Mangrove Grabber Gives Back (Video below)

Cambodia News, (Preah Sihanouk Province): Mr. Em Phea, Acting Director of Kampong Som Fisheries Administration, said on October 2022, that Mr. Kouch Chamroeun, the Governor of Preah Sihanouk Province, asked the relevant departments to find out the identity of the perpetrators who destroyed the natural forest in order to encroach on state-owned real estate at Prek Pros is located in Teuk Thla commune, Prey Nob district, Preah Sihanouk province. Those responsible must be sought in order to implement legal procedures which may lead to the confiscation of any illegal property.

The Acting District Chief of Fisheries of Kampong Som said that certain developers are taking the flooded forest state land as their own, and are destroying the mangroves and the coastal eco-system. The real identity of one such person is Laoam Meng Kheang, a resident of Veal Renh commune, Prey Nob district, province Sihanouk, who rents out bulldozers. He has confessed his wrongdoing and voluntarily surrendered his land to the relevant specialized units, and has signed a contract with the provincial administrations to participate in the demolition of various structures that he built illegally.


The land-grabber in question stated that he came to confess and voluntarily handed back the land to the state, and that he is willing to participate in the replanting of mangrove seedlings on a total land area of ​​5 hectares, if provincial authorities are also willing to be understanding.




However, many fishermen in Prek Pros community in Teuk Thla commune, Prey Nob district, Preah Sihanouk province, (who asked not to be identified ) have said discreetly that the person who took the opportunity to destroy the mangrove forest and then came in and confessed, is a person who was close to the President Preah Sihanouk Provincial Department of Agriculture, Forestry annd Fishing in the past. He must still have connections there, because if there is no green light from officials and leaders of the Department, he would not be permitted to destroy up to 4 to 5 hectares of mangrove forest by using machinery and digging many ponds for raising fish, without their agreement.



The fishermen in the above community also requested the Governor of Preah Sihanouk Province, as well as His Excellency The Minister of Agriculture, for help with the Director of Preah Sihanouk Provincial Department of Agriculture to prevent the virus of illegal mangrove destruction from spreading to become cancerous lesions to subordinates and other departments. They say that the land encroachment and illegal privitization is taking away their habitat and their livlihood.

Separately, Mr. Nen Chamroeun, Director of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Preah Sihanouk Province, according to the disclosure from officials under his supervision, revealed that as the director of the Department of Agriculture, he feels that he is being very discriminated against by the media around the issue of the guilt of Mr. Laoam.