Kratie cut to shreds
‘I heard a f—ing crazy dog say that we can’t dock in Kampong Saom, but we definitely can do that,” a crackling voice declares boisterously. The speaker, captured in video obtained by the Post, is part of an illegal timber syndicate. … The identity of the speaker is unknown and he could be anywhere in the country – indeed, this type of luxury wood harvesting is happening all over Cambodia. But nowhere is it more blatantly visible than along the national roads, endlessly lined with rubber plantations, that bisect the northeastern provinces of Kratie, Mondulkiri and Ratanakkiri. From the sky, it is clear that the multi-million dollar timber trade has already decimated Kratie’s 75,089 hectare Snuol Wildlife Sanctuary. Imagery from two of NASA’s Landsat satellites compiled by the Post from photos snapped between 2009 and 2013 suggests that about 60 per cent of the entire sanctuary’s evergreen forest has become cleared land. …
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013032964752/National/kratie-cut-to-shreds.html
