News
Cambodia scraps plans for Mekong hydropower dams
A Cambodian government decision to postpone building new hydropower dams on the Mekong river has been welcomed by campaigners, who say it will provide welcome relief to the tens of thousands of people whose livelihood depend upon its rich resources. Cambodia announced on Wednesday that it would ...
Rebecca Ratcliffe
Cambodia halts mainstream Mekong River dam plans for 10 years, official says
Electricity-starved Cambodia will not develop new hydropower dams on the Mekong River for the next 10 years, a senior energy official said on Wednesday, as it reviews its policy to seek energy from coal, natural gas and solar. The decision means that neighboring Laos, which has ...
Prak Chan Thul
New dolphin calf spotted in Kratie province
A newly born dolphin calf was spotted swimming among other adult dolphins in Kampi deep pool located in Kratie province, WWF-Cambodia said in a statement. The calf was found late last week by WWF-Cambodia’s Mekong dolphin research team, it said, stressing that this is the fourth ...
Cambodian Official: No New Dams Planned for Mekong Mainstream Before 2030
A Ministry of Energy official said Tuesday that Cambodia will not develop new mainstream hydropower projects on the Mekong River for the next 10 years. Villagers and fishing communities along the Mekong River long have been in the dark over whether proposed dams, including the massive ...
Sun Narin
CAMBODIA Landmark Settlement in Cambodian Land-grab Falls Short for Many Villagers
It has been more than a decade since 64-year old Khorn Khorn lost three hectares of land to a close ally of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. The controversial senator Ly Yong Phat wanted the holding to expand a sugarcane plantation in Kampong Speu province. At ...
Sun Narin
Smaller fragments of forest at risk of greater levels of deforestation, study finds
Smaller fragments of tropical forest experienced forest loss at a greater rate than larger blocks between 2001 and 2018, researchers have found, prompting calls for restorative measures to be taken to increase cover in highly fragmented areas. According to a statement released in conjunction with the report, ...
Lauren Crothers
China funds more than 3,000 km of roads in Cambodia
Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen said China has financed the construction of more than 3,000 kilometres of roads in the Kingdom. The figure was shared at the inauguration ceremony of National Road No. 55 with a total length of 182.16 kilometres and the groundbreaking for ...
NGO calls for climate budget transparency
NGO Forum on Cambodia issued a report on Wednesday which said that from 2000 to 2017, some one million houses were seriously affected by climate change disasters. Yet, government spending on the issue remained relatively limited. The report is said to be the first in Cambodia ...
Khorn Savi
Cambodia: Building a Nested System to Protect Remaining Forests
We didn’t expect a junkyard in the jungle, but that’s what we found: chainsaws – hundreds of them – piled high, along with old trucks, dozens of battered cars, countless motorbikes and scores of giant, illegally-harvested timbers. It had all been confiscated by rangers working ...
Quentin Renard, Sovanna Nhem, Chivin Leng, Jeff Silverman, and Donna Lee
Safeguarding livelihoods for fishing communities in Mekong Countries
The community at Dun Ei, a fishing village 180 kilometers northwest of Phnom Penh, has been making a living through fishing along the Pursat River for generations. In recent years, however, river structures, such as dams and dikes, have been preventing fish from migrating upstream ...