Workers say debt and a lack of jobs in Cambodia are pushing them to consider crossing the closed border amid labor shortages in Thailand, despite the pandemic. Programs to get Cambodian workers back in Thailand are in the works, but concerns remain over conditions and safety.
A conservation organization recorded sharp declines in banteng, gaur and other species of land-dwelling hooved mammals in Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary over a 10-year biodiversity study, suggesting four animals are at risk of disappearing from the protected area within a few years — like tigers and wild water buffalo before them.
Chea Seila is one of the few conservationists who spends the months of listening needed to earn locals’ trust, villagers and colleagues say. For her, it’s the communities, with deep wells of knowledge, who are critical to protecting Stung Treng’s wetlands.
The banned opposition party on Wednesday requested that the Cambodian government lift travel restrictions and reinstate high-ranking members’ passports to clear the way for nine party officials summoned by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to return to the country.
UPDATED 7:55 a.m. — Din Varin, 48, was smashed in the head with a brick on Monday morning outside a Phnom Penh market and rushed to the hospital. One day after the attack, nearby vendors said they were still shocked, saying they knew the organic vegetable vendor as a gentle and quiet seller but knew nothing of alleged political activities.
In Stung Treng, villagers are experiencing unexpected changes to their environment: disappearing fish, dying forests, eroding islands. As they grapple with changing natural cycles, they project their fears onto the giant Don Sahong dam that looms upstream.
Last week’s arrest of a former opposition commune councilor stems from a 6-year-old complaint filed by timber baron Try Pheap, a human rights group said.
Cambodia and China on Monday signed a long-awaited free trade deal, as industry observers said it could be a boon for agricultural investment and seen as a major policy achievement, while others spoke of the need for wider reforms to make Cambodian exports competitive.
Dozens of people are getting tested for Covid-19 in Siem Reap after a French man visited bars and attended a pool party during supposed self-quarantine before testing positive over the weekend, on his 13th day of mandatory isolation.
Banana workers in Stung Treng said people were getting sick in droves at the plantation, blaming chemicals sprayed by drones flying overhead, as well as cramped living quarters and a lack of clean water.
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