Photo by: Heng Chivoan
Phourk Hong, a community representative from Preah Vihear province, attends a press conference concerning the fate of Prey Lang forest on Wednesday.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.
5 comments:
got to bring the attention to the right authority and gov't so areas like this can be preserved for not only the local people to use, but for the nation and all khmer people to understand the importance of their preservation as well. they have to voice their concern to the gov't so they can be helped.
maybe also produce a film to educate people and society the importance of certain natural preservation, etc... i think once people understand it better, they will cooperate in the effort, etc...
DOES AH KWACK EVER UNDERSTAND IF IT WAS NOT AN ORDER FROM HANOI?/
Please be reminded that we,human being,are part of the nature.
Nature relies on soil,water,heat(fire) and oxygen(air) for our living.When these are destroyed without proper management,we then place ourselve into destruction.
In the name of development,RGC has to be cautious about undesirable outcomes that would impact citizens as well as the supporting environment.Strangely enough, conservation applied everywhere in most parts of the world.
Weighting between the damages and the progresses to society is the very fine line.Scientific study has be intensively researched by independent reseacher group, in order to provide relevant informations to cambodians and RGC.
It has been scams of companies have taken advantages of logging of exortic timers for their market,and left the country scared with likely destructive impact on land degradation and loosing soil fertility, subsequently they induce the natural disasters.
Of course it won't have directly impact onto those who grab the benefits to cmfort their lives, but the poors are definitely getting more poorer.
So better management with right attitude and transparency could be beneficial.
To be in conclusion that villagers claimed that for the benefit of their compensation is an immiture statement and informations are needed for better understanding and prosperity.
Neang SA
you know, cambodia school should do the same like in america. in america, in sixth grade, school take their students to camping for a week or 2 weeks in the natural preservation areas to expose them to ecology and to develop in students the appreciation and love for nature and its beauty, etc... i think schools in cambodia should do the same by required their students to go camping in nature or in national park or natural preservation areas, etc, so students can learn to appreciate and love for nature and its importance to our earth, country, etc..., really!
Post a Comment