Student Operated Press (USA)
On December 19th, saffron-colored banners swirled over the open field at the Samlaut Protected Area in Cambodia and young children, orphans from a nearby city, dressed in traditional purple and yellow silk, danced before several hundred people gathered for the signing of a sister park accord between this park and Sequoia-Kings Canyon.
Regional Director Jonathan Jarvis signed the five-year accord between the two sites, which will bring the two park organizations together to learn from each other and address common issues such as illegal uses within park boundaries.
Cambodia's Deputy Prime Minister, Sar Kheng, and two other cabinet ministers, including the Minister of Environment Mok Mareth and Minister of Tourism Lay Prohan, participated in the morning ceremony, which was hosted by Stephen Bognar, the executive director for the Maddox Jolie-Pitt project. The MJP project is spearheading the integration of this park within the UN Millenium Village of Samlaut.
The following article from the Cambodia Daily, entitled “Samlot Forest Conservation Effort Eyes Tourists,” provides additional details on the event. For more on the MJP project, click on “More Information” below.
Samlot Village, Samlot district, Battambang province – This remote outpost has not attracted many visitors, and when it has, they have tended to be unwelcome.
The forest, which continues along the Cardamom mountain range through Pailin municipality to the Thai border, was a final refuge for Khmer Rouge soldiers in the 1990s. and is still strewn with landmines.
Rampant illegal gem mining inside the forest during the same decade turned the Sangke River red with dust and pollution.
The river has been rehabilitated in recent years, but park rangers who patrol the 60,000 hectares of forest in the Samlot protected area, which spans Battambang and Pailin, say they still contend with poachers, loggers and landgrabbers.
Regional Director Jonathan Jarvis signed the five-year accord between the two sites, which will bring the two park organizations together to learn from each other and address common issues such as illegal uses within park boundaries.
Cambodia's Deputy Prime Minister, Sar Kheng, and two other cabinet ministers, including the Minister of Environment Mok Mareth and Minister of Tourism Lay Prohan, participated in the morning ceremony, which was hosted by Stephen Bognar, the executive director for the Maddox Jolie-Pitt project. The MJP project is spearheading the integration of this park within the UN Millenium Village of Samlaut.
The following article from the Cambodia Daily, entitled “Samlot Forest Conservation Effort Eyes Tourists,” provides additional details on the event. For more on the MJP project, click on “More Information” below.
Samlot Village, Samlot district, Battambang province – This remote outpost has not attracted many visitors, and when it has, they have tended to be unwelcome.
The forest, which continues along the Cardamom mountain range through Pailin municipality to the Thai border, was a final refuge for Khmer Rouge soldiers in the 1990s. and is still strewn with landmines.
Rampant illegal gem mining inside the forest during the same decade turned the Sangke River red with dust and pollution.
The river has been rehabilitated in recent years, but park rangers who patrol the 60,000 hectares of forest in the Samlot protected area, which spans Battambang and Pailin, say they still contend with poachers, loggers and landgrabbers.
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