News

Minister helps open controversial tycoon’s new rubber farm

Environment Minister Say Sam Al was in Preah Vihear province on Sunday to help inaugurate Try Pheap’s newest project, a $52-million rubber plantation and additional facilities that the timber magnate has cleared thousands of hectares of protected forest to build. ...

Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/minister-helps-open-controversial-tycoons-new-rubber-farm-88896/

Gov’t to raise taxes to clean up litter in cities

Environment Minister Say Sam Al on Wednesday announced the creation of a recurring annual $5-million fund to help Phnom Penh and every provincial capital clean up their trash-strewn streets, especially outside homes and restaurants. ...

Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-to-raise-taxes-to-clean-up-

Cambodia orders temporary halt to sand dredging

Cambodia has ordered a temporary halt to all sand dredging operations in the country’s rivers and lakes in order to study the environment and social impact of a practice that has caused deadly river bank collapse incidents. ...

Samean Yun
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/cambodia-dredging-03252015170821.html

Minister says minorities should rely less on forests

Environment Minister Say Sam Al on Friday pledged to protect the culture of Cambodia’s indigenous minorities, before going on to say that those groups need to learn to survive without relying on the forests they have depended on for centuries. ...

Matt Blomberg
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/minister-says-minorities-should-rely-less-on-forests-80498/

NGOs call out holes in EIA law

The Ministry of Environment is close to finalising a draft environmental impact analysis (EIA) law for development projects, but NGOs and civil society groups raised concerns that the draft law, as it stands, prevents indigenous people who live on the land from opposing such projects. Speaking ...

Chan Muyhong and Ananth Baliga
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/ngos-call-out-holes-eia-law

New WWF chief says Cambodian tigers a priority

The new director-general of the international environmental group WWF, Marco Lambertini, met Tuesday with Environment Minister Say Sam Al to raise concerns over development projects that could have harmful environmental impacts, and one in particular that could derail plans to reintroduce tigers to Cambodia. ...

Simon Henderson
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/new-wwf%E2%80%88chief-says-cambodian-tigers-a-priority-79478/

Plantations lose land for encroaching on farms

Environment Minister Say Sam Al on Monday said that more than 9,000 hectares granted to companies as economic land concessions (ELCs) were recently taken back from the owners because local villagers had been farming the land first, and announced that 14 companies had been put ...

Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/plantations-lose-land-for-encroaching-on-farms-79364/

Government: over 14,000 hectares of land cut off to hand over to people in Koh Kong, Preah Vihear provinces

Environment Minister, Say Sam Al, said on Monday that the Royal Government of Cambodia has cut off over 14,000 hectares of land and handed over to citizens, and military forces. ...

The Cambodia Herald​ News Staff
http://bit.ly/1AZj6oE

Cambodia hopes for global climate pact

Cambodia is particularly at risk from man-made climate change due to its dependence on agriculture and its geography, Minister of Environment Say Sam Al said yesterday. The minister, speaking at a workshop marking 20 years of meetings on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said ...

Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/cambodia-hopes-global-climate-pact

Soldiers train rangers to fight illegal logging

A group of 56 rangers from the Ministry of Environment last week completed a one-month training course in Phnom Penh run by the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) to help save Cambodia’s protected areas from illegal loggers, a first for the country’s rangers. ...

Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/soldiers-train-rangers-to-fight-illegal-logging-78016/

Government revokes more land licenses from 11 firms

Environment Minister Say Sam Al said Friday that the Cambodian government has canceled licenses of economic land concession for 11 companies whose land concessions adversely affected the local people. ...

The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/government-revokes-more-land-licenses-from-11-firms-7503

Land concessions cancelled

The government has seized back more than 12,000 hectares of land previously awarded to seven companies as economic land concessions (ELCs), according to a letter from the Council of Ministers. It explains that licences awarded from 2006 to 2011 for eight ELCs in the provinces ...

Phak Seangly
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/land-concessions-cancelled

Tougher ELC oversight pledged

In what is the government’s latest pledge to hold tycoons and foreign investors to account for their business practices, the Ministry of Environment will begin assessing existing and proposed economic land concessions (ELCs), cancelling or rejecting those that have negative social or environment impacts, a ...

May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/tougher-elc-oversight-pledged

Minister meets NGOs over ongoing UDG dispute

Environment Minister Say Sam Al on Thursday met with U.N. and NGO representatives to discuss the ongoing dispute between the powerful Chinese-owned Union Development Group (UDG) and villagers in Koh Kong province who say they were kicked off their land and had their shelters torched. In ...

Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/minister-meets-ngos-over-ongoing-udg-dispute-64952/

Minister lauds controversial sugar industry

Environment Minister Say Sam Al on Wednesday lauded the country’s controversial sugar industry and the jobs it has created, saying that companies operating in the sector need to be defended against the widespread criticism they have been receiving. Rights groups and the opposition CNRP have undertaken ...

Khuon Narim and Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/minister-lauds-controversial-sugar-industry-64810/

Ministry vows to take some ELC land back

Amid promises reiterated by the government yesterday that it will take a tougher stance on economic land concessions, logging tycoon Try Pheap minimally reduced his sweeping natural resource empire, returning more than 20,000 hectares of undeveloped forestry. It was unclear what kind of arrangement prompted Pheap ...

Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ministry-vows-take-some-elc-land-back

Land concession woes aired

Village representatives in Ratanakkiri yesterday shared their land grievances with the European Union ambassador, requesting he relay to the government their appeal that no further 99-year land concessions be granted to private companies. Although the Post was not permitted to attend the full two-hour meeting, NGOs present at ...

Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/land-concession-woes-aired

Parliament to summon 3 ministers for questioning

The National Assembly plans to summon three ministers for questioning over compensation to families who will be displaced or harmed by development projects, officials from the National Assembly said Sunday. Cheam Yeap, a senior CPP lawmaker, said the National Assembly would write to Environment Minister Say ...

Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/parliament-to-summon-3-ministers-for-questioning-62093/

Environment Ministry breaks ground on new location

The Ministry of Environment broke ground Monday on its new location on a piece of land near Phnom Penh’s Koh Pich island after the environment minister called off a land swap that had been shrouded in secrecy. About 200 officials attended the ceremony in Chaktomuk commune, ...

Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ministry-breaks-ground-on-new-location-60873/

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