A new report from the Prey Lang Community Network links increasing deforestation in the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary to a yearlong ban on independent patrols, as forest activists were this year again stopped from activities in the forest and conducting their annual tree-blessing ceremony.
Community patrollers of the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary say local authorities are pushing them to sign contracts that they cannot patrol the forest, a year after they were banned from activities to monitor the protected area.
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.
Environmental activists say illegal logging in Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary is happening almost every day, as foreign researchers released new data indicating high levels of selective logging in the deep forest.
Cambodia’s state electricity provider is pushing ahead with the construction of a transmission line through the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary, a plan that has caused concerns for representatives of three multimillion-dollar conservation projects as well as officials in the environment and forestry ministries.
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.
Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary lost a record-breaking amount of tree cover last year, shedding patches of forest larger than the size of Phnom Penh’s Olympic Stadium football pitch for every hour of 2019, data compiled from satellite images shows.
Forestry watchdogs say they have seen increased logging activity in the Prey Lang sanctuary, especially after independent forest patrollers were stopped by authorities from entering, but officials have defended their ban on unregistered forest patrols.
Four anti-logging activists were let go on Monday after being questioned by a provincial court prosecutor and labeled as suspects by local authorities, following their detention by a timber company with a land concession next to Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary.
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.
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