An outspoken environmental watchdog has submitted a letter to the Ministry of Environment requesting that the Pursat and Koh Kong provincial environmental departments combat illegal logging and timber hauling at the Phnom Oral Wildlife Sanctuary and the Cardamom Mountains range.
Forest crime, including illegal logging and transportation of timber, is rampant in the Cardamom Mountains Wildlife Sanctuary, according to the environmental watchdog ACNCIPO.
Kampong Speu provincial authorities confiscated 784ha of illegally occupied land in the Aural Wildlife Sanctuary in Oral district’s Trapaing Chor commune. It has given those who were illegally using the land one month to protest the decision.
Kampong Speu provincial governor Vei Samnang has issued an order prohibiting clearing and settling on more than 281ha of state forest land in two locations after some residents illegally occupied and farm the land.