SRP calls to suspend Prey Long rubber firm

10 September 2011
Economic land concessions and plantations / Environment and natural resources / Land / Rubber
Cambodia / CRCK rubber company / deforestation / Prey Long protected forest / Rubber plantation

Opposition party lawmaker Son Chhay has sent a letter to Deputy Prime Minister Sok An asking for the immediate suspension of a Vietnamese rubber plantation in the endangered Prey Long forest, accusing the firm of illegal deforestation. In the letter dated Wednesday, Mr Chhay also asked Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun to answer questions at the National Assembly next month on the government’s policy regarding economic land concessions in Prey Long forest, one of the largest and last remaining lowland evergreen forests in Southeast Asia. “Deforestation in Prey Long has not been stopped and the National Assembly has yet to receive any official documents stating who gave the rights to CRCK [rubber company] to cut down trees in its zone and use the land to grow rubber,” the letter said… (Kuch Naren, p11)