Tag Archives: Kratie

Cancel Prey Lang grants: SRP

Posted on by
Reply

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.”

Source

Visit The Phnom Penh Post

Call to preserve Prey Lang

Posted on by
Reply

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.

Source

Visit The Phnom Penh Post

Hun Sen urges forest protection

Posted on by
1

Vong Sokheng for The Phnom Penh Post

Prime Minister Hun Sen said today that economic land concessions for rubber plantations in Cambodia should not exceed a total of 300,000 hectares, in order to preserve forests and prevent climate change.

His comments came during a speech to recent graduates at the Chamkar Doung Royal University of Agriculture in Phnom Penh, where he urged a group of approximately 100 young people and relevant government officials to do their part to protect the environment.

“Rubber is at a good price, but it is impossible for us to cut down the high trees to plant rubber,” Hun Sen said.

“We can protect the forest to help reduce climate change,” he said.

Ly Phalla, head of the General Directorate of Rubber, said today that Cambodia’s combined 181,500 hectares of rubber plantations have not yet impacted the Kingdom’s forest land, in part due to long-standing economic land concessions granted to private companies for the growing of non-commercial timber.

“There is no problem from rubber plantations because the government has banned the cutting of economic timbers,” he said.

Mak Kim Hong, managing director of the Chub rubber plantation in Kampong Cham province – now the Kingdom’s largest rubber producer – said late last year that land devoted to the country’s rubber plantations could reach 250,000 hectares by 2015.

On December 30 last year, Hun Sen approved an additional 14,564 hectares of state land in Kratie province’s Snuol district to be privatised for rubber plantations.

Source

Visit The Phnom Penh Post

Calls for Prey Lang preservation

Posted on by
Reply

MAY TITTHARA for The Phnom Penh Post

MORE than 100 villagers from four provinces gathered in Phnom Penh on Wednesday to draw attention to environmental degradation in Prey Lang forest, and to call for a halt to the granting of economic land concessions in the area.

Representatives of the group delivered petitions to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s cabinet and the Ministry of Agriculture requesting action to protect Prey Lang, which covers an area of about 5,250 square kilometres in Kratie, Stung Treng, Kampong Thom and Preah Vihear provinces.

“Villagers in four provinces depend on Prey Lang and its biodiversity to support their livelihoods and provide income and food for their families,” Sem Sean, a village representative from Kampong Thom province, said at a press conference on Wednesday.

He said the forest was threatened by the increasing number of companies that had been granted mining and logging concessions there.

“Because companies have cut down a lot of trees, cleared large areas of land and carried out exploration for mining purposes, there have been a number of negative effects such as flooding and drought,” he added.

Sem Sean said there are currently 33 private companies operating in Prey Lang forest: 12 in Preah Vihear, 11 in Kratie, eight in Stung Treng and two in Kampong Thom.

Some of the largest include South Korean mining firm Kenertec, Rattanak Stone Cambodia Development Co Ltd and the Pheapimex Group, which has been linked to a number of controversial logging and plantation projects across the country.

Phourk Hong, a Kuoy ethnic minority representative from Preah Vihear province, called for the concessions to be “cancelled” and for private companies to be banned from operating in the forest.

“We want Prey Lang to be preserved for our younger generations, so our people can continue our traditional ways of life,” she said.

Chheng Kimsun, director of the Forestry Administration at the Ministry of Agriculture, said he had not yet seen the villagers’ complaint. However, he defended the land-concession system and said that sometimes villagers were at fault in disputes.

“Before granting an economic land concession, the government conducts a survey to determine potential impacts on the area. The problems occur because some villagers are bad people and they put up fences around state land so they can try to get compensation,” he said.

In 2007, international watchdog Global Witness reported that Prey Lang was under threat from “large-scale illegal logging” operations with close links to senior government officials.

[Ed-Apols for full quote]

Source

Visit The Phnom Penh Post