Environment and natural resources

A group of minivan drivers blocked a highway in Mondolkiri province Tuesday in protest of what they claim is ongoing extortion by government officials of vehicles transporting ready-made furniture. “There are four to five checkpoints and we have to pay between 10,000 to 20,000 riel ...

Despite reports that Prime Minister Hun Sen recently offered assurances that construction of the controversial Stung Cheay Areng hydropower dam would not be allowed to begin in the near future, local officials are allegedly pushing forward with plans to relocate villagers. Multiple provincial, district and village ...

Six sawmills in Preah Vihear province suspected of processing illegal timber were raided on Monday by police, military police and Forestry Administration officers who confiscated an undisclosed amount of luxury-grade wood product during their searches, an official said. ...

Ten tonnes of protected rosewood found stashed in a tanker truck bearing the logo of petroleum giant Sokimex was seized by police in Oddar Meanchey province on Friday. In August, police found 14 tons of rosewood hidden in the tanker of another truck bearing the ...

Tardiness is usually discouraged within school settings, but this year, the Education Ministry is endorsing a month-long delay for the whole academic year. Public schools, which typically start in the beginning of October, will this year commence classes on November 3, with studies continuing until the ...

Forestry activists say at least 55,000 tons of luxury wood were sent from Cambodia to China this year alone. Activists from communities that live near or among some of Cambodia’s last forests told reporters Wednesday that illegal logging is ravaging their homelands, part of a “systematic” ...

About 20 villagers who were employed in an illegal logging racket in Pailin province’s Sala Krao district have submitted a report to the provincial police accusing their two ringleaders of failing to pay their “service fee,” an official said Tuesday. ...

Police and environment officers in Mondolkiri province on Sunday confiscated more than 3,000 lengths of luxury-grade timber found inside a wildlife sanctuary but have yet to determine if it belongs to a Chinese company with a land concession in the area. ...

Six environmental organisations opposing Laos’ controversial Don Sahong hydropower dam yesterday took their complaints to a new level: The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia. In a 23-page letter, the organisations from Cambodia, Thailand and the US collectively requested an investigation into the trans-boundary impacts of the ...

Amid a recent spate of riverbank collapses in Kampong Cham province that have so far damaged three properties, authorities are advising the owners of nearly 40 houses to move their structures. Yesterday’s collapse in the province’s Kampong Cham commune destroyed the Khyol Tonle restaurant in front ...

An illegal logger in Pursat province accidentally shot a member of his own work group on Monday, according to Veal Veng district police. The loggers were allegedly going after protected timber in the Mount Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary in Veal Veng, a preserve in the Cardamom ...

Nearly 80,000 tons of Cambodian river sand has been sitting at a seaport in India for nearly two months, the second haul to turn up there in two years, despite a 2009 ban on the export of river sand handed down by Prime Minister Hun ...

Cambodian government has revoked licenses of economic land concessions of three companies in Koh Kong, Preah Sihanouk and Kampong Speu provinces, according to sub-decree. The sub-decree dated October 7 said 1,635 hectares of economic land concessions have  been taken back from Vimean Seila LTD, Vatanak Co., ...

A provincial military police commander was named yesterday by a major conservationist group as the alleged owner of a huge haul of illegal rosewood confiscated in Kampong Speu province this week. At around 3 a.m. on Tuesday, Wildlife Alliance rangers intercepted a truck carrying 12.5 cubic ...

A pair of journalists attempting to photograph a pickup truck transporting luxury wood in Preah Vihear City on Sunday evening said they were chased by the drivers and four other men wielding clubs before police intervened, but the provincial police chief denied the reporters’ claims ...

A nine-month report from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) shows that the number of illegal logging crackdowns increased 81 per cent – to 1,891 – compared with the same period last year, a spike one official attributed to a change in smugglers’ ...

Cambodian farmers are at high risk of being affected by climate change due to low levels of awareness, education and adaptation, with women particularly vulnerable, a study released yesterday says. The study, which surveyed farmers in the provinces of Battambang, Kampong Thom, Takeo and Prey Veng, ...

Representatives of an ethnic Tompoun community in Ratanakkiri province filed two separate complaints with local authorities last week accusing a group of five environment department officials of extortion after the officials allegedly caught the minority villagers trapping illegally in a wildlife sanctuary and asked for ...

The three men arrested for the murder of 49-year-old journalist Taing Try in Kratie province on Sunday morning confessed to murdering the reporter after he threatened to tell authorities about their illegal logging activities, a police official said. ...

Ahead of a national consultation meeting about Laos’s Don Sahong hydropower dam later this week, communities that will be affected by the project have made their opinion clear: suspend the dam. ...

Police in Cambodia say they have arrested three people after a journalist investigating illegal logging was shot dead. Taing Try was killed on Sunday at a logging site in Kratie province, where he had gone with several reporters. Two years ago a prominent environmentalist was also shot ...

Thai soldiers shot and seriously injured at least four illegal loggers who crossed into Thailand from Oddar Meanchey province’s Trapaing Prasat district last week, a rights worker said Sunday. A group of about 10 loggers were searching for luxury rosewood across the border in Thailand’s Sisaket ...

Very quietly, with no official public announcement, the intergovernmental assessment process for Laos’s contentious Don Sahong dam is almost over before anyone knew it began. ...

A 49-year-old journalist reportedly investigating illegal logging in Kratie province was shot dead early Sunday morning. Within hours, police arrested three men—a commune police chief, a military police officer and a Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) soldier—for the murder, officials said. Taing Try, who contributed to ...