Logging in the wild west

A truck loaded with illegally cut rosewood passes through Russey Chrum village in Koh Kong province’s Thma Bang district on Sunday night in the Central Cardomom Protected Forest. Moments after the photograph was taken, the photographer was confronted by a group of five RCAF soldiers who demanded the images be deleted. WILL BAXTER

A man dressed in RCAF military fatigues watches over a cache of rosewood at a weigh station in Koh Kong province’s Thma Bang district on Sunday. WILL BAXTER

Military police official Chhorn Samol detains two journalists from the Post and conservationist Chut Wutty on Monday. Will Baxter

A migrant worker stands next to a motorbike and rosewood stump. Will Baxter

A cache of illegally cut young rosewood timber is concealed at a weigh station guarded by an RCAF soldier in the Central Cardomom Protected Forest in Koh Kong province. Will Baxter

Forestry Administration and military police officials conduct a day-time ambush on small scale illegal loggers on a road in the Central Cardomom Protected Forest. The officials admitted that they do not conduct ambush operations during the night-time, when the vast majority of illegal logs are trucked out of the protected area. Will Baxter

Wednesday, 21 December 2011
David Boyle with additional reporting by Yi Somphose and Cheang Sokha
The Phnom Penh Post

Illegal logging of staggering proportions abetted by military personnel is decimating stocks of luxury rosewood in the Central Cardamom Protected Forest, while the conversation group tasked with protecting the area and its government counterparts deny the trade is even happening.

In a period of several hours beginning late on Sunday night, the Post witnessed at least nine industrial transport trucks, seven pick-up trucks and one Land Rover packed with timber drive out of Koh Kong province’s Thma Bang district in the CCPF on one road alone. Large numbers of trucks could also be heard using a nearby connecting road.

Several of the trucks that the Post was able to inspect closely were carrying heavy loads of illegal rosewood.

Villagers, loggers and conservationists have verified that Forestry Administration officials, military officers and rangers working in partnership with the NGO Conservation International are making no effort to stop the massive trade in protected rosewood.

In many cases, it is alleged, they are actively profiting.

Blind eye to forest’s plight

A chainsaw is used to cut m’reach preu, a tree used in the creation of safrole oil, an ingredient in the production of methamphetamines. Photo by May Titthara

A truck filled with rosewood is allegedly stopped for a bribe in front of a CI-supported ranger station in Pursat’s O’Som commune in November 2010. Photo by photo supplied

Wildlife Alliance-supported rangers inspect a car suspected of carrying illegal timber. Photo by May Titthara

An alleged bribe book from the CI-supported O’Som commune ranger station in Pursat. Photo by photo supplied

Monday, 26 March 2012
Phnom Penh Post

Rangers paid by an internationally funded conservation organisation have been directly profiting for years from the very trade they are supposed to be preventing in southwest Cambodia, documents obtained by the Post allege.

Former Conservation International (CI) staff members say when they spoke up about endemic corruption that was facilitating the illegal logging of the Central Cardamom Protected Forest (CCPF), which stretches across three provinces, they were fired for doing so.

Written complaints from the chief of a community management committee in the CCPF backed by CI detail how luxury timber confiscated by officials on the organisation’s payroll simply “disappeared”, and did so systematically.

A “bribe book” photographed by sacked former staff member Thap Savy, allegedly shows how CI-supported Forestry Administration and military police officials [rangers] made a lucrative business out of “conservation”.

“I saw CI took the money from the illegal loggers. I came to talk personally and complain to the CI director [Seng Bunra], that’s why I was sacked,” he said.

Logging in the wild west

A truck loaded with illegally cut rosewood passes through Russey Chrum village in Koh Kong province’s Thma Bang district on Sunday night in the Central Cardomom Protected Forest. Moments after the photograph was taken, the photographer was confronted by a group of five RCAF soldiers who demanded the images be deleted. WILL BAXTER

A man dressed in RCAF military fatigues watches over a cache of rosewood at a weigh station in Koh Kong province’s Thma Bang district on Sunday. WILL BAXTER

Military police official Chhorn Samol detains two journalists from the Post and conservationist Chut Wutty on Monday. Will Baxter

A migrant worker stands next to a motorbike and rosewood stump. Will Baxter

A cache of illegally cut young rosewood timber is concealed at a weigh station guarded by an RCAF soldier in the Central Cardomom Protected Forest in Koh Kong province. Will Baxter

Forestry Administration and military police officials conduct a day-time ambush on small scale illegal loggers on a road in the Central Cardomom Protected Forest. The officials admitted that they do not conduct ambush operations during the night-time, when the vast majority of illegal logs are trucked out of the protected area. Will Baxter

Wednesday, 21 December 2011
David Boyle with additional reporting by Yi Somphose and Cheang Sokha
The Phnom Penh Post

Illegal logging of staggering proportions abetted by military personnel is decimating stocks of luxury rosewood in the Central Cardamom Protected Forest, while the conversation group tasked with protecting the area and its government counterparts deny the trade is even happening.

In a period of several hours beginning late on Sunday night, the Post witnessed at least nine industrial transport trucks, seven pick-up trucks and one Land Rover packed with timber drive out of Koh Kong province’s Thma Bang district in the CCPF on one road alone. Large numbers of trucks could also be heard using a nearby connecting road.

Several of the trucks that the Post was able to inspect closely were carrying heavy loads of illegal rosewood.

Villagers, loggers and conservationists have verified that Forestry Administration officials, military officers and rangers working in partnership with the NGO Conservation International are making no effort to stop the massive trade in protected rosewood.

In many cases, it is alleged, they are actively profiting.

CI refutes Cambodian logging story [-Deny! Deny! Deny! even with backup photos!!!]

December 23, 2011
Mongabay.com

Conservation International (CI) issued a sharp rebuke of a Phnom Pehn Post story that alleged involvement in illegal rosewood logging in Cambodia's Central Cardamom Protected Forest.

The story, published Wednesday, said widespread logging of rosewood is occurring within the Central Cardamom Protected Forest. Citing an unnamed conservationist, the article alleged CI was turning a blind eye to the activity.

"Forestry Administration officials, military officers and rangers working in partnership with the NGO Conservation International are making no effort to stop the massive trade in protected rosewood," stated the article. "In many cases, it is alleged, they are actively profiting."

The article goes on to state that "officials working with CI stationed at a checkpoint on road 48 – the only avenue out of Thma Bang – are allowing trucks carrying rosewood to drive straight through in exchange for 'taxes.'"

Greater Mekong's species spectacle

Monday, 15 December 2008
BBC News

Conservation group WWF says that more than 1,000 species new to science have been recorded in South-East Asia's Greater Mekong region over the past decade. These include 22 snake species, including this green pitviper (Trimeresurus gumprechti).
The "dragon millipede" (Desmoxytes purpurosea) was first described in 2007 by scientists in Thailand. Researchers suggest the bright colouring acts as a warning to would-be predators, as the millipede has glands that produce cyanide as a defence mechanism.
The Laotian rock rat (Laonastes aenigmamus) was first recorded by scientists at a food market in Laos. Remarkably, researchers say this species is the sole survivor of an ancient group of rodents understood to have died out 11 million years ago.
The large and aggressive Heteropoda dagmarae was found in forests of northern and central Laos. The nocturnal spider skillfully ambushes its prey from shrubs, trees, or bamboo between two and four metres from the ground.
Tree frog Chiromantis samkosensis, found in Cambodia, has a number of unique characteristics that distinguishes from other Asian Chiromantis species, including green blood and turquoise bones.
Scientists say finding so many species, such as the Gekko scientiadventura, suggests that many more creatures are still to be described in the region, which covers Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam and China's Yunnan province.

Crocodile Security In Cambodia To Be Beefed Up

PHNOM PENH, Dec 15 (Bernama) -- The Conservation International (CI), a wildlife-protection organisation, will spend US$13,000 on the security for its crocodile shelter in Cambodia in a bid to prevent poachers from harming the highly endangered reptiles, Xinhua news agency reported quoting national media as saying Monday.

"We will pay each villager US$5 per night to stay at the shelter," English-language daily newspaper the Phnom Penh Post quoted CI director in Cambodia Seng Bunra as saying.

"This is the biggest mountain crocodile shelter (our NGO) has," he said, adding that it was imperative to involve the local community in the efforts to prevent poaching as part of the conservation process.

"Mountain crocodiles are nearly extinct, and we are lucky that Cambodia still has these kinds of endangered animals," he said, while urging the government to do more to support the conservation efforts.

The CI crocodile shelter covers an area of approximately 10 square kilometers in Pursat province.

There are now only some 250 mountain crocodiles living in Cambodia, according to official figures.

Bringing Health Care to the Cardamoms

The clinic provides basic medical care, including prenatal screening and immunizations, to nearly 2,500 people in Cambodia’s Central Cardamom Mountains. (Photo: CI/Linda Yun)

Linda Yun, Staff Writer
Conservation International

Thma Bang, Cambodia (June 10, 2007): When malaria struck all four of her children, a 36-year-old Khmer widow did what any other villager in Chumnoab would do. She searched the forest for plants and herbs to prepare traditional medicines. Without a hospital in the area, it was the only remedy available.

Today her children are healthy and malaria-free. During the past two years, they have been receiving free medical care from a clinic nurse who comes to their village weekly and provides much-needed pharmaceuticals.

Conservation International (CI) and CARE, a nongovernmental development agency, opened a clinic here in 2004 with a grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). More than two years later, the clinic – still Thma Bang district’s only – provides primary health care to nearly 2,500 people in Cambodia’s remote Central Cardamom Mountains.

Now the widow no longer uses the forest as a pharmacy. The clinic, she insists, changed her family’s life.

“Before my children were so sick they could never leave the house. Now they are able to go out and play in the neighborhood,” she says.

Giving Care, Saving Lives

Routine visits by trained staff are one of many services the clinic offers. For hard-to-reach villages, nurses travel by motorbike to visit people at home. Other basic care includes prenatal screening, immunizations and vaccinations, as well as family planning information and counseling.

On a typical day at the clinic, Nurse Tep Chham sees up to three dozen patients. The ailments he treats vary depending on the season, but diarrhea and colds are most common. Malaria is particularly prevalent from November through June. If left untreated, these illnesses may become more severe and even deadly.

Before this clinic opened, the nearest hospital was in Koh Kong about 40 miles away. However, many villagers, lacking transportation and money, could not afford to make the three-hour journey or pay for medical services.

According to Chham, who has worked at the clinic from the start, this program has saved lives.

“The health post has made it much easier for people to get proper treatment quickly, and that is essential,” he says. “People always used to treat themselves at home. Now there are fewer deaths, so the villagers are happy.”

One such happy mother from Russei Chrum village stands first in line at the clinic on a sunny Saturday morning. She has brought in her 9-month-old daughter, whose demeanor is sweet, despite a fever and bad cough. Donning a surgical mask, the nurse queried the mother about her daughter’s symptoms, weighed the baby, took her pulse, and then provided a prescription.

Until the clinic opened, the mother says she had no place to go for such treatment. Sometimes she would buy medicine at local shops from sellers who had no medical training.

“Even when the medicine was not working, the seller just continued to give it again and again, hoping the sickness would go away,” she explains. “The clinic is much better.”


Improving Human Welfare

With USAID support, CI, in partnership with local nongovernmental organizations, has implemented similar health programs in the Philippines and Madagascar.

Such programs address the critical link between conservation and human welfare. Expanding populations, particularly in developing countries, are placing greater demands on an already stressed environment. CI seeks to reduce those human pressures by improving the health and well-being of vulnerable communities. It is important to the long-term protection of forests and wildlife around the world.

“It’s a matter of making sure that people’s basic needs are met first,” says Janet Edmond, director of CI’s Population and Environment program. “This helps cut down their reliance on natural resources, which makes our conservation initiatives more effective and sustainable.”