Author Archives: Paul Stewart

Cancel Prey Lang grants: SRP

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Meas Sokchea for The Phnom Penh Post

Opposition Sam Rainsy Party lawmakers sent a letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday requesting that he cancel all economic land concessions in Prey Lang forest following public outcry over the issue.

The letter, signed by nine parliamentarians, singles out a 6,044-hectare concession to Vietnamese-owned CRCK Rubber Development Co Ltd, but also calls on the premier to cancel the other concessions in the forest. The lawmakers also suggested that the government support listing Prey Lang as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Hun Sen approved a 70-year lease for CRCK in September 2009. In May last year, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries signed a contract with the company, and CRCK began clearing forest in order to make way for a rubber plantation early this year, according to reports from local residents.

In the letter, the SRP lawmakers cited signatures from 29,208 people from four provinces who requested their intervention in the matter.

“Those violations have resulted in losses to a very worthy natural resource to the area, including natural forest, fruit-productive forest, wild animals and all kinds of biodiversity,” the MPs wrote, adding that the economic and cultural interests of locals, especially members of the Kuy ethnic minority, have also been adversely affected.

The forest, which stretches for roughly 3,600-square kilometres between the Mekong and Stung Treng rivers across parts of four provinces – Kampong Thom, Kratie, Preah Vihear and Stung Treng– lacks state protection despite its rich biodiversity and value to local people.

The Prey Lang network, a local activist group, says more than 40,000 hectares in the forest have been granted for rubber plantations alone, while 27 exploration licences and related concessions have been handed to mining firms.

Chhun Chhorn, Kampong Thom provincial governor, defended the actions of CRCK yesterday, claiming that the concessions in Prey Lang would bring development to the area and suggesting that the SRP lawmakers were playing politics with the issue.

“It is their right, awarded by the government, to clear that land to plant rubber. They are not acting illegally,” he said.

Chhun Chorn said people have used the forest for hundreds of years but are still poor and will find a better living by working for rubber plantations and factories.

Mem Sotharavin, an SRP lawmaker from Kampong Thom province, said CRCK’s practice of importing labour from Vietnam undermined any development it may bring to the area.

“I support development, but it should avoid [negatively] affecting people,” he said. “People have not had jobs [from the concession] at all. If people have jobs as [Chhun Chhorn] said, it is no problem.”

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Congo: Brazzaville to host summit on basins of world’s tropical forests

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World’s tropical forests – A summit on the three basins of the world’s tropical forest – the Amazon, Congo and Borneo Mekong – will be held from 31 May to 3 June in Brazzaville, according to organisers. It will establish a South-South and North-South cooperation with a view to sustainable management of forest ecosystems towards a bigger contribution to the regulation and stabilization of the global climate, the fight against poverty and economic development of countries concerned.

The summit, which will bring together Heads of State and experts from some 30 countries, aims to establish a platform for exchanging information, experiences and negotiations to promote active cooperation in the area of ​​forests between the countries belonging to these areas.

This Summit will give participants the opportunity to learn about the current state of these basins’ forest resources and will lead to the signing of a cooperation treaty between the three basins.

It will also to adopt a joint declaration on tropical forests, climate and sustainable development, within the framework of negotiations on the future climate agreement in Durban.

The biggest forest basin on earth, the Amazon, covers nine countries, made up of Brazil (with 63 per cent of the forest), Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, Guyana, Bolivia and Peru.

It represents half of the world’s tropical forests. In terms of ecology, it is a primary forest.

The Amazon forest is located in the Amazon Basin in South America, where it covers about 6 million square kilometres of the 7.3 million sq km of the basin.

The Congo Basin, with its 228 million hectares, of which 57 per cent is in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and 10 per cent in Congo Brazzaville, is the second biggest forest basin in the world.

It can be found in Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo Brazzaville, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, Chad, DR Congo, Rwanda and Sao Tome and Principe.

The Mekong Basin of Borneo, meanwhile, is the planet’s third ecosystem in terms of scope and diversity.

Besides China, the Mekong region spans five countries, four (the downstream country) cooperate as members in the Mekong River Commission (MRC). These are Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.

The forests are a reservoir of biological resources and play a key role in providing environmental goods and services, regulation and stabilization of global climate, and have an impact on socio-economic development.

Sustainable management of forests, conservation of biodiversity and climate change are prominent in international debates, the development of environmental diplomacy and the emergence of green economies.

The ecological role of these three forest basins is universally recognised.

These basins account for 80 per cent of the world’s tropical forests, home to two-thirds of terrestrial biodiversity and provide livelihood to more than one billion people.

Countries where these vital habitats are found are faced with both the needs of development, destruction of ecosystems, land degradation and forest, and the need for conservation of biological resources.

In these forest areas, there are different trends regarding modes of forest management, including management of the forest estate, conversion of forest areas into agricultural plantations or into protected areas.

Levels of deforestation and degradation vary from one basin to another, depending on forest practices, agricultural policies and development requirements.

The accelerating reduction of forest cover contributes to the growth in emissions of greenhouse gas emissions and land degradation.

Conservation and sustainable management of tropical forests prove inevitable for the protection not only of vegetation cover but also of humanity.

With this in mind the Republic of the Congo suggested in 2006 in Bali, the collaboration of tropical forest areas, to promote South-South and North-South exchange of experiences and information in forestry.

The Brazzaville conference was mentioned by Congo’s president Denis Sassou Nguesso at a summit in Oslo in May 2010 to his counterparts from Guyana and Indonesia, as well as the Norwegian Prime Minister.

He expressed the wish that this global conference be held in 2011 in Brazzaville on the occasion of International Year of Forests.

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Call to preserve Prey Lang

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May Titthara and Thomas Miller for The Phnom Penh Post

Villagers from four provinces protested in the capital yesterday and handed officials a petition signed by more than 30,000 people opposed to land concessions in the Prey Lang forest, as activist and monk Loun Savath narrowly escaped arrest at the event.

About 200 villagers from Kampong Thom, Preah Vihear, Kratie and Stung Treng gathered at the government’s designated protest zone, Freedom Park, to express concern over concessions in a forest they say is essential to their livelihoods. Activists waved banners, sang songs and marched, but perhaps most notable was their attire: green shirts, banana leaf hats and forest-green paint on their faces.

Som Lach, a 41-year-old man from Preah Vihear’s Chey Sen district, said the decorative wear was a demonstration of their solidarity with a natural resource under threat.

“Nature cannot speak out, and we are dependent on natural resources, so we have to speak out on its behalf,” he said.

Protest leaders submitted a petition to the prime minister’s cabinet, the National Assembly, provincial authorities and three government ministries yesterday calling for an end to all concessions in the 3,600- square-kilometre forest.

The petition also calls for the government to rescind permits that have already been given to companies to log the forest, to stop the clearance of land and to allow logged areas to regrow.

Hean Bunhieng, a project officer at NGO Forum, said activists had collected about 30,000 signatures in just one month and would continue to seek more.

While the government has argued that concessions to rubber companies such as Vietnam’s CRCK will generate jobs, 33 year-old Oeun At of Chey Sen district said yesterday that the 12,000-riel (US$2.96) daily salary offered for such work was not a living wage.

“We need to plant rice and farm by ourselves, so the government should withdraw all the licences given to companies and give the rights back to the community,” she said.

Loun Savath, who has been living in hiding in recent weeks out of fear of arrest in retaliation for his activism in land disputes, came to show support for the Prey Lang campaign yesterday.

“Even though the authorities are trying to arrest me, I am not worried because I have done no wrong,” he said. “If they are still trying to arrest me, it is their problem.”

Shortly afterwards, he was forced to flee the scene with the assistance of rights groups when it appeared that local authorities were planning his arrest.

Several villagers facing eviction from Boeung Kak lake also attended, but did not hold their own rally out of fear that authorities would cancel talks with city authorities on their dispute slated for Friday.

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Prey Lang scepticism aired at forum

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THOMAS MILLER and MAY TITTHARA for The Phnom Penh Post

A villager expresses her concern about a land concession that has been granted in Prey Lang forest during a forum in Tbong Toek village, in Kampong Thom province’s Sandan district, on Friday.

Villagers vented while the government defended its approval of an economic land concession in Prey Lang forest during a public forum in Kampong Thom province’s Sandan district over the weekend.

Officials from five political parties joined roughly 300 villagers from four provinces in Tbong Toek village in Meanrith commune on Friday.

Residents say the 6,044-hectare economic land concession to Vietnamese-owned CRCK Rubber Development Co, Ltd is a threat to their livelihoods and to one of Cambodia’s largest forests.

Ros San, a resident of Popok village in Sandan district, called forcefully for the government to protect the forest, drawing loud applause from many villagers in attendance.

“Many forests have been cut but we still have one – Prey Lang – so we must protect it,” he said.

Chhay, a villager from Preah Vihear province, said people depend on the forest, especially the trees for collecting resin.

“The company clears their trees,” he said. “All people request the government to protect the forest and keep it for all people. People depend on the land and forest, so where can they go, how can they survive?”

People living near the 200,000-hectare forest, which has not been designated as a protected area, have the right to harvest non-timber products such as resin, small wood and other materials for making furniture and hammocks.

Chut Wutty, director of the Natural Resource Protection Group, said resin-bearing trees are “like the farm for poor people” living in the area.

Chut Wutty said residents are concerned that this concession will be the beginning of the end for Prey Lang. “When one [company] starts and gets successful, they get more,” he said.

Government officials have said the area is state-owned land, giving them the right to lease it as they see fit.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries signed a contract granting CRCK a 70-year lease on the plot of land in May last year, following approval from Prime Minister Hun Sen and the Council of Ministers in September 2009, according to documents obtained yesterday by The Post.

The company began operations sometime last month, Chut Wutty said.

Sim Vanna, Sandan district governor, said the concession would bring development to the area, and urged the villagers to work for CRCK.

“Before the company comes, it is quiet, there is no market. Now, there is a big market,” he said. “If you have no skills, the company can teach you.”

Uth Sam An, deputy Kampong Thom provincial governor, said the desires for conservation and development were both worthy of support, but said traditional methods of harvesting in the forest were unsustainable because of population growth.

Government officials suggested local residents submit a complaint, though Seng Sokheng, representative for the Community Peace-building Network, said they have submitted several over the past three years requesting the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to stop granting economic land concessions in Prey Lang.

A number of villagers expressed scepticism and wanted to view CRCK and the concession area, which the government said was “degraded forest”, for themselves.

About 20 military police and police blocked the entrance to CRCK grounds, saying they were concerned about a protest, mirroring events late last month when residents were denied access.

Uong Moly, Sandan district police inspector, said the road was private and that police had a duty to protect the company.

Following negotiations with NGOs and journalists, the police allowed one van of journalists to view the corrugated metal fence surrounding the company grounds.

The entrance to the concession area was also guarded by a handful of military police and police, who denied access.

One officer, Chan Moeun, said CRCK paid him 10,000 riels (about US$2.50) per day.

Dense foliage could be viewed from the gate, and about a hundred large, recently-cut logs lined the dirt road approaching the 6,044-hectare concession.

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Cambodians prevented from protesting destruction of their forest

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Jeremy Hance for mongabay.com

Cambodian villagers fighting to save their forest from rubber companies have been rebuked by the local government. Two days in a row local authorities prevented some 400 Cambodian villagers from protesting at the offices of the Vietnam-based CRCK Company, which the villagers contend are destroying their livelihoods by bulldozing large swaths of primary forests. Authorities said they feared the villagers would have grown violent while protesting.

But, according to village representative, Chheang Vuthy, speaking to the Cambodia Daily: “The villagers would not have acted violently. The companies should not be clearing forest even though they have licenses from the government because it affects people’s livelihoods.”

The Cambodian government has granted a concession of over 6,000 hectares to the rubber company from the 200,000 hectare forest known as Prey Lang. Located between the Mekong and Stung Sen River, nearly half of Prey Lang has never been logged, making it an incredible rarity in Southeast Asia. Tigers, Asian elephants, banteng, gaur, and Asiatic black bears are all still found in Prey Lang. In all 26 to 50 endangered mammals, birds, and reptiles may live in Prey Lang. Still provincial authorities have dubbed Prey Land a ‘dull forest’.

In addition to its wildlife, the largely unprotected forest is also home to a quarter of million people who are dependent on its resources.

At a press conference held by a group comprising over 100 local NGOs, villagers said authorities were using intimidation tactics to halt protests, including send police to gather names of those villages inciting protests.

“[Police] have tried to find many ways to threaten us, but we were protesting to save Prey Lang forest,” Chheang Vuthy told the Phnom Penh Post. Governor of the Sandan district, Sim Vanna, denied any knowledge of police gathering names in the villages.

Local authorities say the concession in question is not in communal land and therefore open for development. But the protesters say the companies involved are not being forthright.

“This bulldozing of the forest is done without any environmental impact assessments,” Chet Ton, a community organizer with a local NGO, told the Cambodia Daily, “and the companies try to hide [information].”

Yesterday a national lawmaker, Son Chhay, stepping into the fight by appealing to Cambodia’s National Assembly President Heng Samrin to come to the villages’ aid.

“Please, National Assembly president, use the power of the legislative branch to stop destroying Khmer forests by Vietnamese companies, in order to preserve what’s left of the forest for the next generation,” Son Chhay said in a letter.

Cambodia is experiencing a rubber boom after the Vietnamese Rubber Enterprise Federation (VREF) invested $600 million. VREF was awarded 100,000 hectares in 2009 and is expected to gain 70,000 hectares more by 2012 according to the Phnom Penh Post.

However, Cambodia’s Prime Minister, Hun Sen, has spoken out against going too far with rubber plantation.

“Rubber is at a good price, but it is [wrong] for us to cut down the high trees to plant rubber,” he told university students. “We can protect the forest to help reduce climate change.”

However, the Prime Minister recently signed over 9,000 hectares of Vereak Chey National Park for conversion to rubber plantations despite it being a protected area.

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Images of the protest here courtesy of kiletters.

Environmentalists to use new Google 3D Trees mapping tool to preserve forests

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Todd Woody for Reuters

Environmentalists have long used Google Earth to keep tabs on mountaintop mining and to monitor deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. Now with the release Monday of the latest version of Google’s virtual world maps, they’ll be able to literally see the trees in the forest — in 3D.

Among other new features, Google Earth 6 has initially mapped more than 80 million trees in seven cities, from olive groves in Athens to the flowering dogwoods of Tokyo. Viewers can also fly through a section of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil.

“Google wants to create a more accurate and real model of the world and we want to make sure we’re adding in more information to make the planet more alive and more complete,” Peter Birch, product manager for Google Earth, said in an interview. “Trees provide context wherever you go and this allows you to tell the story of forestlands.”

Birch said Google is working with environmental groups, indigenous peoples and government in Africa, Mexico and South America to use the 3D Trees feature in reforestation and conservation projects.

“We’re modeling the saplings they’re planting as well as areas of mature trees, so people can fly around and get idea of what the forest looks like,” he said.

In Mexico, Google is collaborating with CONABIO, the country’s National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity, to map coastal mangrove forests. Brazil’s Surui people are using Google Earth 6 to map trees significant to the tribe. And in Kenya, the Greenbelt Movement will model five forest restoration projects with the Google software.

Google Earth 6 will initially include 50 tree species and map parks and urban areas of Athens, Berlin, Chicago, New York City, San Francisco, Tokyo and the University of California campus in Davis, Calif.

While Google has created 3D models of hundreds of thousands of buildings around the world, trees posed a different challenge, according to Birch.

“In a city you might have tens of thousands of building that are unique,” he said. “With trees you have far more of them but the variation between species is far less. We can create lots of copies of a particular species but at a lower cost.”

“To get tree data we’re using images we have and doing an automated process to identify the trees, where they are and their crown size,” Birch added.

He acknowledged that Google Earth’s initial 80 million virtual trees are “a drop in the bucket” compared to the planet’s billions of trees. But Birch said the addition of 3D trees along with an improved and expanded historical imagery feature will give viewers a more global environmental view, allowing them to watch the retreat of glaciers and deforestation over time.

At least for now, though, Birch won’t be able to see birch trees on Google Earth 6.

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UN FAO Calls for More Effort to Save World’s Forests

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Sabina Castelfranco | Rome for VOA

The final report of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization – FAO’s Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010 – says global deforestation has decreased over the past 10 years, but remains alarmingly high in many countries.

More than 900 experts from 178 countries contributed to the Forestry Resources Assessment report, which is the result of a four-year effort. The final report was published Monday at the start of the latest meeting of the FAO’s Committee on Forestry. Representatives from more than 100 countries are attending the meeting at FAO headquarters in Rome October 4-8.

The study states that deforestation, mainly the conversion of tropical forests to agricultural land, has lessened over the past 10 years, although it still is exceedingly high in many countries.

Mette Wilkie, coordinator of FAO’s Forestry Resource Assessment, said, “Probably around 13 million hectares of forests were lost through deforestation or natural causes each year in the last decade. That’s down from an estimated 16 million hectares per year in the previous decade, 1990-2000. So there are some indications for the first time that the rate of deforestation is going down, but it does continue at alarming rate in many countries still.”

Wilkie says countries like Brazil and Indonesia have both managed to significantly reduce their deforestation rates in the past 10 years. In Brazil, there’s been a very high political will to do this and they’ve had an excellent monitoring system put in place to detect very early on cutting of forests. In Indonesia, too, she said there’s been more emphasis on sustainable forest management.

The FAO official said the aim of this week’s meeting is to create awareness of what is happening, where it’s happening and why its happening – and to find out what the underlying causes are.

“The main cause by far is the conversion of forested area to agriculture, to crops, to livestock production in developing countries,” said Wilkie. “And, of course, we need additional production of food where we’re having an increase in population. So the issue here is how to find a balance of trying to increase the effective use of land for agriculture and to find better ways of using the forests so that they also generate livelihoods and income, other than being converted into agricultural crops.”

The report does not only address deforestation but a number of related subjects. These all are going to be discussed this week.

“We’re looking at the balance that we need between people, climate change, conservation of biodiversity in forests,” said Wilkie. “We’re looking at how to better finance sustainable forest management and share the benefits, and additionally how we communicate those findings that we have in a better way, particularly leading up to next year, which is the International Year of Forests.”

The U.N. agency emphasizes that forests where humans have intervened can still hold important biodiversity values, contribute significantly to environmental protection, and sustain livelihoods, provided they are well managed.

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