Environment and natural resources

As of January, another of Cambodia’s highly traded varieties of rosewood will be protected by an international convention as an endangered species, but given past “dodgy trade”, observers are sceptical of how meaningful that protection will be. Demand from the Chinese market for Myanmarese rosewood ...

The Ministry of Industry and Commerce has ordered the closure of 28 wood processing factories located near and inside forest areas by next month. The ministry on November 28 issued a notification requiring the immediate removal or closure of 28 wood processing factories located close to ...

The Environment Ministry has asked Koh Kong provincial governor Bun Leut to stop construction of a factory which will process an indigenous vine and which plans to collect the yellow vine in a protected forest area. According to an official letter sent to Mr. Leut ...

A committee will be established to look into the construction of a 5-hectare Japan-funded aquatic centre to fa­cilitate the study of more than 600 species of freshwater fish from the Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers, Prime Minister Hun Sen said on November 25. “I have ...

Cambodia will support the Don Sahong hydroelectric dam planned to be built in south Laos less than two kilometers from the Cambodian border, while civil society groups continue to appeal to regional authorities to halt construction on environmental grounds. According to a post on Prime ...

The Forestry Department has broken its silence after a Swedish court last week penalised an importer of Myanmar teak, dramatically calling into question the country’s documenting processes for timber sourcing. In a public statement, the Forestry Department claimed that current control systems should be “capable ...

While one government ministry gave approval to a Chinese company to collect yellow vine in Koh Kong province, another ministry told the provincial governor on November 24 to halt the construction of processing facilities for the vine, according to letters obtained on November 24. The Ministry ...

Localisation of Sustainable Development Goals, effective development partnerships, food and nutrition security, green growth, climate change and disaster response preparedness are cross-sectoral topics of discussion between the government and development partners this year. Experts from the government and development partners’ representative agencies began discussion on ...

A study looking at economic land concessions in Ratanakkiri province has found that, contrary to the oft-repeated government narrative, they have brought almost no benefits to local communities. Speaking at a launch event for the study yesterday, one of the researchers behind it, Dr Neth ...

Just weeks ahead of the main fishing season on the Tonle Sap river, which supplies the majority of the fish used in the Kingdom’s traditional cooking sauce, prahok, government officials are predicting a better catch this season as water levels have recovered from last year’s ...