Try Pheap given OK to harvest yellow vine

Logging baron Try Pheap’s MDS Import Export Co, Ltd has been granted a licence to collect and process the controversial plant known as yellow vine around the Stung Atay hydropower dam in the Cardamom Mountains, according to documents received by the Post yesterday. The vine has been tenuously linked in the past to a tree found in the Cardamoms and known locally as mreas prov, which, when processed into what is known as safrol oil, can be used as a precursor in the production of illicit drugs such as ecstasy and MDMA. … A March 1 letter, signed by Lo Rasmey, secretary-general of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and addressed to the Forestry Administration chief, approves MDS Import Export’s request to collect and process yellow vine. … The 2002 Forestry Law prohibits the establishment of “yellow vine or other forest by-products’ processing facilities that may cause significant pollution or destruction to the forest ecosystem.” …

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013060466045/National/try-pheap-given-ok-to-harvest-yellow-vine.html