News
USAID GPL provides small grants to protect forests
USAID Greening Prey Lang (GPL), Cambodia has decided to shift financial support from monthly patrol stipends to a ‘one-time small grant package’ for institutional and technical capacity improvements to protect forests. The small grant will be handed out to 56 Community-Based Organisations (CBOs) in Preah Vihear, ...
Son Minea
Kingdom’s vulture number a ‘positive’ sign
In Cambodia’s four sanctuaries with vulture populations, there are 140 vultures currently present – a number considered small but encouraging among relevant ministries and partner organisations involved in the protection and preservation of the species. According to a joint press release on the results of a ...
Voun Dara
Cambodian Deputy FM to pay official visit to South Korea
Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn will pay an official visit to the Republic of Korea today. Sokhonn and South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong are expected to jointly chair a virtual meeting with their counterparts from four other countries along the Mekong River—a major trade route between western ...
Nick Giurleo / Daily Brief
Cambodia risks becoming a hub in the Mekong region’s thriving drug trade
Along Cambodia’s porous 435-kilometre coastline, three major ports support the lucrative shipping industry. Most shipping containers are coming to and from Bangkok and Singapore, but a more illicit business could soon have a major foothold – the region’s booming, multi-billion-dollar drug trade. On a daily basis, ...
JOHN WOJCIK
Mondulkiri population of Asian elephants now an estimated 300 strong
Wildlife researchers from the Mondulkiri provincial Department of Environment and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-Cambodia) have recently completed collecting 85 Asian elephant dung samples for analysis to identify population size and migratory patterns. It is estimated that about 300 elephants live in the protected ...
Voun Dara
Gender Equality Advocate Retires, Paves Way for Second Wave of Activism
Ros Sopheap was sipping ginger tea and lemonade in July when she decided to retire after more than two decades of activism that pushed for gender inclusivity and women’s empowerment. She will step down as the head of Gender and Development for Cambodia (GADC) later ...
Hean Socheata and Sokummono Khan,VOA Khmer
Cambodian dam a ‘disaster’ for local communities, rights group says
The Lower Sesan 2 hydroelectric scheme was completed in northeast Cambodia in 2018. The reservoir flooded 300 square kilometers (116 square miles) upstream of the confluence of the Sesan and Srepok rivers, two tributaries of the Mekong. Villages, places of worship, ancestral burial grounds and ...
Carolyn Cowan
USAID redirects funding in Cambodia as future of Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary hangs in the balance
More than a month has passed since the Cambodia branch of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced it would be ending its assistance to Cambodian government entities through the USAID Greening Prey Lang project and the future of the 431,683-hectare wildlife sanctuary ...
Gerald Flynn
Cambodia dam destroyed livelihoods of tens of thousands: Human Rights Watch
A massive China-financed dam in Cambodia has “washed away the livelihoods” of tens of thousands of villagers while falling short of promised energy production, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday (Aug 10). The 400-megawatt Lower Sesan 2 dam in the kingdom’s north-east has sparked controversy ...
AFP/kg
Left With Fish Too Small to Sell in Cambodia’s Mekong River Basin
Thousands have lost their homes and livelihoods since the completion of one of Asia’s widest dams, the Lower Sesan 2, in Cambodia’s Mekong River Basin. Built as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the dam, which spans well over six kilometers, has cut off vital migration ...
Birgit Schwarz and John Sifton