Dumpster Truck was Hiding Illegal Logs

Cambodia News (Siem Reap Province): On April 1, 2022, the authorities stopped a dumpster truck (PNH 3E-9395) and found illegal logs hidden under a load of rocks.
The truck belonged to a man named Lim from Sangkat Svay Dongkom, Siem Reap city. According to the driver, the truck was smuggling the logs from Preah Vihear province to Siem Reap province. The authorities are continuing to investigate the case, and are hunting for further information about the provenance of the illegal timber.

Increasingly Rampant Deforestation in Cambodia, Study Finds
27 January 2022 4:37 PM
Khuon Narim

Cambodia has lost some 2.5 million hectares of tree cover over the past two decades, a new report by an environmental monitoring group shows, with one of the lead authors saying the government is allowing illegal logging to happen “with impunity.”

In 2020 alone, Cambodia’s wildlife sanctuaries lost 48,000 hectares of tree cover, the report by Citizens Engaged in Environmental Justice for All (CEEJA) showed, using satellite monitoring in the protected areas of Prey Lang, Prey Preah Rokar and Sorng Rokha.

The rate of deforestation in Cambodia is one of the highest in the world, the report said, and could have a disastrous impact on climate change and food security if measures aren’t taken to protect the forests.

“Sadly, the record of the Ministry of Environment has deteriorated very fast over the past 2-3 years,” Professor Ida Theilade from the University of Copenhagen told CamboJA in an email.

“The ban and harassment of local forest patrols has led to an increase in illegal logging in Prey Lang and Preah Rokar Wildlife Sanctuaries,” he said. The report shows 2,000 hectares of forest disappeared between 2018 and 2020 alone.

Professor Theilade added that there have long been allegations of an alliance between authorities and owners of economic land concessions on the borders of protected areas.

“Lately, reports abound that MoE rangers in many cases have abandoned check posts altogether and trucks are bringing logs out of protected areas unchecked having paid off the authorities in advance,” he said.
https://cambojanews.com/increasingly-ra ... udy-finds/

Further details on the above article concerning the illegal logging situation in Cambodia:


Link to the full and final online report 2022 by Citizens Engaged in Environmental Justice for All (CEEJA) :
https://static-curis.ku.dk/portal/files ... _JAN22.pdf

World Environment Day: Progress in Cambodia 2016-2022

World Environment Day in Cambodia in 2016:
First post on this thread: post130582.html#p130582

World Environment Day in Cambodia in 2022:
Youth Activists Cycle 600-km to Mark World Environment Day
21 May 2022 10:20 AM
Seoung Nimol
Twenty-five members of a youth group who are marking World Environment Day with a 600-kilometer cycling campaign, say that although local authorities allowed the event to go ahead they were questioned and monitored, which some took as a form of intimidation.

The campaign, which started on May 10 and ends on Friday, saw the cyclists ride all the way from Kampong Thom to Preah Vihear province. In each commune along the way, through four provinces, the participants say they were stopped by authorities who questioned them about their activities and camped out with them overnight.

Authorities say their interest was only intended to keep the cyclists safe on their journey, but one of the campaigners, Out Latin, a project coordinator with the advocacy group Cambodian Youth Network, said their interest meant the activists hadn’t been able to speak freely.

“I think it is a challenge that the authorities always come to interrogate and sleep with us under the pretext of security. What the authorities are doing is hurting our ability to debate on social issues and make our next plan.”

However, he noted that in the past, authorities have been more interfering, even stopping village meetings. This time they were allowed to go ahead, he believes, because they don’t want trouble ahead of the commune elections next month.

After the youths arrived in Preah Vihear, city authorities led by Deputy Governor Khiev Ban and accompanied by about 10 plainclothes police officers came to inquire about their activities, took down their names, and took photos. In Promer commune, Tbeng Meanchey district, police did the same.

In full: https://cambojanews.com/youth-activists ... nment-day/

Cambodian youth set the example.
Long read:

Cambodian Youth Patrols Help to Protect the Prey Lang Forest in Eastern Cambodia

Members of the Cambodian Youth Network—from left, Chea Srey Noch, Heam Phet and Met Ropi—pose with people from the Prey Lang Forest community. Photo: Cambodian Youth Network
BY: Teng Yalirozy June 5, 2022 3:03 PM

As the United Nations’ World Environment Day is celebrated worldwide on June 5, young Cambodians speak of their efforts to protect the country’s forests

PHNOM PENH—Ever since he relocated to Phnom Penh in 2018 to study at university, Met Ropi has used his holidays to patrol the Prey Lang Forest nature reserve. Part of the Cambodian Youth Network (CYN) and a senior student at Paragon University, 22-year-old Ropi has so far joined the Prey Lang Community to patrol the forest five times.

Originally from Tboung Khmum Province, Ropi said he became aware of threats to the country’s forests around 2013 when he saw villagers encroaching on forest land in Kratie Province. The road in front of his house became the route used by traders delivering logged timbers from Kratie, Mondulkiri, and Ratanakiri provinces to Vietnam, he said.

“I did not like seeing people cutting down the forest,” he said. “At that time, I did not know what to do. I just felt displeased.”

When he volunteers to patrol the Prey Lang Forest, Ropi and the other young volunteers usually spend two nights and three days in the forest, at times staying with Prey Lang Community residents to learn about their daily lives in the forest.

“This patrol is not only a cause, protecting natural resources, but also a story from which we can learn, such as through the training and knowledge [we acquire] when we get into action,” he said.

Prey Lang is the largest lowland evergreen forest in Southeast Asia, stretching over approximately 5,000 square kilometers in four provinces in Cambodia: Kampong Thom, Kratie, Preah Vihear and Stung Treng provinces. Located west of the Mekong River in the northern part of the country, it is home to more than 250,000 indigenous people who live in and around the Prey Lang Forest.

In 2016, a large part of the forest was designated as a natural reserve. Now known as the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary, illegal logging and poaching continue in the reserve.
Full article: https://cambodianess.com/article/cambod ... n-cambodia

Police Blind to Rampant Illegal Logging in Kampong Thom
Cambodia News, (Kampong Thom Province): It was reported on August 7, 2022, that local people are complaining that some illegal traffickers are stripping the Prey Anten forest, continuing to transport dozens of truckloads of wood from that area day and night, without any crackdown by the authorities.

Rumors say that this case is part of a systematic conspiracy to destroy more than 30,000 hectares of the Prey Anten forest, so that it will become a degraded forest, and therefore become available to be converted to land suitable for cashew plantations.
(Note: There is a clue as to the possible nationality of the cashew plantation owners in this photo below.)

In particular, people are asking why the local officials are turning a blind eye to the flagrant and illegal transportation of timber from the forest, which is done in the plain sight of all the local people (who do not suffer from acute blindness). With the current amount of logging, locals are afraid that their forest will soon be destroyed forever.

Cambodia News (Preah Vihear): On 14 October 2022, a white Toyota without a license plate was caught transporting a full supply of sokram wood to Kampong Thom province by the Rovieng Forestry Administration, led by Chief of Division Sum Sovutha. This operation took place at 7:15 pm on Street 95, Tuol village, Reak Reay commune, Rovieng district, Preah Vihear province.

Mr. Sum Sovutha, Director of Rovieng Forestry Administration, said that his forces were hunting for the vehicle that was found in the commune, and he added that the criminals pulled out a spare ax to commit violence against his Forestry Administration officers, but due to a lack of strength, they did not dare to run away.
The car has been towed to the Forestry Administration’s office to continue the procedure.

Illegal Logging Becomes Bolder In Kratie & Thbong Kmom Provinces

Cambodia News (Kratie Province): According to posts on the Facebook page on the morning of November 1, 2022, many pictures and activities of illegal logging have been captured by local people in Kratie and Thbong Kmom provinces. They publicly criticized the authorities for negligence and for allowing the illegal loggers to be bolder in transporting the logs to potential smugglers.

Later on, at 8:30 am on November 1, the authorities cracked down on 2 incidents of illegal smuggling of precious wood in Chheu Teu village, Khpob Tangoun commune, Steung Trong district, Kompong Cham province. However, the drivers of the modified vans fled the scene. The evidence was taken to the police station for further proceedings.

MoE Says Illegal Logging has Finished (Again)
The Ministry of the Environment refutes a research study by the University of Copenhagen, which shows acute forest loss in Cambodia's protected forest areas.

November 30, 2022
MoE slams report on forest loss
The Ministry of Environment has chided a foreign research university report that Cambodia is losing its forest.

Ministry spokesman Neth Pheaktra said Cambodia has been able to preserve its forest to the extent it can sell carbon credit to countries to offset their carbon footprints.

“Instead they allege that Cambodia is facing an energy crisis and cutting down trees for energy.

“Such reports are nothing new and are simply intended to provide jobs for foreigners and some NGOs, salaries and allowances,” he said yesterday.

Foreigners and civil society organisations and environmentalists, Pheaktra said, have been painting a bad picture of Cambodia’s forests to continue receiving aid and employment.

“If they have nothing negative to report, they will have no work. They should be ashamed of themselves.

“The state of Cambodia’s forests is not as bad as they report it to be,” he said.

According to Pheaktra, Cambodia has 46.86% forest cover, or about 8.5 million hectares, of which 41% is under the protection and conservation jurisdiction of the Ministry of Environment.

The Environmental Justice, a Cambodian NGO, had in October posted on its Facebook page posted that the University of Copenhagen said Cambodia’s lowland evergreen forests are facing unprecedented anthropogenic pressures, compounded by climate change with extreme droughts, floods, and widespread biodiversity loss that affects not only the forests but Cambodian society at large.

“This forest loss is further aggravated by government-mandated mining projects, agricultural expansion, and destructive infrastructure development.

“Economic Land Concessions granted to timber, mining, and agricultural companies such as Think Biotech Co., Ltd., PNT Co., Ltd., and Thy Nga Development Co., Ltd. border the wildlife sanctuaries and regularly trespass to conduct logging in the protected areas.

“Illegal logging peaked in Prey Lang during the Covid-19 pandemic as restrictions were imposed on forest patrols, thus enabling logging cartels to operate with impunity.

“As a result, Cambodia lost 144,000 ha of forest last year along with an immeasurable loss of biodiversity.

“More specifically, there was a 22% increase in tree cover loss at Prey Lang wildlife sanctuary, and a 43% increase at Preah Rokar wildlife sanctuary, while there was a 47% decrease in tree cover loss at Sang Rokhavoan wildlife sanctuary,” the post claimed.

According to the Copenhagen University report, Cambodia lost more than 140,000 hectares of forest cover in protected forest areas between 2000 and 2021.

Pheaktra said large-scale forest and wildlife crimes no longer occur in Cambodia and “there are still small-scale crimes that law enforcement officers of the various agencies, especially park rangers of the Ministry of Environment, are continuing to prevent and crack down regularly”.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/1193651/mo ... rest-loss/