Forest protection

The Ministry of Environment and Japan will today sign a $600,000 agreement on forest conservation for a period of three years in the Prey Lang forest, which spans four provinces. The project will focus on forest conservation, legal strengthening and community forestry development, according to a ...

The Environment Ministry has requested the National Defence Ministry to form a joint working group over the use of land in natural protected areas to cut down on land disputes and instances of illegal logging. Defence Ministry spokesman General Chhum Sucheat said both parties agreed last ...

On the orders of Prime Minister Hun Sen, Koh Kong provincial authorities on Friday inspected a section of protected mangrove forest that in December was discovered to have been filled in with sand and illegally sold, with the consent of local authorities, to tycoon Chea ...

Forty concrete posts have been placed at key locations along the boundary of Phnom Tbeng Natural Heritage Park in Preah Vihear province, paving the way for rangers to patrol the park and enforce forestry and wildlife protection laws. The work was conducted by officials from the ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday ordered the Koh Kong provincial governor to clarify reports that state mangrove forests in the province have been grabbed and filled with sand to create land for development. Speaking during the closing ceremony for an annual conference on decentralisation, Mr Hun ...

Environmental officials confirmed yesterday that they are seeking the assistance of conservation NGO Fauna and Flora International (FFI) in drafting a management plan for the new Koh Rong Marine National Park, and that for now, the previous conservation structure operated by the Fisheries Administration and ...

A section of protected mangrove forest in Koh Kong that in December was discovered to have been filled with sand was illegally sold to tycoon Chea Leanghong in 2017, documents show, with local authorities having signed off on the deal. ...

A representative of more than 100 families involved in a land dispute with a rubber company is seeking the help of a local rights group after being ordered to appear before the Oddar Meanchey Provincial Court on Friday. ...

Kampong Speu provincial authorities on Friday said they will reclaim more than 2,000 hectares of land inside the Phnom Oral Wildlife Sanctuary, though six officials interrogated earlier this month for allegedly grabbing the land will only be “educated”. Oral district deputy police chiefs Prak Moul and ...

The Wildlife Conservation Society has said it is committed to continue working with the authorities and other partners to protect Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary after three conservationists, including one WCS staff member were killed last month. Tern Soknai, a forest ranger with the Environment Ministry, Sek ...

Nearly 400 members of the Prey Lang Community Network will hold the annual Prey Lang ceremony in late March to commemorate and preserve indigenous identities and promote the forest’s potential. Meanwhile, Prey Lang activists have claimed illegal logging still exists in the area, even though the ...

Businesses expect the establishment of Cambodia’s first marine national park covering seven coastal islands to boost tourism in the area, while government officials said yesterday it would not affect private development scheduled for the islands. ...

The government announced last week the establishment of the country’s first marine national park, the Koh Rong National Park, which covers the Koh Rong archipelago off the coast of Sihanoukville. The new national park, set up by a sub-decree signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen, aims ...

The killing of three conservationists patrolling Cambodia’s biggest carbon credit project exposes the nearly insurmountable conflicts of interest plaguing schemes in which huge corporations such as Disney and Virgin Atlantic have invested millions of dollars, observers say. Military Police Officer Sek Wathana, Environment Ministry Ranger Teurn ...

Forest patrollers and rights groups are questioning why the Oddar Meanchey Forestry Administration has yet to take action after a soldier transporting illegal timber allegedly beat and threatened to kill a patroller last month. ...

Cambodia’s first marine national park was established yesterday, seemingly replacing and expanding upon a marine protection area established for the Koh Rong archipelago in 2016. ...

Kampong Speu provincial anti-economic crime police and Thporng district police yesterday morning seized six tractor loads of timber being smuggled out of the Phnom Oral Sanctuary. Kim Yon, deputy district police chief, said six homemade tractors were caught transporting the wood from the area. ...

Human rights representatives from NGO Adhoc and the United Nations have been asked to intervene in a land dispute between villagers and an army lieutenant they say was granted a land title illegally inside a protected community forest in Oddar Meanchey province. ...

A 55-year-old Vietnamese man was charged by Kampong Thom Provincial Court yesterday for illegally clearing more than six hectares of land in a protected forest. Provincial military police officer Keo Savoeun identified the suspect as Nguyen Duc Nhan, an excavator driver for a Vietnamese rubber plantation ...

Five more suspects have been arrested and are being interrogated by authorities in relation to the murder of three forest patrollers last Tuesday in Mondulkiri’s Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary, authorities confirmed yesterday. ...

Police in Mondulkiri province yesterday arrested a military officer who is a suspect in a shooting that killed three people during an operation to crack down on illegal logging. ...

Police in Mondulkiri province have arrested a military official who is a suspect in a shootout which killed three people during an operation to crack down on illegal logging. ...

As authorities yesterday searched for officials suspected of killing three forestry patrollers in a brazen ambush near Mondulkiri’s border with Vietnam, families, friends and colleagues struggled to make sense of the sudden deaths of their loved ones. ...

A Royal Cambodian Armed Forces member, backed up by seven of his fellow soldiers, allegedly attacked a community forest patroller and threatened to set him and his family on fire for confiscating illegal timber, according to the patroller. ...