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Villagers Fighting Korean Tree Farm ‘Hopeless’ After Meeting
May 10, 2017
Members of the Prey Lang Community Network said yesterday that they felt hopeless after the South Korean Embassy refused to accept their petition against a South Korean company clearing their ancestral forests.

Fourteen representatives of the network, a loose affiliation of communities living in and around central Cambodia’s Prey Lang forest, traveled to Phnom Penh yesterday morning to meet with embassy officials to complain about Think Biotech.

The government granted the firm a sprawling 34,000-hectare concession in 2011 to grow timber trees. But most of it covers pre-existing forest, including four officially recognized community forests the government has given local residents for sustainable use. The communities consider parts of the forest sacred, and use them to tap resin trees, harvest honey, cultivate small farms and otherwise earn a living...

The South Korean Embassy could not be reached for comment.
Senior officers for Think Biotech could not be reached either. But Kong Kan, a project officer for the company, rejected the network’s complaint.

U.S. satellite data collected and analyzed by Global Forest Watch, however, show that the company clear-cut hundreds, possibly thousands, of hectares of forest on its concession in 2014 and 2015, including parts of the community forests. Similar data after 2015 is not yet available.
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/vill ... ng-129366/

Think Biotech Cambodia Co. market themselves as an eco-friendly forest management company.

Hanwha Think Biotech Cambodia Co., Ltd
#24, Str. 337
Company Introduction
Hanwha Think Biotech (Cambodia) Co., Ltd is a forest management company fully licensed and registered with the Cambodian government since September 2011 (Incorporation number : Inv. 2145 E/2011).
We operate a forest management and plantation project in Kratie Province, Cambodia and manufacture solid timber products from the Cambodian natural forests under the agreement between the Cambodian and Korean government.https://www.aseanpage.com/detail/hanwha ... m-penh-339

THINK BIOTECH (CAMBODIA) CO., LTD. is a pioneer in Sustainable & Eco-friendly Tropical Forestry Management as a subsidiary of global HANWHA group who is one of main conglomerate in Korea. Now, we will start our joint plantation project in accordance with the agreement between Korean and Cambodian Government.
https://www.workinasia.net/recruiters/t ... 15978.html

Think Biotech director Lu refutes activists’ illegal logging reports
9 December 2019 | 23:30 ICT
Think Biotech (Cambodia) Co Ltd director Lu Chu Chang has dismissed as slanderous, reports by forest and environmental activists that the company is connected to illegal logging.

The reports claimed Think Biotech was involved in the illegal logging of forests in the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary, as well as areas of community forest in Kratie and Stung Treng provinces.

Forest and environmental activists reported last week that Think Biotech and Angkor Plywood Co had, for nearly a month, taken timber from illegal loggers in the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary and the Brasat Takhmao community forest.

After some media outlets had reported on the case, Lu said he considered the reports to be slanderous and politically motivated.

“These environmental activists are using funding from foreign countries to stand in the way of Cambodia’s progress.

“Our company only uses forest produce from areas the government has given us the right to manage and use. We have paid taxes as dictated by law,” he said.

Lu spoke of Think Biotech’s three-year tree-planting project, with the company to plant more than 30 million trees for use in the timber-processing sector.

He said it was contracted to buy 10 million tree saplings a year from Angkor Plywood.

“Angkor Plywood has nothing to do with the Think Biotech’s timber-processing business as alleged by some people,” he stressed.

However, a Prey Lang Community Network activist in Stung Treng province, Yim Sopheak, claimed there was evidence linking Think Biotech to forest crimes.

He said the forest in the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary and some community forest areas near Think Biotech land concessions had in some cases been logged illegally almost every day because the company bought the timber.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ ... ng-reports

Do you remember the bloke that used to write for the Khmer Times about the evil intentions of those who objected to Economic Land Concessions - with a chinese sounding name?
I heard he turned out to be a sock for a big concession holder. (??)
Anyway, 'sounded just like this stuff from ^^^ -

"Lu said he considered the reports to be slanderous and politically motivated."
..director xxx has dismissed as slanderous, reports by forest and environmental activists that the company is connected to illegal logging"
“Angkor Plywood has nothing to do with the Think Biotech’s timber-processing business as alleged by some people,”
" ...only uses forest produce from areas the government has given us the right to manage....with the company to plant more than 30 million trees"
“These environmental activists are using funding from foreign countries to stand in the way of Cambodia’s progress""

chuckle, fart

It's ridiculous. Of all places, "planting trees" in areas where trees are already present... I agree it's shitty if you've been granted a concession to what you thought was a legitimate are, but if concerns are raised over the concession, it makes sense to renegotiate something with the government and local communities.

lol
just laughing at the 'negotiations' bit.
It's not the usual way of doing things with these guys.
they play hard ball.

A land concessions are suppose to be no larger than 10,000 ha .

10,000 usually, and in law -but for the big players often much bigger
in plain view, for the truly powerful
or in multiple tittles, if it is strictly the money talking.
generally speaking

nb, not saying they are all bad, cambodia needs to develop its agriculture -
but this system? how should we put it politely.... umm...

Well, along with the land concessions, they do have 2 factories in PP, one for doors and wooden floors, and another one for finishing purposes.
Also a timber processing factory at the Vn border.

By the way, hard to find more than 1 meter long rubberwood boards on the market, everything longer goes straight to Vn or China. That was how i got to meet them.

I did found a big Chinese rubberwood processing factory, but no way to get in touch with the owners, except on a Chinese shitty minimalistic website of their own, located in China.

Think biotech do propose alternative woods, including kapok, balsa, palmtree, and others i don't know about.
They do have a local wood retailer partner in Toul Kork, with ovens.
The price for their processed wood is not more interesting for solid wood (except sokrom, pchet, local hardwoods) than importing it from Vn by bus, with the usual "smuggling" m3 price, and there is a wider choice in Vn.

March 16, 2020
Organisations denounce arrest of activists for alleged trespassing
The winner of the 2016 Goldman Environmental Prize along with three other forestry activists were sent to the Kratie provincial court yesterday after Korean-owned Think Biotech Cambodia Co Ltd accused them of trespassing on company premises.

Rights group Adhoc senior investigator Soeng Sen Karuna said yesterday Ouch Leng, the president of the Cambodian Human Rights Task Force and winner of the 2016 Goldman Environmental Award in the US; and members of the Prey Lang Community Network Khem Soky, Srey Thei and Men Mat were detained on Friday.

The arrest, said Mr Sen Karuna, was unjust and discourages the younger generation who are involved in the protection of forests and the environment.

“If those four activists, who have been working hard to serve the society, are accused unjustly by the court, it will impair the enforcement of the law. The court should instead ask for their cooperation in addressing the crimes they found in Prey Lang forest,” he added.

Kratie Provincial Court prosecutor Keo Socheat said the prosecutors have been questioning the four without making any charges. “We will continue the inquiry tomorrow [Monday],” he said.

Sambour district police chief Lieutenant Colonel Bun Chhoeun said Think Biotech Cambodia Co Ltd filed a complaint against the four for trespassing on their premises.

Yesterday, a group of youths and environmental activists stood in front of the Kratie Provincial Court to demand the immediate release of the arrested activists.

Twenty-four human rights and environmental organisations on Saturday also issued a joint statement to strongly condemn the company for the detention of the activists before being sent to the district police station.

According to the statement, the four activists on Thursday conducted an investigation into reported illegal logging activities in Prey Lang forest. That same evening, they decided to spend the night at a villager’s house located beside the Think Biotech premises. The next morning, a group of company-linked security guards approached and detained the four before handing them to the Sambour district police.

“We see this ongoing detention as a threat to environmental and forestry activists who are peacefully monitoring and reporting on deforestation activities in Prey Lang and other forested areas. The activists were exercising their rights enshrined in the Constitution of Cambodia and the Law on Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Management, both of which encourage the public to actively participate in the protection of the country’s environment and natural resources,” the statement added.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50702058/o ... espassing/