^^^
[Government reply]
“The Ministry of Environment emphasizes that no perpetrator can escape the law. We recognize that there are small-scale natural resource offences in protected areas, but no large-scale crimes,” said the spokesman of the Cambodian Ministry of Environment to the Phnom Penh Post.

Phew!
I was a bit worried for a while.

SternAAlbifrons wrote: ↑Wed Apr 29, 2020 6:19 am ^^^
[Government reply]
“The Ministry of Environment emphasizes that no perpetrator can escape the law. We recognize that there are small-scale natural resource offences in protected areas, but no large-scale crimes,” said the spokesman of the Cambodian Ministry of Environment to the Phnom Penh Post.

Phew!
I was a bit worried for a while.

Fortunately, mass logging has been finished since 2016, and the recent damage to Cambodia's forests is all done by small groups of local villagers - says the official line.
newsworthy/world-environment-day-cambod ... ed#p130582

June 5, 2016
Minister Claims Logging Has Ended
“For the forestry problem, I can tell you today that on Environment Day, mass logging which we have seen has completely ended,” he said. “Mass logging, I can say that it is finished.”

https://www.khmertimeskh.com/24521/mini ... has-ended/

Conservation activists from the Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN) are accused of flouting the law by tracking deforestation without government permission.

As loggers exploit virus, Cambodian forest protectors defy state ban
by Matt Blomberg | @BlombergMD | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Saturday, 2 May 2020 01:00 GMT
An indigenous network says the government is attempting to stop it monitoring forest loss via patrolling and satellite imagery, just when its work is most needed

PHNOM PENH, May 2 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A Cambodian conservation group has warned that logging in the protected Prey Lang forest has ramped up during the coronavirus pandemic, vowing it would continue to monitor the destruction despite government threats of legal action to stop that work.

Members of the Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN) told the Thomson Reuters Foundation officials were allowing timber to be laundered through agri-business projects bordering the forest, one of Southeast Asia's last lowland evergreen woodlands.

Neth Pheaktra, an environment ministry spokesman, said only "very small-scale illegal logging by local people" had taken place in Prey Lang, and authorities were working to stop it.

He added that PLCN activists were flouting the law by tracking deforestation without government permission.
https://news.trust.org/item/20200502001910-su80w/

Context: Last week, the Ministry of Environment rejected a request by members of the Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN) to hold their annual tree blessing ceremony in Prey Lang on 25 February. PLCN members – most of whom are Indigenous Kuy – were forcibly prevented from holding the event inside the forest last year, and have since been banned from entering the wildlife sanctuary to conduct their community patrols.

Cambodia: Widespread illegal logging in Prey Lang rainforest amid ban on community patrols
25 February 2021, 00:00 UTC

Widespread illegal logging and the repression of environmental activism are among the grave threats to Cambodia’s Prey Lang rainforest, Amnesty International said today, one year after authorities banned environmental defenders from entering the Prey Lang wildlife sanctuary.

Recent images and remote sensing data reviewed by Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence Lab reveal that illegal logging – the main cause of deforestation in Prey Lang – is continuing apace, with widespread forest clearings and new roads cleared within the protected area.

“While Cambodian authorities prevent the Prey Lang Community Network and environmental defenders from protecting the Prey Lang wildlife sanctuary, illegal loggers are clearing land with impunity,” said Richard Pearshouse, Head of Crisis and the Environment at Amnesty International.

“The Cambodian authorities must allow these environmental defenders to resume their patrols and carry out their vital work preventing further destruction of one of the world’s most important rainforests, which is disappearing before our eyes.”

Last week, the Ministry of Environment rejected a request by members of the Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN) to hold their annual tree blessing ceremony in Prey Lang on 25 February. PLCN members – most of whom are Indigenous Kuy – were forcibly prevented from holding the event inside the forest last year, and have since been banned from entering the wildlife sanctuary to conduct their community patrols. This ongoing repression seriously undermines environmental efforts to protect Prey Lang and Indigenous peoples’ rights.

Prey Lang is mainland Southeast Asia’s largest lowland evergreen forest, covering approximately 500,000 hectares across four provinces. In 2016, much of the forest was designated as a wildlife sanctuary. More than 250,000 people live in and around Prey Lang, most of whom identify as Indigenous Kuy. Prey Lang is a crucial part of the Kuy people’s livelihood, culture and spirituality.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/ ... y-patrols/

Referring to the Prey Lang Conservation Area in particular, the spokesman for the Ministry of the Environment stated today that hunters, trappers, illegal loggers, and forest conservationists must be treated alike if they break the law.

Ministry Calls on the Stop of Ill-willed Advocacy under the Name of Environmental Protection
AKP Phnom Penh, March 18, 2021 --

The Ministry of Environment has reiterated the government’s solid commitment in natural resource conservation, and called on the stop of any ill-willed campaign under the name of “environmental protection”.

The ministry’s secretary of state and spokesperson H.E. Neth Pheaktra reinstated the points recently, following the issuance of a series of misrepresentative, destructive and politicised reports and statements, especially related to Prey Lang of Cambodia by some international and domestic non-governmental organisations.

The campaign with such a hidden agenda could mislead the public about the endeavour of the Royal Government in conserving Cambodia’s natural resources as well as promoting the environment for an inclusive and sustainable development.

What makes it so sad is that those groups do not really care about the welfare of Cambodians being shaken by the COVID-19 crisis, but spreading misinformation to hurt their confidence on the government working around o’clock to ensure their safety, he added.

Some local NGOs engaging in the campaign, he continued, have not been registered for legitimate operations. The secretary of state reaffirmed that the government as well as the Ministry of Environment is very committed to bring any natural resource perpetrators, whether they are loggers, hunters or political activists under the name of forest conservationists, for legal actions, if they make any crimes, violating Cambodia’s laws.
https://www.akp.gov.kh/post/detail/228812

Forest Activists ‘Appalled’ by USAID’s Claim That It Works With Them
4 min read

Michael Dickison and Khut Sokun
| Wed Mar 24, 2021 5:57 pm

In an open letter, forestry activists said they were “appalled” by USAID recently claiming to “work directly” with them, saying they had been turned down from participating in USAID-run conservation projects, and the American agency “never supported us.”

Since last year, members of the Prey Lang Community Network have been blocked by the government from conducting community patrols in protected forests, a change they have linked to increased deforestation.

The group has previously said that USAID, which funds the “Greening Prey Lang” conservation project near the wildlife sanctuary, has gone along with the ban on community patrols, thereby “silently approving the intimidation and de-legitimization of PLCN.”

In the open letter, dated Monday, the activists said they had come together from more than 100 villages to volunteer to work “tirelessly to protect the Prey Lang forest from illegal logging, hunting, land concessions and mining.”

“We have experienced accidents, violent attacks and even death,” they said. “In all of this, USAID never supported us or defended our rights.”

They were “appalled” to see USAID recently issue a statement claiming to “work directly with the PLCN,” the letter said.

“We have never seen USAID coming to talk to us. USAID never informed us about the purpose of their Greening Prey Lang project. USAID has never asked us if we agree to what they are doing on our ancestral forest lands. We have never received any financial or technical support from USAID,” they said.

“On the contrary, we have asked for meetings with USAID on many occasions, but these meetings were always delayed or cancelled.”

USAID had told the activists that its office was not big enough to accommodate four representatives from the group’s four provinces, they said.

“This is not how we work. We work as a network, and not as individuals, whom you can buy or intimidate.”

The group had also asked to be invited to be a stakeholder in USAID projects such as Greening Prey Lang but were turned down, they said.

“If USAID does not wish to work with local and indigenous peoples, it is your decision. But please respect our network. Do not misuse our name, PLCN, for your own benefit. The statement by USAID is not acceptable to PLCN and we ask you to change it to reflect the facts,” they said.
In full: https://vodenglish.news/forest-activist ... with-them/