Illegal Luxury Wood Seized From National Police Truck
December 28th, 2012, The Cambodia Daily, Environment & Natural Resources, News Source, Timber/Wood
Forestry officials in Siem Reap province seized 14 cubic meters if illegally logged luxury wood being transported by a truck bearing National Police license plates, Forestry Administration officials said yesterday. …
Saing Soenthrith, P.19
www.cambodiadaily.com
Haul of Logs Discovered Inside Ratanakkiri Land Concession
December 26th, 2012, The Cambodia Daily, Disputed Land, Economic Land Concessions, Environment & Natural Resources, Forests, Land Tenure, News Source, Timber/Wood
The Forestry Administration and military police are investigating reports of a stockpile of nearly 300 logs that ethnic Jarai villagers in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadaw district claim have been illegally cut by the Vietnamese owners of a land concession, local officials said yesterday.
Indigenous villagers living in Paknhai commune’s Lom village say they discovered the huge haul of logs about 4 km from their village on Sunday morning. …
Aun Pheap and Ben Woods, P.18
www.cambodiadaily.com
Fish prices soar in Stung Treng
December 26th, 2012, The Cambodia Herald, Agriculture & Agri-business, Business & Commercial Development, Environment & Natural Resources, Exports, Fishing, Imports, Lakes/Rivers, News Source, Trade
Prices for the highly-prized fish known as pa sa-see (Mekongina erythrospila) have more than doubled to $50 a kilogram, sources said. …
The Cambodia Herald
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=NGQyMjJhZTdlMTM3YTlhNzgyOTMyMzk3ZTY1ZTUy
Ministries’ different interpretations, wood imports get stuck
December 23rd, 2012, Vietnamnet, Business & Commercial Development, Environment & Natural Resources, Exports, Imports, Industry, International Relations, Production, Timber/Wood, Trade
The Vietnam Agriculture and Forestry Investment and Development Company in Hanoi is one of the two enterprises that signed a contract on importing 20,000 cubic meters of wood from Cambodia.
Cambodian authorities approved the export of the volume of wood to Vietnam in 2011-2012. The Dak Nong provincial People’s Committee has licensed the import, releasing a decision to open an auxiliary border gate for the imports to go through.
However, the wood imports still cannot enter Vietnam, because the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) believes that the company doesn’t have necessary conditions to import wood. …
MOIT has, once again, affirmed that the import can be implemented only if it is licensed by the ministry. Meanwhile, MOIT will only grant license after it receives the document from the Cambodian Ministry of Trade, saying that it allows exporting the wood consignment. After getting the license from MOIT, businessmen can import products through one of the 14 national and international border gates, or auxiliary border gates. …
The disagreement among the relevant ministries on the wood import licensing has made enterprises suffer, because they cannot import materials for their production plans until the ministries can reach a consensus on the issue. …
By Tran Thuy
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/55233/ministries--different-interpretations--wood-imports-get-stuck.html
Cambodia seeks $57m Indian loan
December 22nd, 2012, The Peninsula, Construction, Economics, Electricity, Energy, Environment & Natural Resources, Industry, Infrastructure, Lakes/Rivers, Technical Assistance, Tourism
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen asked for $57m concessional loan from India for two development projects and urged India to consider direct flights to Cambodia. …
He said the two projects are the electricity transmission line from Kratie province to Stung Treng province with an estimated cost of $20m, and the Sva Slab River irrigation system to cost $37m, Xinhua reported. …
The Peninsula Staff
http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/india/218944-cambodia-seeks-57m-indian-loan-.html
Cambodia exposed to large fiscal risks from disasters
December 20th, 2012, China Daily, Climate Change, Disasters & Disaster Management, Environment & Natural Resources, Environmental change, News Source
Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines are the three Southeast Asian countries most heavily exposed to fiscal risks from disasters, the World Bank warned yesterday.
In its annual economic update on East Asia and the Pacific, the bank said the region was the most disaster-stricken in the world with more than 1.6 billion people affected by natural catastrophes since 2000.
“Disasters disproportionally affect the poor, vulnerable and marginalised,” it said. “Disasters can also push affected households further into debt with the poor carrying the greatest debt burden.” …
asianewsnet
http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2012-12/20/content_16035026.htm
China is top dam builder, going where others won’t
December 19th, 2012, The Bellingham Herald, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Electricity, Energy, Environment & Natural Resources, Environmental change, Hydroelectricity, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations, Lakes/Rivers, Timber/Wood, Water
Up a sweeping jungle valley in a remote corner of Cambodia, Chinese engineers and workers are raising a 100-meter- (330-foot-) high dam over the protests of villagers and activists. Only Chinese companies are willing to tame the Tatay and other rivers of Koh Kong province, one of Southeast Asia’s last great wilderness areas. …
In energy-starved Cambodia, trade with China has risen to 19 percent of GDP from 10 percent five years ago, according to an Associated Press analysis of International Monetary Fund data.The year-old $280 million Kamchay Dam in Cambodia’s Kampot province was the largest ever foreign investment when approved as well as a political flag-carrier for Beijing. It has been hailed by both governments as a “symbol of close Chinese-Cambodian ties.”
Cambodia’s electricity demand grew more than 16 percent a year from 2002 to 2011, with shortfalls largely met through costly oil imports, said Bun Narith, a deputy director general in the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy. Only 14 percent of rural homes have electricity, one of the lowest levels in Southeast Asia. …
Son Chhay, one of the few opposition members in Parliament, said that Chinese-Cambodian dam contracts are simply geared to making profits for the parties involved rather than generating low-cost electricity for the country. “The Chinese have a funny way of doing deals in Cambodia. Construction costs are inflated by some 300 percent, and the profits shared,” Son Chhay said. The Cambodian government declined to comment on his claims. …
Illegal loggers ring the site, having all but wiped out stands of rosewood, the highly prized hardwood smuggled to China’s furniture makers. …
Denis D. Gray and Elaine Kurtenbach
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/12/18/2809176/china-is-top-dam-builder-going.html#storylink=rss
Cambodia exposed to large fiscal risks from disasters
December 19th, 2012, The Cambodia Herald, Disasters & Disaster Management, Economics, Environment & Natural Resources, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations
Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines are the three Southeast Asian countries most heavily exposed to fiscal risks from disasters, the World Bank warned Wednesday.
In its annual economic update on East Asia and the Pacific, the bank said the region was the most disaster-stricken in the world with more than 1.6 billion people affected by natural catastrophes since 2000. …
In the event of a disaster likely to occur only once every 200 years, it warned that Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines could face costs totaling 18 percent or more of total public expenditure.
In the case of Cambodia, the bank said, the probable maximum loss would be close to 10 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. …
The Cambodian Herald Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=15&token=NzMyZGM3M2ZiN2Y4ODU1ZDM0ODJjYmI5NDQwMTM3
New species, old threats to wildlife: WWF
December 18th, 2012, Khaleej Times, Construction, Energy, Environment & Natural Resources, Environmental change, Hydroelectricity, Infrastructure, International Relations, Lakes/Rivers, Timber/Wood, Water
From a devilish-looking bat to a frog that sings like a bird, scientists have identified 126 new species in the Greater Mekong area, the WWF said Tuesday in a new report detailing discoveries in 2011.
But from forest loss to the construction of major hydropower projects on the Mekong River, existing threats to the region’s biodiversity mean many of the new species are already struggling to survive, the conservation group warned. …
Some 126 species were newly recorded last year in the Greater Mekong region, which consists of Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan.
Some, such as the Beelzebub tube-nosed bat discovered in Vietnam, depend on tropical forests for survival and so are especially vulnerable to deforestation.
In just four decades, 30 percent of the Greater Mekong’s forests have disappeared, the report says.
WWF singled out Laos’ determination to construct the Xayaburi dam on the main stream of the Mekong River as a significant threat to the river’s “extraordinary biodiversity” and the livelihoods of more than 60 million people. …
By Khaleej Times Staff
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?section=environment&xfile=data/environment/2012/December/environment_December28.xml
Cambodian PM vows to protect environment
December 17th, 2012, Xinhuanet News, Business & Commercial Development, Disasters & Disaster Management, Domestic Investment, Environment & Natural Resources, Environmental change, Extractive Industries, Forests, Land Tenure, Mining, News Source
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday he decided to choose environment protection, not to choose 30 billion U.S. dollar expected revenues from the exploitation of titanium ore in Southwestern Cambodia.
“According to a feasibility study, titanium ore deposit in Chhiphat district in Koh Kong province is estimated at the value of 30 billion U.S. dollars, but to exploit the mineral, it is required to destroy about 20,000 hectares of forest,” he said during the inauguration of an automotive electronic parts factory in the province. …
Xinhuanet
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-12/17/c_132046623.htm
Hun Sen Again Orders Stop to Illegal Logging
December 17th, 2012, The Cambodia Daily, Environment & Natural Resources, Environmental change, International Relations, Protected Areas, Social Concerns, Timber/Wood
Prime Minister Hun Sen has again ordered local officials to step up their efforts to stop illegal timber being cut down and transported from Cambodia’s forest’s in response to an apparent rise in forest crimes. …
Thousands of cubic meters of luxury wood, as well as lower grade timber, has been stripped from Cambodia’s forest and exported to China in recent years, much if it likely travelling across the border with Vietnam, according to Chinese customs data.
Since the late 1990′s Mr. Hun Sen has ordered several similar efforts to eliminate the longstanding blight of illegal logging in the country. …
Simon Lewis and Saing Soenthrith, P.19
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/
Fresh arrests on Laos border
December 17th, 2012, The Phnom Penh Post, Environment & Natural Resources, International Relations, Protected Areas, Social Concerns, Timber/Wood
Cambodian authorities announced yesterday they would release six Laos who were arrested in Cambodia last Thursday on suspicion of illegal logging, provided that Laos cooperates with broader border negotiations in Stung Treng province’s Siam Pang district, where the men were arrested.
Svay Nhoun, a Stung Treng military battalion commander, said that district authorities seized tractors and other logging equipment from the six men, who were preparing to illegally log rosewood near the border. …
Khoun Leakhana
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2012121760313/National/fresh-arrests-on-laos-border.html
Fourth missing in dam disaster, say witnesses
December 14th, 2012, The Phnom Penh Post, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Disasters & Disaster Management, Energy, Environment & Natural Resources, Foreign Investment, Hydroelectricity, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations, Labor, Lakes/Rivers, Social Concerns, Water
Workers who directly witnessed the Stung Atai dam accident more than a week ago have contested government accounts, telling the Post four, not three, men were still missing after an outlet pipe burst.
Those working or living near the dam also told the Post investigations pledged by the Chinese embassy and the construction firm (Cambodia) Hydropower Development Co Ltd, a subsidiary of the state-run China Datang Corporation, had never taken place. …
The employee said the water level in the dam’s reservoir had reached a very high level leading up to the accident, which led to flooding in areas surrounding the site at O’som commune, in Pursat province’s Veal Veng district. …
Chear Srey Nuon, the sister-in-law of 29-year-old Tang Lisok, whose family has presumed him dead and already held a funeral, said on Wednesday that the Chinese firm gave them $3,300 in compensation and told them to shut up around the media. ….
Srey Nuon was angered by rumours that the Chinese victim’s family received $15,000 and said about 10 employees had left the job since the accident out of fear. …
May Titthara and David Boyle
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/National/fourth-missing-in-dam-disaster-say-witnesses.html
Jarai Accuse Officials of Pressure Over Private Land Titles
December 14th, 2012, The Cambodia Daily, Agriculture & Agri-business, Agro-Industry, Business & Commercial Development, Disputed Land, Economic Land Concessions, Environment & Natural Resources, Foreign Investment, Forests, Land Tenure, News Source, Timber/Wood
More than 250 ethnic Jarai families living in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadaw district filed a complaint with rights group Adhoc yesterday, after local officials demanded that the villagers apply for private land titles to protect their property from two Vietnamese rubber companies currently clearing their land, residents and rights workers said. …
Aun Pheap and Ben Woods
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/jarai-accuse-officials-of-pressure-over-private-land-titles-6676/
UN,Cambodia jointly hold workshop on Sustainable Energy for All
December 13th, 2012, Xinhuanet News, Climate Change, Electricity, Energy, Environment & Natural Resources, Environmental change, Green Energy, Hydroelectricity, International Relations, Natural Gas, Oil, Solar Power, Technical Assistance, Water
The United Nations Development Program and Cambodian Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy on Thursday jointly held a workshop on Sustainable Energy for All ( SE4All) in order to discuss the future of sustainable energy in Cambodia.
The workshop, opened by Suy Sem, Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy, and UN Resident Coordinator Douglas Broderick, was attended by 80 people from various ministries, development partners, non-governmental organizations and civil society. …
Editor: Hou Qiang
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-12/13/c_132038593.htm
Illegal-logging claims rejected
December 13th, 2012, The Phnom Penh Post, Agriculture & Agri-business, Agro-Industry, Economic Land Concessions, Environment & Natural Resources, Forests, Land Tenure, News Source, Timber/Wood
Provincial forestry administration officials in Ratanakkiri have dismissed allegations of illegal logging by community residents and chalked the deforestation up to legitimate clearing.
A cursory examination of the land in question yesterday seemed to back the company’s claims, Ly Sophan, a team worker at the provincial Forestry Administration office, told the Post, although the area will still be mapped.
“According to the actual examination, nearly one hectare of forest has been bulldozed,” Sophan said. …
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/National/illegal-logging-claims-rejected.html
Cambodia could tap up to 10,000 MW from hydroelectric dams
December 12th, 2012, The Global Times, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Energy, Environment & Natural Resources, Foreign Investment, Hydroelectricity, Infrastructure, International Relations, Lakes/Rivers, Water
Cambodia has great potential in hydropower development and the country could build and tap up to 10,000 megawatts from hydropower dams, said an energy official on Thursday.
“At the present, about 10 percent of the hydropower potential is under construction,” Heng Kunleang, chief of the energy development department at the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, said during a launching workshop on Sustainable Energy for All.
According to the ministry’s report, Chinese companies have invested over 1.6 billion US dollars to construct six hydroelectric dams with the total capacity of 928 megawatts in Cambodia. …
By Global Times Staff
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/750009.shtml
Kampong Cham residents say casinos pollute fishing grounds
December 12th, 2012, The Cambodia Herald, Agriculture & Agri-business, Environment & Natural Resources, Environmental change, Fishing, Lakes/Rivers, Social Concerns
Residents of Tropang Thlong village in Ponhea Krek district say casinos near the border with Vietnam are polluting fishing grounds. …
The Cambodian Herald Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=YWUzNzcyMGFlMzRkNGY5MDNiN2I4MDE5M2IyZjlk
Residents seek compensation as homes fall into Tonle Sap
December 12th, 2012, The Cambodia Herald, Disasters & Disaster Management, Environment & Natural Resources, Lakes/Rivers, News Source
Nineteen families from Svay Pak commune in Russey Keo district protested for a second day Wednesday after their homes fell into the Tonle Sap River. …
Twenty-four houses along the river have been affected, they said. Although five have already left, the other 19 refuse to accept offers of between $500 and $800. …
The Cambodia Herald
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=MTkwM2U3MjZmN2Y5MWNiNTA0NGQyOTczNmUyZDZk
Logging Reporter Arrested
December 10th, 2012, Radio Free Asia, Environment & Natural Resources, Environmental change, Forests, Land Tenure, Social Concerns, Timber/Wood
Cambodian authorities arrest a journalist who exposed the illegal smuggling of timber. …
Taing Try, a reporter affiliated with the Khmer Democratic Journalists’ Association, was taken into custody on Friday, police in Kratie’s Snoul district told RFA on Sunday. …
But Ing Savoeun, a representative from the local Anti-logging and Wildlife Protection group, said he believes Taing Try is being held in connection with timber-smuggling activities that the journalist himself had reported to local authorities. …
Taing Try’s arrest follows a pair of murders this year tied to exposing illegal logging in Cambodia’s forests, where deforestation and mining in recent years have taken a heavy toll on the environment. …
By Radio Free Asia Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/reporter-12102012174729.html