Illegally felled timber is still flowing through provinces despite travel bans and increased scrutiny of traffic due to the Covid-19 outbreak, activists alleged, raising suspicions of officials’ involvement in the trade.
An award-winning environmentalist detained over the weekend said upon his release that he had seen about 100 tractors carting wood away from the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary — a claim rejected by local environment authorities and a nearby reforestation project as lacking in evidence.
Prominent environmentalist Ouch Leng and four other forestry activists were arrested by Kratie provincial environment officers Friday afternoon, local officials said.
The Ratanakiri Provincial Court has asked a forestry activist to testify in a complaint filed against him by local officials, as the activist questioned the court’s inaction on his own complaint.
A forestry activist who said he was beaten by villagers for raising the alarm about illegal activities in Ratanakiri province forests has filed a new provincial court complaint against officials and others.
The Environment Ministry has accused a forestry patrol group of illegally monitoring a protected forest, drawing criticism from civil society organizations who say the ministry has violated the group’s rights and restricted its conservation efforts.
Seven ethnic Bunong villagers and a human rights officer in Mondulkiri province have filed a complaint to the provincial court accusing two local officials and two others of illegally clearing state forest land for private gain.
Three business tycoons who were summoned for court questioning in relation to alleged forestry crimes are suspected by officials of attempting to avoid justice, days after the government issued a plan directing authorities to freeze the assets of forestry offenders and take other actions.
An environmental activist has called on the government to expand its forestry crime crackdown to the Prey Lang Forest, casting suspicion on two companies he said should be monitored.
Two Forestry Administration officers were placed in provisional detention on Thursday morning amid an ongoing crackdown on illegal logging in Mondulkiri province. Provincial Forestry Administration
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