News
Green Group Records 100 Cases of Illegal Logging in Protected Cambodian Forest in Three Days
An environmental watchdog group in Cambodia has recorded at least 100 cases of illegal logging in the country’s protected Preah Roka Wildlife Sanctuary over the course of just three days, prompting it to call on the government to strengthen enforcement and allow activists to carry ...
RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Sok Ry Sum and Samean Yun.
‘What other country would do this to its people?’ Cambodian land grab victims seek int’l justice
“It started when some people from the government came around the community telling us that we were illegally occupying the land,” Chhae Kimsrour said in June 2020. “I’ve lived here since 1995, but six months later they came back and started filling in my lake. ...
GERALD FLYNN, PHOUNG VANTHA
Thai, Cambodia, Vietnam Ambassadors Urge ASEAN, US support for Mekong Management
The ambassadors of Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia have called for greater support from the U.S. and the ASEAN regional bloc to address urgent environmental threats to the Mekong River. They also emphasized the need for improved water data sharing by all countries on the river, ...
Seourn Vathana, VOA Khmer
Cambodia keen on Mekong diplomacy across entire region
Cambodia is committed to reinforcing the Mekong-Lancang Cooperation (MLC) diplomatic mechanisms for the benefit of all six member states. Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Prak Sokhonn reaffirmed the stance in a press statement on March 24. “Let me reiterate Cambodia’s commitment to reinforcing the MLC ...
Voun Dara
Preah Vihear villagers seek solution to ‘encroachment’
Around 230 families from three villages in Romtom commune of Preah Vihear province’s Rovieng district said they are worried about the continued encroachment on their farmland by three companies which have licences for gold mining and agricultural in the area. The villageres said they had been ...
Long Kimmarita
Lands Grabs and Other Destructive Environmental Practices in Cambodia Test the International Criminal Court
Three leading climate and human rights nonprofits have asked the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in the Hague to pursue rampant “land grabbing” by the government of Cambodia and its commerce partners as a crime against humanity under the court’s jurisdiction. In an open letter ...
Katie Surma
Five Bright Spots in the Mekong
For many years the warning signs flashed the same message: the Mekong River, Southeast Asia’s main waterway, was headed toward environmental disaster. The 2,700-mile-long ribbon of water, scientists cautioned, could not withstand the onslaught of dam construction, overfishing, and pollution. Yet somehow the river that ...
Stefan Lovgren
US Urges Preservation of ‘Incredible Biodiversity’ in Cambodian Forest
The U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh says it is concerned about deforestation in the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary, where five environmental activists were detained for documenting illegal logging in February. Ambassador Patrick W. Murphy and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Cambodia Mission Director Veena Reddy ...
Sun Narin
Mekong nations discuss US-China rivalry concern
Asian Vision Institute (AVI) and the Embassy of Japan in Cambodia organised a seminar on March 18 to share perspectives on the challenges faced in the Mekong sub-region and look for possible ways forward in order to find solutions to them. Chhem Kieth Rethy, a member ...
Niem Chheng
Big cats dwindling from Cambodia’s forests
Indochinese leopards and tigers seem to have disappeared from their natural habitat in Cambodia, a conservationist told Khmer Times yesterday. “There is no scientific evidence since the 2010s to give us hope as conservationists to believe that Indochinese leopards and tigers still survive,” said the Cambodian conservationist who ...
Sar Socheath