Forests and forestry

housands of cubic metres of endangered Siamese rosewood were sent to Vietnam in 2014 with export permits bearing the Photoshopped signature of a retired Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) secretary of state, a ministry official said yesterday.The trade in Siamese rosewood was internationally ...

A $2.6 million deal by Walt Disney Company to preserve nearly 300,000 hectares of eastern Cambodian forest through the purchase of carbon credits will need to overcome past failures to succeed, critics said on 25 July. The carbon trade aims to counter 365,000 tons of emissions ...

The managers of some of Cambodia’s most controversial agribusiness plantations on 21 July blamed their many land disputes on the government, accusing officials of failing to educate communities about the benefits of their giant farms. Rights groups blame economic land concessions for some of Cambodia’s worst problems, ...

The government has agreed in principle to allow the export of veneers, despite recently imposing a ban on the export of all unfinished wood products, government spokesman Dr Chaleun Yiapaoher has said. Speaking at a press conference at the Prime Minister’s Office on 15 July, the ...

The Environmental Protection Fund has agreed to provide over US$2 million in support of environmental protection activities in three faculties of Environmental Sciences, Natural Sciences and of Economics and Business Administration. The fund is aimed at broadening the knowledge of students and lecturers on the management ...

Cambodia has one of the world’s highest deforestation rates. But a group of Buddhist monks are stepping up efforts to save forests by publicly revealing wrongdoings and mobilizing local villagers. Ate Hoekstra reports. In Cambodia, where over 90 percent of the population is Buddhist, monks enjoy ...

The Environmental Protection Fund has decided to forecast a budget of over 2.5 billion kip to support its environmental protection activities in four target provinces of LuangNamtha, Phongsaly, Oudomxay and Bokeo, all of which have ample natural resources and valuable preserved wildlife habitats in the north ...

Hundreds of villagers living on Siem Reap’s historic Phnom Kulen are reeling after the government announced they would be relocated as part of a scheme to secure a UNESCO World Heritage Listing for the site. But one resident, 53-year-old Khev Kheng, who has lived there for ...

Even though more than US$100 million has been generated in national revenue from the timber industry over the past 10 years, this is insufficient to compensate for the loss of the country’s forestry resources. Forestry officials said losses in revenue from the timber industry were ...

With a crackdown announced on the illegal timber trade—and a proposed nationwide logging ban by the end of the fiscal year in March 2017—seizures of illegally cut logs have exceeded 10,000 tons in the first quarter from April to June. Myo Min, director of the Forestry ...