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 several years ago. A forest area close to their community was excluded from those certificates, but they cleared it because they had no other land to cultivate crops. They had been growing bananas there for about five years. But conservation charity the Wildlife Alliance, formerly known as Wildaid, recently cut down the villagers’ banana trees and accused them of abusing protected forest.
