Mondulkiri has been a hotbed for illegal land grabs and land speculation. Interior Minister Sar Kheng in October warned local officials from engaging in land grabs and corruption.
Dozens of families in a Kandal village have been marked for eviction to develop Phnom Penh’s new international airport, and have petitioned Prime Minister Hun Sen complaining of the state’s compensation offer that they say is a mere 10th of market prices.
Alongside piles of wood are huge bales of multicolored fabric scraps. A long chimney shoots out from the roof of a Kandal brick kiln, and has elicited the ire of some villagers who say it releases noxious smoke.
Cambodia aspires to reduce 42 percent of its expected 2030 emissions not through stopping coal-powered energy but with trees. More specifically, the country will offset a majority of the total emissions it releases through Redd+.
On patrol in Keo Seima, community members clash over deforestation and chainsaws. At the front line of a multibillion-dollar global climate-change program, Mondulkiri’s volunteer patrollers say they feel powerless as their reports of logging are ignored.
Environment Minister Say Samal made no commitments to achieve net-zero emissions at the Wednesday session of the COP26 Climate Conference.
As mega-developer OCIC completes the filling-in of Phnom Penh’s new island, Koh Norea, nearby Chbar Ampov residents are staring at a mound of sand anxiously unsure if they will be evicted by the development or driven out by real estate speculation.
Cambodia was among a minority of countries who did not sign a pledge to conserve and expand its forested ecosystems at COP26 last week despite forest loss being the country’s highest source of greenhouse gas emissions.
Lao Annie, who heads several real estate companies in Cambodia, according to company records, said on Tuesday that she was “shocked” when she read news about all the important people who had land near her in Preah Sihanouk.
Hundreds of Phnom Penh families protested in the capital on Monday, highlighting two ongoing and long-standing disputes in the city.
VOD is an independent media outlet producing radio programs and disseminating information to the public via the Internet.
© 2019 VOD. All Rights Reserved.
