The Southern Cardamom National Park received a mob of nearly 300 people Sunday morning, arriving on “uncountable” motorbikes and tuk-tuks and armed with axes and hoes to cut down trees, according to police.
Nearly 62,000 traps were removed from protected areas last year, up more than 18,000 from the year prior, the Environment Ministry said, as a conservationist estimated the total number of traps being set in the forests could be five times as high.
Construction sites, trash burning and street-food markets are the high-risk areas in Cambodia for PM2.5, or small air particles that can lead to respiratory problems, heart disease or early death, researchers say. Pollution is likely on the rise as vehicles and industry increase.
Residents say they have no employment opportunities in Kampong Speu’s Oral district, forcing them to log a nearby forest to earn a living, but only after paying local officials a bribe.
Environmental activists have asked authorities in three Phnom Penh districts to clean up garbage accumulated in the city’s canals and sewage system.
The Supreme Court on Thursday denied bail to a land broker who claimed he wasn’t aware he was falsifying documents, after he was arrested alongside seven others in relation to land conflicts in Preah Sihanouk’s Bit Traing commune.
Villagers said members of the elite Brigade 70 overseeing a Tuesday land clearance in Aoral district beat them and fired warning shots.
Five representatives of a community embroiled in a Banteay Meanchey land dispute have been charged and placed in pre-trial detention for incitement charges, according to a court official and a rights group.
A businesswoman has sued a district governor in Siem Reap province for violating a court decision and allegedly beginning to encroach on a 200-hectare plot of land.
The Cambodian Navy wants 120 hectares of land near the Ream naval base back from a prominent business tycoon, who claims that he legally purchased the land from a military official.
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