Protected areas in Kirirom National Park and the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary are being privatized for companies run by family members of notorious tycoon Choeung Sopheap as well as the wife of the country’s finance minister.
Mondulkiri prosecutors are questioning four people arrested after a confrontation between authorities and residents over an alleged land grab in Keo Seima district.
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.
About 10 community members patrolled O’Reang district’s Sen Monorom commune on Wednesday and found about 100 hectares of the sanctuary and 12 hectares of community forest being cleared by machinery
A conservation organization recorded sharp declines in banteng, gaur and other species of land-dwelling hooved mammals in Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary over a 10-year biodiversity study, suggesting four animals are at risk of disappearing from the protected area within a few years — like tigers and wild water buffalo before them.
More than 200 indigenous people in Mondulkiri province’s Keo Seima district protested on Tuesday for access to farmland inside a wildlife sanctuary, which the Environment Ministry banned them from last month, citing conservation laws.
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