Forests and forestry
Forest products
Vietnam border sealed against loggers

Cambodia’s military police said on 18 January that they have sealed the Vietnam border against wood transport following a major crackdown on two tycoons’ logging warehouses on 17 January. Local observers and experts, however, suggested the actions were little more than a hiccup for a long-tolerated ...
Furniture fair raises profile of Lao wood products

The Lao Furniture Association hopes that the furniture fair, which opened in Vientiane on 14 January, will attract more domestic and foreign investors in the sector and promote Lao wood products on regional and international markets. The Lao Furniture Association on 14 January officially opened its ...
Community sues border police over loggers
A group of villagers in Mondolkiri province filed a lawsuit this week against three local border police officers and a forestry official accusing them of allowing Vietnamese loggers to sneak across the nearby border and illegally log the forests they depend on for a living. Khut ...
Convoy of Lao trucks transports logs to Vietnam, despite ban on timber exports

Laos has continued to transport logs from its forests to Vietnam, despite a government ban on timber exports that took effect in August and a leaked report by an international environmental group two months ago, revealing huge increases in illegal logging with the implication of ...
Forestry has helped many families

Since its inception in the year 2000, the Forest Sector Support Partnership (FSSP) has supported Vietnam in environmental protection; improving livelihoods of people in forestry areas and enhancing the contribution of forestry to the economy, said Ha Cong Tuan, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural ...
Thai border shooting injures two loggers

Thai soldiers opened fire on a group of 17 illegal loggers on 10 December evening, wounding two, police said. The group had illegally crossed the border into Thailand in Oddar Meanchey province under cover of darkness when they encountered a Thai patrol, according to Brigadier General Men ...
‘Ownerless’ illegal logs seized in Kachin and Sagaing
A thousand tonnes of timber bound for the Chinese border have been seized by police, with the help of local residents amid armed clashes between the Tatmadaw and the Kachin Independence Army. Investigators are now following up the seizure of the 2206 logs in Bhamaw/Bhamo township, ...
Promotion of Lao local wood industry to improve livelihoods
The Value Adding to Lao PDR Plantation Timber Products 2 (VALTIP2) project is promoting the improvement of livelihoods for farmers and processing workers in the Lao wood industry. VALTIP2 on 11 November officially opened a veneer processing and products research centre at the Faculty of Forestry, National ...
Lao Ministry imposes ban on log exports
Laos’ Ministry of Industry and Commerce has imposed an export ban on logs and unprocessed sawn wood following the prohibition instruction given by the government. The move aims to add value to wood resources by processing them domestically before they are exported. Recently, the ministry issued an order ...
Luxury timber goes to Vietnam en masse

While crowds gathered in Phnom Penh to watch Cambodia’s Independence Day parade, a different sort of procession drew the attention of villagers in Ratanakkiri province on 9 November, with hundreds of motorbikes flooding across border checkpoints loaded with luxury timber. The spectacle, which on a smaller ...