A logger who died in custody had no bruises as alleged and may have had mental health issues, a Pursat environmental official said of a 22-year-old man arrested for cutting trees in a protected area.
The residents say they’re occupying land taken from them about a decade ago by sugarcane plantations run by CPP Senator Ly Yong Phat.
The development of Phnom Penh’s new international airport in Kandal province continues to face resistance, as petitioners gathered outside government institutions in the capital saying they had lost faith in provincial authorities as machines began to dig around their homes.
The government continued its land privatization drive by allocating more than 400 hectares of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Tamok to businesspeople and the National Election Committee, leaving little of the lake.
A Preah Vihear activist, known for organizing forest patrol groups, has been summoned to court for questioning in three weeks, but the court has not specified the nature of the complaint.
Three community representatives involved in a long-running dispute with the energy minister’s wife were taken into police custody over the weekend in relation to a separate dispute, residents said.
Two land disputants in Preah Sihanouk have been arrested and charged with violence and obstructing public officials over a clash that took place in February last year.
On paper, the protected biosphere reserve around Tonle Sap lake is a flooded forest. But across vast tracts in Kampong Chhnang, there are only rice fields or uncultivated wetlands, bare of any substantial trees. Decades of encroachment have only accelerated in recent years.
Forest watchers in 2020 filed 90 percent fewer reports of illegal logging amid officials’ threats against community patrols, according to an international research report, as one advocate said young people were refraining from joining patrols out of fear of repercussions.
Six Oral district residents have been summoned to a Kampong Speu court for questioning for incitement as part of their efforts to protect a community forest that is being cleared by soldiers.
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