Rubber Firm Accused of Illegal Deforestation

A rubber company that has been repeatedly accused of encroaching on communal land belonging to an ethnic minority in Ratanakkiri province has cleared 150 hectares of forest outside of its economic land concession (ELC) in the past month, according to the senior investigator for local rights group Adhoc. A communal forestry committee formed by ethnic Jarai minority residents of Lom village in O’Yadaw district’s Paknhai commune has monitored the operations of Vietnamese-owned Company 72 over the past month and reported to Adhoc that, despite promises not to do so, the company has continued to clear land outside of its 6,000-hectare ELC. … Mr. [Pen] Bonnar [Adhoc’s senior investigator] said that most of the wood that has been cleared by the company in the past month is of low value, and would probably be burned to allow the company to expand its rubber plantation. Cambodia’s 2001 Land Law says indigenous communities should receive automatic protection of their forests, but Lom villagers have complained over the past five months that what’s left of their land is being systemically cleared by Company 72 and Day Dong Yoeun, another Vietnamese company. …

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