Amid mounting uproar over the privatization and destruction of the Phnom Tamao forest, Prime Minister Hun Sen has stepped in to call off the development and replant trees starting Monday.
Chhim Sokha came to Phnom Tamao pagoda on Friday because he had to see if the social media posts he was seeing on Facebook were
The Forestry Administration issued a statement justifying rampant razing of Phnom Tamao forest, claiming the forest was inconvenient and a new zoo will be built in exchange.
Fresh satellite imagery shows rapid destruction of the Phnom Tamao forest this week, an estimated 130 hectares razed between Friday and Wednesday.
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Thursday sentenced a senior Kampong Chhnang police officer to four years in prison for illegally clearing flooded forests around the Tonle Sap lake between 2011 and 2021.
Four commune administrations in Takeo province — including two containing controversial developments in Phnom Tamao forest — gathered Wednesday morning over local residents living on state land, an official said.
Two residents of Boeng Tamok protesting the filling-in of the lake were questioned by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday, with five others expected in court over the next week.
Excavators have begun tearing strips through the protected Phnom Tamao forest — recently privatized for development by select tycoons — raising fears among locals and a wildlife sanctuary that shares the land.
Mondulkiri villagers say a local road has been blocked by a private landowner, but they are not sure who is behind the development and a commune chief says he is unaware of the dispute.
Representatives of about 80 families living around southern Phnom Penh’s major lake development say they fear eviction as sandfilling is nearing their houses and they have yet to receive the land titles promised to them by authorities.
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