110, also known as Russian Boulevard, is attracting increasing interest from investors and retailers because of its vital role connecting Phnom Penh International Airport with the city centre. Local real estate experts estimate that land prices along the thoroughfare have risen ...
Post Staff
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/real-estate/russian-boulevard-land-prices-rising
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/
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
City Hall Announces New Plan to Raise Living Standards of Poor
City Hall announced a new plan to improve living standards in the city’s poorest areas Tuesday on International Human Rights Day, while representatives for the urban poor continued to call on the municipality to issue longsought after land titles. Addressing a crowd of 600 at Olympic ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/city-hall-announces-new-plan-to-raise-living-standards-of-poor-49078/
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
Ponzi scheme suspects’ cases sent to court: ACU
Three alleged members of a money-laundering operation worth more than $11 million who were arrested earlier this year in Phnom Penh have had their cases sent to court and are now awaiting trial, Om Yentieng, head of the Anti-Corruption Unit, said yesterday. The three suspects – ...
Vong Sokheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ponzi-scheme-suspects%E2%80%99-cases-sent-court-acu
Pursat families ordered to move
Twenty-nine families living in Pursat province have been given less than a month’s notice to pack up their belongings and move off state forest grounds. Local authorities handed out the 30-day eviction order on Sunday, according to Chhorn Khorn, a resident living in Phnom Kravanh district’s ...
Pursat families ordered to move
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pursat-families-ordered-move
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/
Mangrove ‘bulldozed for rubber plantation’
Some 1,200 hectares of flooded mangrove forest in two communes of Kampong Cham province have been bulldozed and filled in, robbing more than 700 families of the long-standing source of their livelihood, villagers there said yesterday. Villagers in Tuol Snuol commune in Kroch Chhmar district and ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/mangrove-%E2%80%98bulldozed-rubber-plantation%E2%80%99
Border beat goes on for opposition
Returning to a long-time party priority, opposition lawmakers yesterday said they will travel to Kampong Cham’s Memot district today to investigate claims that Vietnamese troops were forcing farmers off land that rightfully belongs to Cambodia. Cambodia National Rescue Party lawmaker-elect Mao Monyvan, who ran in Kampong ...
Meas Sokchea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/border-beat-goes-opposition
Bunong Living on Land Concession Evicted
An indigenous Bunong minority community in Mondolkiri province’s Keo Seima district on Wednesday filed a complaint claiming that authorities had destroyed their homes, but authorities allege that the villagers are living on land owned by a private company. Villagers claim that since November, 37 homes in ...
Mech Dara and Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/bunong-living-on-land-concession-evicted-48732/