Yong Yim’s voice rises to a high-pitched quiver when she talks about a planned dam in the Areng Valley that would inundate land her family has inhabited for hundreds of years to form what amounts to a giant battery. …
Now they are staring at forced relocation again, their ancestral homelands all but doomed to become yet another area on the fringes of the Central Cardamom Protected Forest (CCPF) to be devastated by the effects of hydropower dams. To date, there are three dam projects, some with multiple stations, under way on the boundaries of the CCPF. …
Lee, an engineer working on one of those projects, the Stung Tatai, told the Post late last month plans to begin construction of the bitterly opposed Cheay Areng dam were moving ahead rapidly.
“I spoke with the project leader of the Cheay Areng dam recently, and he said that next month [February] representatives from the company will meet with the Cambodian government to discuss the project,” Lee, who spoke on the condition his full name would not be printed, said. …
Previous studies conducted for the firm China Southern Power Grid, which dumped the project because they deemed it unfeasible, suggest that a 109-megawatt dam would be fed by a 20,000-hectare reservoir. …
Roughly 10,000 hectares of this reservoir would cover forest directly within the CCPF, the largest single encroachment to date on what is one of Cambodia’s last remaining well-protected conservation zones. The remaining 10,000 hectares of the reservoir would inundate the forest homelands of the Khmer Daeum. …
Tracey Farrell, senior technical director for Conservation International-Cambodia, which supports conservation programs in the CCPF, said in an email that a previous environmental impact assessment had found that the dam “failed to meet the minimum power density ratio of more than 100 watts/m2 of surface area of the reservoir”. …
There is no separating logging from land grabbing – the two issues are linked in a chain that starts with the selective logging of luxury timber (often, in the case of the CCPF, after a company is legally granted the right to clear a dam reservoir). It ends with migrants who are enticed to the area as manual labour vying with companies and powerful individuals to clear fell the remaining trees − the former seeking a livelihood, the latter seeking huge profits from large-scale agriculture. …
May Titthara, David Boyle and Danson Cheong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020861238/National/last-days-of-a-valley-damned.html
Six months after Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered a moratorium on the granting of economic land concessions (ELCs) and a legal review of the concessions that already exist, the Agriculture Ministry has yet to begin the review process due to rain, and the danger of leeches.
Yes, leeches.
Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun, whose ministry has approved the majority of the country’s more than 200 ELCs, which cover about 2 million hectares, said that the reviews ordered by Mr. Hun Sen had not yet begun, but they start later this month.
“We are scheduled to start on November 15,” the minister said yesterday.
Aun Pheap and Zsombor Peter, P.1
www.cambodiadaily.com
The 4th world class Japanese Oji Paper Co. Ltd will invest in tree planting in Cambodia for paper manufacture. The information was made known here on Aug. 7 by the Japanese company’s Director Mr. Shimamura Gemmei in a meeting with Cambodian Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries H.E. Chan Sarun, AKP reported this week.
In the meeting, Mr. Shimamura Gemmei told H.E. Chan Sarun over his company’s investment projects in Laos, Vietnam and Indonesia, as well as in Cambodia. He further pledged to take part in social works such as the construction of road, clean water system, school buildings and the improvement of health services in Cambodia. …
SEAW
A Chinese animal feed mill officially opened at the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone (PPSEZ) on Aug 28. It is the first animal feed mill from China and the fifth animal feed factory to operate in Cambodia
Cambodia has strongly depended on the imports for animal feed, because of strong demand and low supply…
According to MAFF, the demand for animal feed is currently about 700,000 tons per year in Cambodia, but the country can produce only 170,000 tons a year.
“The mill would be capable to produce about 57,000 tons a year, so it would increase the supply of animal feed locally and can reduce the reliance on imports,” Chan Sarun [Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries] said…
The Sichuan New Hope Agribusiness (Cambodi) is a joint-venture between China’s New Hope Group, which holds a 90 percent stake and Japan’s animal feed Sojitz Corporation, which owns the remainder, said Deng Xiaohua, a manager of China’s New Hope Group.
The construction of the Sichuan New Hope Agribusiness (Cambodia) mill started in early 2011 on the land of 33,500 square meters and completed last month, costing US$6 million. It currently employs about 100 Cambodian workers, said Deng…
(p 25, Vol 5, No 95)
http://www.etmcambodia.com/
A group from the Japanese Fish Rearing Association led by Kazuki Nishimura met with Chan Sarun, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. During the meeting Kazuki Nishimura told the minister that the Japanese Fish Rearing Association wished to introduce Japanese fresh water fish (Nishiki Koi) in Cambodia, which is the first country chosen for Nishiki Koi fhish crossbreed. Chan Sarun welcomed and supported the association’s intentions, which he said will further help to boost Cambodia’s development as well as poverty reduction for the Cambodian people…In the first six months of this year Cambodia has yielded 377,500 tons of fish including 292,500 tons of fresh water fish, 47,000 tons of maritime fish, and 38,000 tons of raised fish. There has reportedly been a strong crackdown on illegal fishing this year.
(p 27 Vol 5, No 95)
http://www.etmcambodia.com/
