Sesan II reservoir a laundry for illegal timber

Filthy trucks loaded with luxury timber rule the red-earth roads in this heavily deforested district. Each day, dozens of 10-wheelers bounce along the pot-holed roads, carting logs of the much-sought Thnong timber. And while some of the cargo is legal, much of it is not. A powerful conglomerate, headed by Australian-educated tycoon Kith Meng, chairman of Royal Group, has carte blanche to fell and sell timber inside a 36,000-hectare reservoir here. That reservoir is set to become the catchment area of the 400-MW Lower Sesan II hydropower dam in 2017, when a 75-meter-high wall is completed about 1.5 km downstream from the confluence of the Sesan and Srepok rivers and the cleared land becomes a water basin. But, for now, forest monitors here say little—if any—clearing of land is happening inside the Sesan reservoir. Instead, they say, the forests to the north are being looted, with the reservoir used as a vehicle to launder illegally sourced wood. …

 Matt Blomberg and Phann Ana
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sesan-ii-reservoir-a-laundry-for-illegal-timber-60575/