Ministries and other national bodies
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
Second haul of illegal ivory in a month found in Svay Rieng
Military police in Svay Rieng province on Friday seized more than 250 kg of elephant tusks stashed inside 10 suitcases in a van heading for the Vietnamese border, officials said. This is the second such haul in the space of a month, leading to fears Cambodia ...
Saing Soenthrith and Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/second-haul-of-illegal-ivory-in-a-month-found-in-svay-rieng-54762/
Guidelines finalized for child workers in fisheries sector
The government on Friday finalized guidelines aimed at reducing the number of children who work in the fisheries sector and do not attend school, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and the NGO World Vision said in a statement. World Vision said the guidelines, which it ...
Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/guidelines-finalized-for-child-workers-in-fisheries-sector-54260/
Power couple linked to Sinohydro project
Two of the country’s most powerful and politically connected business owners are on the board of governors of the company thought to have brokered a controversial deal between the world’s largest hydropower developer and the Cambodian government, documents obtained by the Post show. Cambodian People’s Party ...
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/power-couple-linked-sinohydro-project
Scepticism over social land grants
Nearly a million hectares of land has been granted to ordinary Cambodian citizens through social land concessions (SLC) since May 2012, the government has claimed, though civil society groups have cast doubt on that high figure and questioned how many landless or evicted poor have ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/scepticism-over-social-land-grants
Family’s world shrinks daily
Dozens of trucks, bulldozers and excavators have pushed Var Sokhoeurn to the edge of his remaining land at the Lower Sesan II dam site in Stung Treng province’s Srepok district. When Post reporters visited Sokhoeurn’s family last month, much of his land, where he grew cassava and other ...
Phak Seangly and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/family%E2%80%99s-world-shrinks-daily
NGOs say selling off old land concessions is premature
The government’s announcement on Wednesday that companies looking to start rubber plantations could skirt a moratorium on new economic land concessions (ELCs) by taking over existing, dormant ones continued to make a good impression on prospective investors in town Thursday. Ly Phalla, who heads the Agriculture ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/archives/ngos-say-selling-off-old-land-concessions-is-premature-53677/
Agriculture Ministry establishes 2 H5N1 ‘contamination zones’
The Ministry of Agriculture has created designated bird flu contamination zones in Phnom Penh and Kandal province following the deaths of hundreds of birds due to the H5N1 virus, officials said Wednesday. Agriculture Minister Ouk Rabon signed two directives late last month saying that poultry being ...
Khuon Narim and Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/agriculture-ministry-establishes-2-h5n1-contamination-zones-53633/
New owners, old story
An existing moratorium on economic land concessions should be no impediment to pouring more cash into the Kingdom’s booming, and highly criticised, rubber trade, industry executives in the capital heard yesterday, as many current ELCs can simply be recycled to a new crop of investors. Ly ...
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-owners-old-story
Kings of concessions
Vietnam and China lead the pack of foreign companies granted economic land concessions in Cambodia for agro-industrial development by a wide margin, new data released by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries show. According to the ministry’s annual report, released last month, since 1993 the ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/kings-concessions
Cambodia’s rice export in January down
Cambodia exported 21,536 tons of milled rice in January of 2014, down 4,190 tons (16%) compared to 25,726 tons exported in the same period of last year, according to a report on agriculture, forestry and fishery. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=15&token=Y2JjZWMwNzAwNDd
Compensation for culled poultry is a catch-22
Since its emergence in the region more than a decade ago, the governments of Southeast Asia have been fighting to contain the human avian influenza virus through surveillance programs, rigorous inspections and widespread culling of infected birds. In Cambodia last year, 13 people died of ...
Simon Henderson and Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/compensation-for-culled-poultry-is-a-catch-22-52485/
World Bank To Review Environmental Complaints Against Company
The World Bank says it will investigate reports from indigenous groups in Cambodia that a company funded by the bank’s International Finance Corporation is involved in deforestation and land grabs. The bank’s Office of the Compliance Adviser Ombudsman, or CAO, will first examine the credibility of ...
Sok Khemara
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/world-bank-to-review-environmental-complaints-against-company/1853122.html
Dam site still logged: NGOs
NGOS have accused logging tycoon Try Pheap’s MDS Import-Export Company – which had a licence to clear forest during the construction of the Stung Atai hydropower dam in Pursat – of continuing to log the area despite the dam being finished. Ouch Leng, director of the ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/dam-site-still-logged-ngos
Three key Ministers take actions to protect the State’s land
Three Ministers from the Ministry of Urbanization and Construction, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Ministry of Environment have met to jointly set out work-plan to manage state’s land and natural resources. The work-plan will be undertaken in line with the Government’s land policy introduced ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=15&token=OWQyMWQyZTk1ZWM
Reforestry Claim ‘A Stretch’
The government reforested 80,693 hectares of land between 2008 and 2012 as part of its efforts to combat deforestation, a recent agriculture ministry report says, but these seemingly impressive statistics were reached by counting rubber trees and other agricultural crops as adequate replacements for forests. The ...
May Titthara and Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/reforestry-claim-%E2%80%98-stretch%E2%80%99
New protection for giant ibis
A newly demarcated wildlife and forest protection zone designed to safeguard Cambodia’s national bird, the giant ibis, along with a number of other endangered species, has been approved after more than 10 years in the making. A government sub-decree approving a protection zone spanning 66,932 hectares ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-protection-giant-ibis
Exports consistent for Cambodia’s ag sector
Cambodia exported 2.9 million tons of agricultural products last year, roughly the same as 2012, but experts say the figure does not reflect the huge potential for the market. According to official data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, exports included more than 1 ...
May Kunmakara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/exports-consistent-cambodia%E2%80%99s-ag-sector
Cambodia produces 9.3 mln tonnes of paddy rice last year
Cambodia had produced 9.3 million tons of paddy rice in 2013, which was comparable to the amount in 2012, according to the report of the Ministry of Agriculture on Thursday. Hean Vanhorn, director of the single window secretariat for facilitating milled rice exports, called on ...
Global Times News Staff
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/838958.shtml#.UuHaSMr-LIU
Fish exports up 10 per cent from 2012
Cambodia’s fish output rose 10 per cent in 2013 from a year earlier, according to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Production reached 730,000 tonnes last year, Nao Thouk, director of the ministry’s fishery department, said yesterday. There were 550,000 tonnes of fresh ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/fish-exports-10-cent-2012
Cambodia new ministry on oil, gas
Cambodian lawmakers on Friday endorsed the setting up of a new ministry specifically in charge of mines and energy, in the hope that oil and gas production will finally get under way in the next couple of years. The new Ministry of Mines and Energy will ...
Bangkok Post News Staff
http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/386021/cambodia-sets-up-new-ministery-in-charge-of-oil-gas-production
High hopes for fishing season
The largest fish harvest of the year is approaching, and Phnom Penh’s fish markets are about to get busy. In short, it’s December and so prahok season is upon us. A traditional Cambodian fish paste, prahok is made from fermented Siamese mud carp called trey riel in ...
Chan Muy Hong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/high-hopes-fishing-season
State-Owned Properties to Be Sold, Swapped
Six prime government-owned properties in Phnom Penh and Battambang province have been reclassified as privately held state properties in order to pave the way for the land to be sold or swapped with private companies, according to a sub-decree signed November 8. Signed by Prime Minister ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/state-owned-properties-to-be-sold-swapped-48527/
Try Pheap Firm in Talks to Replicate Timber Deal
Well-known timber magnate Try Pheap is preparing to expand cross-country with a scheme that already gives him exclusive rights to buy all the wood felled on economic land concessions (ELCs) in Ratanakkiri province, a spokesman for the businessman said. The Agriculture Ministry’s Forestry Administration in February ...
Zsombor Peter and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/try-pheap-firm-in-talks-to-replicate-timber-deal-48511/
Official blames villagers for deforestation
Government officials yesterday laid the blame for Cambodia’s deforestation on villagers gathering firewood. “Every day, they need fuel for cooking – that’s a lot of logging,” Chheng Kimsun, director general of the Forestry Administration, said at a workshop aimed at addressing sustainable forest management. Gathered at the ...
Phak Seangly and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/official-blames-villagers-deforestation