Prey Long forest campaigners march on rubber plantation

Angered by the clearing of parts of Prey Long forest, several hundred indigenous minority villagers marched on a rubber plantation here in northern Kompong Thom province yesterday night and breached its gate in order to demand that the company stop cutting down trees in the area. About 300 villagers, most of whom are indigenous minority Kuy, had trekked and patrolled through the jungle in recent days as part of a grassroots campaign to demand protection for Prey Long forest. As they left the forest yesterday and marched up to the entrance of the 6,000-hectare rubber plantation owned by Vietnamese rubber company CRCK, the galvanized villagers demanded access to the site…