Illegal checkpoints, logging tools netted
Activists in Kratie province’s Snuol district seized seven chainsaws over the weekend and collected evidence that four police checkpoints were used to solicit bribes from illegal loggers, representatives of the network said yesterday. After scouring thousands of hectares of protected forest from Friday through yesterday, the evidence that 40 network patrollers uncovered showed significant evidence of illegal logging of three kinds of luxury wood in Ksim commune, said Sorn Siyan, a community network representative. … Since 2003, when the government recognised the area as community forest, 2,459 hectares of that forest has been completely destroyed, and the remaining portion was threatened by powerful officials and newcomers, said Siyan. Ksim commune police chief Or Seng denied that illegal logging was occurring in his area, asserting that all of the commune’s community forest already had been felled and that the remaining forest had been granted to a private company in a government concession. …
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013031962013/National/illegal-checkpoints-logging-tools-netted.html
