More Youth Involved in Environmental Protection: Activist [-Watch out Hun Xen and cronies!!!]

A villager is seen here tying timber to his motorcycle for trading with the logging company as two UN investigator are looking around in the compound of the logging company, April 27, 2012. (Photo: VOA - Kong Sothanarith)

Thursday, 17 May 2012
Say Mony, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

“If we continue to ignore the ongoing logging, the remaining 30 percent of Cambodia’s forests will disappear.”

Say Mony hosts "Hello VOA" 14 May, 2012

Download: MP3

Forestry advocates see more youth engaging in environmental protection, especially in forest communities where illegal logging is rampant.

“Previously, only elder people from the ages of 30, 40 or 50 up stood up to protect their forests, but recently more younger people have been participating in the anti-illegal logging movement,” Chhim Savuth, a community empowerment officer of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, told “Hello VOA” on Monday.

For example, campaigns against illegal logging in the Prey Lang forest in the northeast of the country have encouraged hundreds of villagers to patrol in four provinces, he said. About 40 percent of them were youth, he said.

“After they saw their parents taking up the fight against illegal logging to protect their forests and livelihoods, they took them as role models and joined the movement,” Chhim Savuth said. “They believe no one but themselves can protect their community forests.”

ព្រៃឡង់ របស់ខ្មែរ - Prey Lang Khmer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuSKJ3hxBtc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ldHkKrvXoA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8wDuAuwFG8

ប្រធាន​អង្គការ​បរិស្ថាន ត្រូវ​ជន​មិន​ស្គាល់មុខ​បាញ់សម្លាប់ នៅ​ថ្មបាំង ខេត្តកោះកុង​

​លោក ឈុត វុទ្ធី ប្រធាន​អង្គការ​ការពារ​ធនធាន​ធម្មជាតិ (Photo: CCHR)

ថ្ងៃទី 26 មេសា 2012
ដោយ: មុនីរ័ត្ន
Cambodia Express News

ភ្នំពេញ: ​លោក ឈុត វុទ្ធី ប្រធាន​អង្គការ​ការពារ​ធនធាន​ធម្មជាតិ ត្រូវបាន​ជន​មិន​ស្គាល់មុខ បាញ់សម្លាប់​នៅ​ចំណុច​ឃុំ​ថ្ម​ដូន​ពៅ ស្រុក​ថ្មបាំង ខេត្តកោះកុង នាវេលា​ម៉ោង ១២ ​ថ្ងៃត្រង់ ថ្ងៃទី​២៦ ខែមេសា ឆ្នាំ​២០១២​។ ក្នុង​ហេតុការណ៍​នោះ មានការ​បាត់​ខ្លួន​អ្នកកាសែត The Cambodia Daily ពីរ​នាក់ (​ម្នាក់​ខ្មែរ​)​។​

​លោក ថុង ណា​រ៉ុង មេបញ្ជាការ​កងរាជអាវុធហត្ថ​ខេត្តកោះកុង បាន​ឲ្យ​ដឹងថា “​ចំពោះ​ករណីនេះ ខាង​កងរាជអាវុធហត្ថកំពុងធ្វើការ​អង្កេត ថា​ករណី​បាញ់សម្លាប់​នេះ កើតឡើង​ដោយសារ​អ្វី​? ហើយ​សមត្ថកិច្ច​កំពុងធ្វើការ​សាកសួរ​អ្នក​នៅ​កន្លែងកើតហេតុ​”​។

​ចំពោះ​ព័ត៌មាន​ដែលថា មន្ត្រី​កងរាជអាវុធហត្ថ ជា​អ្នកបាញ់​សម្លាប់​ប្រធាន​អង្គការ​បរិស្ថាន ត្រូវបាន​លោក​មេបញ្ជាការបញ្ជាក់ថា “​គឺ​កំពុងតែ​ចាំ​សួរ​អ្នកដែល​នៅ​កន្លែង​កើតហេតុ ទើប​បានដឹង​ច្បាស់​”​។​

​ជាការ​កត់សម្គាល់ លោក ឈុត វុទ្ធី ជា​សកម្មជន​ការពារ​បរិស្ថាន ដែល​ធ្លាប់​ធ្វើការ​ជាមួយនឹង​អង្គការ​ការពារ​បរិស្ថាន Global Witness ចាប់តាំងពី​ទស្សវត្សរ៍​ឆ្នាំ​១៩៩០៕​

Prey Lang protectors warned [Re-post]

Chut Wutty director of the Natural Resource Protection Group who were one of the organizers of the training event (Photo: CCHR)

Thursday, 08 March 2012
May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

Member of the Prey Lang Network said yesterday that Ouch Sam On, the deputy governor of Kampong Thom province, had told them he would not be responsible if they were shot while protecting Prey Lang forest.

Kim Cheng, 50, a member of the network, said villagers would not obey an order to stay out of the forest and would continue patrolling for illegal loggers.

“Ouch Sam On threatened villagers and told us we were not allowed to patrol anymore,” he said.

“Maybe he is cooperating with businessmen who are illegally cutting trees, so he is afraid our patrols will expose his interest.”

More than 30 companies have been granted economic land or mining concessions in the forest, which covers 3,600 square kilometres in four provinces in the country’s north, and villagers say illegal loggers regularly cut down trees for luxury timber.

Ven. Loun Sovath nominated to the 2012 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders

(Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

PRESS RELEASE

Geneva, 24 April 2012

Micheline Calmy-Rey Announces Nominees for 2012 Martin Ennals Award 

for Human Rights Defenders

GENEVA - Former Swiss President and newly-appointed Chair of the Martin Ennals Foundation, Micheline Calmy-Rey, today announced the nominees for the 2012 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders (MEA) at a press conference at the Palais Eynard, Geneva, Switzerland. The MEA is the main award of the international human rights movement. 

The announcement and press conference will be streamed 11:00 -11:30hrs Geneva time on http://www.martinennalsaward.org/

The three nominees for the 2012 award are:

Venerable Luon Sovath, Cambodia. In March 2009, Luon Sovath, a Buddhist monk from Siem Reap, Cambodia witnessed his family and fellow villagers being forcibly evicted from their homes. Forced evictions remove families from their homes, often with no compensation. Despite threats of violence, arrest and disrobing, the venerable Sovath, a non-violent Buddhist monk, uses videos, poems and songs to defend the right to housing, but his advocacy touches powerful economic interests. The threats against the venerable Sovath are very real.

Nasrin Sotoudeh, a woman lawyer from Iran, is currently serving an 11-year sentence on charges of ‘spreading propaganda against the State’, ‘collusion and gathering with the aim of acting against national security’ and ‘membership in an illegal organization’. She is the former lawyer and member of the organization of the now-exiled Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, who declares Sotoudeh is ‘one of the last remaining courageous human rights lawyers who has accepted all risks for defending the victims of human rights violations in Iran’.

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) is internationally recognized for its work on documenting human rights abuses in Bahrain. Despite harassment by the government, who warn of legal action against the Center’s members if they continue their activities, the BCHR provides information to international NGOs and the diplomatic community in Bahrain and advocates locally and internationally in support of demands for democratic change in the Gulf Kingdom.

The nominees were carefully selected by ten human rights organizations which make up the Martin Ennals Award Jury: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, the International Federation for Human Rights, the World Organisation Against Torture, Frontline, the International Commission of Jurists, German Diakonie, the International Service for Human Rights and HURIDOCS.

On 2 October 2012, the Laureate will be announced during the annual ceremony at Victoria Hall, organized in cooperation with the Ville de Genève.

For more information, photos and videos regarding this year's nominees please visit  http://www.martinennalsaward.org  or contact  info@martinennalsaward.org

+41 22 809 49 25.

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COMMUNIQUÉ DE PRESSE

Genève, le 24 avril 2012

Micheline Calmy-Rey annonce les nominés au Prix Martin Ennals 

pour les Défenseurs des Droits de l’Homme 2012

GENÈVE - Micheline Calmy-Rey, ancienne présidente de la Confédération suisse et nouvellement nommée à la présidence de la Fondation Martin Ennals, a annoncé, aujourd’hui, les nominés au Prix Martin Ennals pour les Défenseurs des Droits de l’Homme (MEA) 2012, lors d’une conférence de presse qui s’est déroulée au Palais Eynard de Genève (Suisse). Le MEA est le principal prix du mouvement mondial des droits de l’homme. 

L’annonce et la conférence de presse seront diffusées entre 11h00 et 11h30 (heure de Genève) sur le site : http://www.martinennalsaward.org/

Les trois nominés pour le prix 2012 sont :

Le vénérable Loun Sovath (Cambodge). En mars 2009, Loun Sovath, un moine bouddhiste de Siem Reap, au Cambodge, a été témoin des expropriations subies par sa famille et les habitants de son village. Les familles ont été expulsées de leurs habitations, par la force, le plus souvent sans aucun dédommagement. Malgré les menaces de représailles physiques, d’arrestation et d’anathème, dont il fait l’objet, le vénérable Sovath, ce moine bouddhiste qui prône la non violence, utilise des vidéos, des poèmes et des chansons pour défendre le droit au logement, mais son plaidoyer se heurte à de puissants intérêts économiques. Les menaces à son encontre sont donc bien réelles.

Nasrin Sotoudeh, avocate iranienne, qui purge actuellement une peine de 11 ans de prison pour « propagande contre l’État », « collusion et rassemblement visant à agir contre la sécurité nationale » et « appartenance à une organisation illégale ». Elle est membre et ancienne avocate de l’organisation fondée par Shirin Ebadi, prix Nobel de la Paix iranienne, aujourd’hui exilée, qui affirme que Sotoudeh est : « l’une des dernières avocates courageuses à se consacrer à la défense des droits de l’homme et à prendre tous les risques pour défendre les victimes de violations des droits humains en Iran ».    

Le Centre bahreïni pour les droits de l’homme (BCHR) est mondialement reconnu pour son travail de diffusion d’informations relatives aux violations des droits humains au Bahreïn. Malgré le harcèlement du gouvernement, qui menace les membres du Centre de poursuites judiciaires s'ils continuent leurs activités, le BCHR fournit des informations aux ONG internationales et à la communauté diplomatique au Bahreïn, tout en soutenant, localement et à l’échelle mondiale, les demandes de changement démocratique dans le royaume du Golfe.

Les nominés ont été soigneusement sélectionnés par les dix organisations de défense des droits de l’homme qui composent le Jury du Prix Martin Ennals : Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, la Fédération internationale des droits de l’homme, l’Organisation mondiale contre la torture, Frontline, la Commission internationale des juristes, Diakonie Allemagne, le Service international pour les droits de l’homme et HURIDOCS.          

Le nom du lauréat sera annoncé, le 2 octobre 2012, lors de la cérémonie annuelle, organisée en collaboration avec la Ville de Genève, qui se tiendra au Victoria Hall.

Pour plus d’informations, de photos et de vidéos concernant les nominés de cette année, rendez-vous sur le site  http://www.martinennalsaward.org  ou contactez-nous par e-mail à info@martinennalsaward.org ou par téléphone au +41 22 809 49 25.

Prey Lang activist received donation from Cambodian-Canadians

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6zWg_pYCfY

Introducing Prey Lang Website

Learn more about Prey Lang and how you can save it at:

http://preylang.com/

.

Activists arm with fire, photos

A group of villagers who are patrolling for illegal loggers in the Prey Lang forest rest in hammocks yesterday afternoon. Photo by May Titthara

Villagers from four provinces, who have been patrolling Prey Lang forest for illegal loggers since the weekend, rest in hammocks yesterday after taking a lunch break. A group of villagers has burned a cache of logs they suspected had been cut illegally. Photo by May Titthara

Wednesday, 28 March 2012
May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

Kampong Thom province - Villagers patrolling Prey Lang forest on motorbikes yesterday defended their decision to burn more than 360 cubic metres of timber, tear down 10 huts used by “illegal loggers” and confiscate a chainsaw, a villager representative said.

As 500 villagers continued their patrols for illegal loggers, Hoeun Sopheap, a villager representative from Kampong Thom, said the villagers had filmed and photographed the burnings to show the authorities the extent of Prey Lang’s destruction.

“The reason we burned this wood was because we have no ability to take it to show the authorities, so we have had to burn it down and take photos,” he said. “If we don’t burn it, illegal loggers will come back and get it.”

Since the weekend, his group had burned 364 cubic metres of timber, he said.

Clash between Prey Lang forest community and company security

28 March 2012
By Uon Chhin
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Soch

More than 200 members of the Prey Lang forest community from 4 provinces had a tense verbal clash and shoving with security staff of the Seng Saravuth company in Sandan district, Kampong Thom province.

The clash took place after the community members tried to enter the lumberyard and furniture factory owned by the Seng Saravuth company in order to check the company’s activities and to look at the company’s legal authorization form. The clash took place on 28 March 2012.

Additional information is forthcoming…

Prey Lang villagers on patrol

Villagers protest against an economic land concession in the Prey Lang forest in November. Photo by May Titthara

Monday, 26 March 2012
The Phnom Penh Post

“I am not afraid of being arrested, because I am not destroying the trees – I am protecting them”

Kampong Thom province - About 500 frustrated villagers, citing the authorities’ inaction as their motivation, rode some 250 motorbikes into Prey Lang forest over the weekend in yet another effort to combat illegal logging they say is decimating the area.

The villagers from four provinces surrounding Prey Lang – Kratie, Stung Treng, Kampong Thom and Preah Vihear – have vowed to continue patrols in coming days and to block a road used by rubber company CRCK if authorities don’t take action.

Villagers have said the government’s decision to grant CRCK an economic land concession in the forest has contributed to its decimation and threatened the livelihoods of people living in the area.

Soem Sean, a villager representative from Kampong Thom, said motorbike patrols would continue throughout the week.

Invoking Buddha to Protect Forests

The young, novice monk Sar Vy says he doesn't need to understand the science of climate change to know that his country and its people - as well as the wider world - benefit from forest conservation. (Photo: Brendan Brady)

Click here to view additional photos

August 30, 2011
By Brendan Brady
By The World (USA)

Click here to listen to the audio program (MP3)

Tha Soun’s orange robe shimmers as he strolls through a patch of forest in Northern Cambodia, pointing out trees and shrubs with medicinal benefits. He gestures toward berries that he says are good for joint and muscle pain, and a beehive full of nutritious wild honey.

Tha and his fellow monks from nearby Samraong pagoda have presided over this 44-thousand acre forest known as Sorng Rukavorn, or simply Monk Forest, for a decade. These days it seems a serene garden, but it wasn’t always so.

Tha says that not long ago, police and soldiers would come here to poach timber.

“I would advise them to stop if I thought they might listen,” Tha says. “But if they wouldn’t listen, I would just take away their chainsaws and weapons.”

Monks branch out into carbon market to protect forest Ben Doherty, Cambodia

Sorng Rukavorn monks Sove Ui, Kea Mony Tapkea and Sou Mai in their community forest in Oddar Meanchey, northern Cambodia. (Photo: Ben Doherty)

December 4, 2010
Ben Doherty, Cambodia
The Age (Australia)

A religious order aims to tap polluters to help a community.

THE forest surrounding the Sorng Rukavorn monks' pagoda in northern Cambodia has forever been ''theirs''.

They have always depended on the forest for food, for timber and for a living. They have long understood their forest's boundaries, its cycles of wet and dry, of fire and regeneration.

But they have never owned it. Until now. Having spent nearly two years winning legal control of 18,000 hectares of forest, they are now able to lock it away from logging interests and other encroachments, and rehabilitate areas previously cleared.

The carbon that saves, they hope, might soon be for sale. They want to be players on a global carbon market. ''Any revenue from the forest will be important for the people here, and for Cambodia,'' monk Lee Ragana says.

''When the revenue comes in, we can use the money to build infrastructure, to build schools … and to build better roads. And we can improve the management of the forests.

''We will use the money to educate farmers in better land practices and technical improvements. We will be able to supply patrols with trucks and equipment … do more fire suppression and replanting.''

The Sorng Rukavorn monks are on the cusp of entering what is still a voluntary carbon market, in preparation for a time industrialised countries legislate to force polluters into offsetting the carbon they produce.

They aim to be a UN-recognised REDD - Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation - project, in which governments and companies in industrialised nations that cannot reduce their own carbon emissions pay communities in poor countries to cut emissions on their behalf, usually by not cutting down trees.

Already, yellow-and-green signs mark the monks' land as a ''community forest'', and regular patrols are conducted by volunteers to see that trees aren't being felled illegally or land cleared for farming.

The monks' community forest is one of 13 such sites in Oddar Meanchey province, on Cambodia's northern border with Thailand. Combined, they preserve nearly 68,000 hectares of forest land and, maintained over 30 years, are expected to sequester 7.1 million tonnes of carbon. Within months they will seek a carbon buyer.

But even before a dollar has been paid to the monks, they feel they've won a victory in taking control of land that - informally at least - they have regarded as theirs for generations.

''Before we had the community forest, people from outside would … cut down trees illegally, clear land, and the people who depended on that forest had no right to stop them,'' Mr Lee says. ''Now we feel we own this land, we have control, and we can stop it being used badly.''

Kurt MacLeod, vice-president of Pact, a non-government organisation helping Oddar Meanchey's community forests bring their carbon to market, says REDD projects will bring enormous benefits and development to the poor communities running them.

''As soon as legislation is enacted [in major industrialised countries], there are going to be private sector companies looking for validated REDD projects,'' he says. ''The demand in five years will be much higher than supply.''

Industrialised countries see enormous value in paying poorer countries to preserve forests on their behalf. Germany, France, Norway, the US, Britain, Australia and Japan pledged $US4 billion towards REDD initiatives at the last round of climate talks in May. But just how much carbon will be worth on the market of the future is still unclear.

There is also the issue of measuring the carbon sequestered in forests, and how that might be affected by its growth, climatic change or unforseen events such as fire.

And there is concern at the sellers' end about how much of the money, in a country such as Cambodia, where a notoriously corrupt government has the sole right to ''sell'' the carbon, will ever reach those on the ground.

Cambodia has a poor record in forestry. It has experienced some of the most rampant deforestation. More than 7 million hectares of forest - 39 per cent of the country's land - was sold off for logging. In the four decades since 1970, primary forest cover in Cambodia was reduced from 70 per cent to just 3.1 per cent today.

Deforestation accounts for 20 per cent of all the world's greenhouse gas emissions - some 5.9 billion tonnes a year.

Community forestry offers rare hope for Cambodians facing land woes

The road leading to Beng village which signed an agreement in March 2009 to look after Prey Rong Knong forest in Cambodia's eastern province of Kampong Thom. ALERTNET/Thin Lei Win

07 Jul 2010
By Thin Lei Win

KAMPONG THOM, Cambodia (TrustLaw) - Over the past 30 years illegal logging coupled with rapid development and population growth have stripped Cambodia of much of its forests.

This is clearly visible in the eastern province of Kampong Thom. But near the small farming village of Beng, charred trees and cleared fields give way to a lush, dense forest.

Local villagers have legally protected the Prey Rong Knong forest spanning 281 hectares since March 2009, when they signed a deal with the Cambodian authorities to look after it for 15 years -- under an initiative allowing communities who live in and around forests to manage their resources.

Such community forestry projects are increasingly seen as a way of reversing a trend that saw forest cover drop from 73 percent of Cambodia's territory in the 1970s to 59 percent in 2006.

"If we don't have community forestry, then all the forests will be gone," village chief and community forestry committee chairman Dim Mao told AlertNet.

According to the United Nations, Cambodia lost 2.5 million hectares of forest between 1990 and 2005. Such losses of carbon-absorbing forests are considered an important contribution to climate change.

Community forestry sites in Cambodia range from a few hundred to a few thousand hectares.

Advocates say they improve villagers' livelihoods while helping to combat climate change by keeping forests, a major sink for carbon emissions, intact.

It also protects the areas from commercial and other outside interests, a major achievement in impoverished Cambodia where land grabs are disturbingly common.

An estimated 85 percent of Cambodian households lack land titles and many villages lose their livelihoods as a result of the government routinely leasing large tracts of rural land for agro-industrial exploitation.

"With the agreement, we feel more secure. Before, we were worried the companies may come and do something to the land," said Pain Lin, a 21-year-old villager and member of the forest management committee.

CHALLENGES

Beng was one of the first villages to get legal recognition for community forestry in a province that is fast becoming a model for the initiative, according to James Bampton, programme coordinator for RECOFTC, a Thailand-based international NGO that is helping communities to legalise the sites.

Forty six sites have been established in the province which is known mainly for its 6th century pre-Angkor temple ruins -- more than anywhere else in Cambodia, and close to 50 are in the process of receiving recognition.

Although villages around Cambodia have embraced community forestry as a way to protect the land they live and survive on, experts say there are many challenges ahead.

Bampton said getting legal recognition is a long and complex process with no certain timeline, because "there is no publically available guidance on how the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries judges the potential community forest area applications".

The result is a backlog. Close to 200 sites are awaiting verification from the Ministry as potential community forestry areas even though many villagers have been managing the forests for years.

Bampton said corruption in the forest and land sector and failure to follow the spirit of the law compounds the challenges, which include the 15-year term limit for each agreement, a five-year moratorium on the commercialisation of timber products and the lack of clarity on royalties to the government once the villages start commercialising their timber.

"In a natural forest it takes longer than 15 years for timber trees to grow," Bampton told AlertNet. "If a time limit has to be imposed for communities, it should be for a 25-year cycle to match a selective harvesting cycle."

And no one knows for sure what will happen after the 15-year term is over.

"A community forestry agreement could be extended but it all depends on the community fulfilling their obligations. The complexity of the law means it would be very easy to find excuses to say they haven't done it quite right," he said.

PRECIOUS RESOURCE

Nevertheless, in Beng, the locals are overjoyed about their agreement to manage the Prey Rong Knong site. The deal was all the sweeter because the site was leased to a private company to harvest timber in the 1990s.

Despite the commercial lease, the villagers with help from a local NGO started to manage a portion of the forest in 2001 because they were concerned the land would be cleared. Luckily for them, the commercial lease was cancelled not longer after.

Since then the villagers have formed a committee to oversee the management of the forest. Free membership is offered to villagers of all ages. Members are allowed to use forest resources but they are also required to do patrol duty, looking out for any illegal activities.

Prey Rong Knong is a source of mushrooms, spiders and fruits, which the villagers collect for sale and food, as well as rattan. It also has high-grade timber, the villagers said, although as part of the agreement they cannot harvest it commercially for the first five years.

Still, the villagers at Beng have big plans for their forest.

"We want to harvest timber. We would like to plant Beng trees, which are used for furniture, in shallow ponds," Dim said. "We also want to plant bamboo because the bamboo market is good, and we are looking at making rattan handicrafts for sale."
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Thin Lei Win joined AlertNet in June 2008, becoming the first AlertNet journalist to be based in Asia. Prior to joining AlertNet, Thin worked at trade publications in Singapore and most recently as a freelance writer in Vietnam. She has a Masters in Multi-Media Journalism from Bournemouth University.

Cambodia, Vietnam exchange methods on protecting forests, wildlife

April 09, 2008
Xinhua

Law enforcement officers from two provinces in central Vietnam have completed a week-long Forest and Wildlife Law Enforcement Study Tour of Cambodia, a press release said Wednesday.

During the visit organized by WWF (World Wildlife Fund) Vietnam and PeunPa, a member of the Wildlife Alliance, officials from Vietnam's Forest Protection Department (FPD) and Police met their Cambodian counterparts, observed rangers training at Preah Monivong (Bokor) National Park, visited Phnom Tamao wildlife rescue center, and attended seminars focusing on wildlife and forest conservation, the WWF press release said.

They also discussed inter-agency cooperation with Cambodia's Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team, which comprises Forestry Administration officials and members of the Royal Gendarmerie Khmer, it added.

The study tour gave participants first hand experience of regionally tested methods of forest and wildlife law enforcement, and will encourage greater international inter-agency cooperation between the two countries to suppress nature crime, the release said, adding that the chance to observe and discuss Cambodia's best practices will also help the participants consider ways to implement their own strategies for forest protection.

"Forest crime in Southeast Asia is a multi-million dollar activity that is stripping the region of irreplaceable natural heritage to the enrichment of a limited few. In Vietnam, responsibility for suppressing this criminal activity is shared between a wide range of agencies, from forest rangers to economic and traffic police, through to customs and border security forces," said Mark E Grindley, WWF Technical Advisor in central Vietnam.

"The Vietnam Government is encouraging the inter-agency cooperation necessary to address the problem, and we are pleased to support an exchange of ideas with Cambodia, where there are some highly successful models from which to learn," Grindley said.

The trip was jointly hosted by Cambodia's Ministry of Forest and Fisheries and Ministry of the Environment.

Who's watching the forests?

By Allister Hayman and Cheang Sokha
Phnom Penh Post, Issue 16 / 15, July 27 - August 9, 2007

With the fallout from an excoriating Global Witness report on forest crime still reverberating through the Kingdom and across the world, the issue of how Cambodia's beleaguered forests are to be managed and monitored remains an ominous and unanswered question.

It's unclear how civil society, donors, the World Bank and the government hope to proceed - and whether the politically charged task of independent forest crime monitor will be kept or discarded.

In the Global Witness report "Cambodia's Family Trees" the UK-based environmental watchdog accused a "kleptocratic" ruling elite of pillaging Cambodia's forests. The government categorically denied the allegations and promptly banned the report.

Despite this, Minister of Information Khieu Kanarith said on June 7 the government would commission an investigation into the report's findings, with the former independent forest crime monitor, Swiss-based Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS), charged with heading the inquest. Global Witness publicly applauded the government's move and offered full cooperation. But since the announcement both Global Witness and SGS have heard nothing further. Thach Suon, the contract manager for SGS's Representative Office, said SGS's contract as independent monitor expired at the end of 2005 due to a lack of funding, and they had not been asked to investigate the allegations made in the Global Witness report.

Chea Samang, the deputy director of the Forest Administration - the government body charged with enforcing forest law - said neither MAFF nor the FA had conducted an investigation into the allegations made in the Global Witness report. "We have already explained many times that the [Global Witness] report is nothing more than an annoying sound," Samang told the Post. "It's false and has just made a lot of confusion." With the expiration of SGS's contract in December 2005 progress in the area of forest sector management is now stalled as the World Bank wrangles with the government over how best to proceed. At the same time donors and NGOs are reluctant to become mired in the monitoring role that has now become a political lightning rod.

Independent forest crime monitoring was introduced to Cambodia in 1999, following mounting international concern at the decimation of the Kingdom's forests. The World Bank set up a $5 million Forest Concession Management and Control Project (FCMCP) with three major aims: forest crime prevention, detection and suppression.

According to a 2006 Overseas Development Institute report, a number of options were considered for the independent monitor (IM), including private sector certifiers and NGOs, but the report concluded that it was difficult to interest the private sector "as the reputational risks were felt unlikely to be compensated for by the expected renumeration."

Ultimately, the World Bank offered UK-based NGO Global Witness to the government as the IM, in an arrangement endorsed by the government but paid for by donors. According to the ODI report, the appointment of Global Witness was made at the insistence of the donors and leveraged through a series of conditions concerning forest management set out in the World Bank's $30 million loan to the government in early 2000. The conditions concerning the forest management needed to be met in order for the government to qualify for the release of the loan's second $15 million tranche.

"Global Witness had been an implacable critic of the government, particularly Prime Minister Hun Sen and those close to him, and had systematically exposed and dismembered the political economy of forest enterprise, corruption and bad governance in the country, often in telling detail," the ODI report stated. "The appointment must have been a bitter pill for the RGC to swallow."

Struggling forward

In 2003 the bitter pill became too much. Global Witness' first major report was banned and the organization deemed it unsafe to continue working in the country.

The government's termination of the IM's contract drew widespread criticism while the World Bank withheld the second tranche of its loan while they worked with the government to find a new monitor and a new working framework. Of ten organizations invited to bid, only SGS submitted a completed application.

At the time the company's bid was something of a surprise. When in 1997, pressure from the IMF had prompted the government to first seek an IM, SGS was rumored to have begun negotiations, but ultimately withdrew citing security concerns. The uncontested appointment of SGS was confirmed in December 2003 after several months of negotiations between the company and the government and some substantial amendments to the terms of reference for the IM.

Under the deal, SGS was hired by the FA at a cost of $425,000 per year, with the funds drawn from a World Bank loan. But the revised terms of reference constituted a far more restrictive mandate than those applied to Global Witness.

Funding for Global Witness was provided directly by international donors, with no involvement or contribution from government agencies. But with termination of Global Witness' contract, donors withdrew support and under the new framework SGS was hired and paid by the FA, whose performance they were also charged with scrutinizing. Global Witness and other NGOs were vocal in their criticism of the new framework, and called it a conflict of interest.

"Corruption within the FA runs deep and senior FA officials enjoy close links with prominent players in Cambodia's logging mafia," Mike Davis, a Global Witness campaigner told the Post in June 2004. "It is extremely naïve to think that SGS would not come under pressure from their employers to turn a blind eye to these underlying causes of forest crime."
The new terms of reference also restricted the ability of the IM to publicly release information prior to government review, while field inspections had to be facilitated by the FA and could not be carried out independently.

But SGS was open in its willingness to accept the conditions of the new mandate.

"Global Witness is an advocacy agency and therefore saw monitoring as a means of fulfilling their aim - saving the forests," Bob Tennent, then SGS Forest Project Manager told the Post in June 2006. "Thus they embarrassed the government on a number of occasions which led to their contract being terminated. We see our role as working with the government."

Having withheld the second $15 million loan payment after the termination of relations with Global Witness and the failure to meet other forest management related conditions, the World Bank disbursed the second tranche after the appointment of the new IM. But in 2005, the independent Inspection Panel of the World Bank received a complaint from the NGO Forum acting on behalf of local communities affected by forest concessions.

The Inspection Panel investigated the complaints and issued a report on March 30, 2006, which raised several concerns about the Banks engagement in the forest sector and concluded the FCMCP had drifted from its objectives and was no longer complying with the World Bank's safeguard policies.

The panel also raised concerns about the amended terms of reference of the IM, which conflicted with the FCMCP's objective to have "an independent monitor to provide a check on the accuracy of Government reporting."

In response to the Inspections Panel's report, the World Bank reviewed the situation of forest management and recommended changes to the terms of reference for the IM in order to ensure greater independence.

The Bank also recommended new reporting arrangements to ensure increased transparency and to avoid a conflict of interest.

But in December 2005 funding for the FCMCP expired, and with that the role of SGS also ended - making the Bank's responses to the inspection report redundant.

Future in doubt

Since then, the World Bank has struggled with the government to find a way forward in the forest sector. A recent World Bank progress update obtained by the Post, cited a "lack of political will to fight forest crimes" and stated that "a consensus has yet to emerge on a clear way forward."

The report also stressed "the importance of the Prime Minister providing leadership in this politically charged sector."

"The situation in Cambodia remains very challenging, but the Bank is committed to staying engaged with the Government and other stakeholders," the report stated - before adding, "It is still too early to propose a full re-engagement in the forest sector."

Peter Jipp, a senior natural resources management specialist at the World Bank would not say if the Bank planned to provide funding for a new IM.

Jipp said that the success of a forest monitor hinged not only on the terms of reference of the role, but on the organization's own objectivity.

"When the agency that performs the monitoring function simultaneously pursues an advocacy role or has some other competing commercial interest this can lead to accusations of bias and conflict of interest which tends to undermine trust and effective coordination among the various actors," he said.

The Cambodian government has long maintained that Global Witness had an agenda and were "biased" and "political." SGS vice-president George Bottomley, in a public statement defended SGS's performance in contrast to Global Witness by emphasizing their neutrality. In response, Global Witness claim their only agenda is to detect and report forest crime where and when it happens, and if that means identifying the perpetrators - no matter their position - they will do so. This Global Witness say was the task given to them as the original independent forest monitor in 1999.

The ODI report described the conflict as one of two distinct approaches. The report concluded that while Global Witness may have behaved in a "cavalier fashion," SGS's circumscribed role was ineffective.

The ODI report concluded that the most productive way forward would be to appoint an "SGS-type organization as the independent monitor but to ensure that NGO watchdogs are available and able to maintain pressure and oversight of the independent monitor."

Meanwhile, MAFF blame a lack of capacity for the dearth of progress in forest management.

"We have not been looking for a new independent monitor because we do not have the funding for it," said Lim Sokun, secretary of state at MAFF. "We have not decided yet what to do. We have restriction measures in place but their implementation is difficult as our management and resources on the ground are limited. Illegal logging is a hot issue for the government but the control of illegal logging is not strict enough and that's why it still happens."

As the government and the World Bank struggle to find a way forward, Cambodia's forests remain under threat - and for now, no solution is apparent.