Protected areas
Community forest
As loggers exploit virus, Cambodian forest protectors defy state ban
A Cambodian conservation group has warned that logging in the protected Prey Lang forest has ramped up during the coronavirus pandemic, vowing it would continue to monitor the destruction despite government threats of legal action to stop that work. Members of the Prey Lang Community Network ...
Matt Blomberg
2020 Northern Thailand forest fires snapshot
Situation As Thailand and the rest of the world continue to fight the COVID 19 pandemic, the North of Thailand is fighting a different battle. For over two months now provinces in the north have been blanketed by haze and smoke from ravaging forest fires. Forest fires ...
WWF-TH
Illegal logger becomes dedicated forest ranger
Điểu Long used to be one of the most notorious illegal loggers in the southern province of Bình Phước. He joined a gang of illegal loggers at the age of 15 to hunt wild animals or chop down trees in Bù Gia Mập National Park. But now, ironically, Long ...
Patrol finds 200 snares in forest community
More than 200 illegal snares have over the past two weeks been removed from the Prambei Mom Forest community area in Kampong Speu’s Thpong district. Liv Sarum said on Thursday that patrols of the forest community in Prambei Mom commune found the traps, with 117 of ...
Long Kimmarita
The right to community forest in Tanintharyi Region
When Charcoal burners began casting covetous eyes over the mangrove forest next to coastal Kanyin Chaung village in Tanintharyi Region, its residents joined forces to protect a natural resource that had served their community for generations. The threat emerged in about 2005 and it worried the ...
Kyaw Lin Htoon
Small Voices, Real Actions of People in Forests
Similar to other ethnic groups, people of Hmong at Ban Pang Kob living in the buffer zone of Doi Phu Kha National Park and Khun Nan National Park are entirely dependent on the forests. Their livelihoods and food security from surrounding forests are now facing ...
Mineral exploration permits offered for protected Prey Lang
One of four new mining exploration permits, advertised publicly this week, is within the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary map, coordinates reveal, sparking concern among activists and community members about the strength of the forest’s recently-acquired protected status. In the first public tender of fresh exploration ...
Wildlife charity land dispute rumbles on
Villagers representing 200 families embroiled in a land dispute with a wildlife charity have written to Koh Kong provincial hall asking for permission to farm on 500 hectares near where they live. The residents were awarded land certificates for their homes in Thma Baing district ...
Dugongs face extinction in Thailand
Dugongs in Thailand’s waters face extinction unless their habitat and food sources are protected, according to a recent study. One of the most gentle marine mammals, dugongs are facing a serious threat as recent research by the Marine and Coastal Resources Department showed that only ...
Calls to halt ‘reforestation’ plan
Fourteen community representatives speaking for thousands of families on May 9 petitioned the South Korean Embassy, Environment Ministry and Forestry Administration to halt the expansion of a controversial “reforestation” project by a Korean company situated between the protected Prey Lang forest and Mekong River. Their petition ...