Hundreds of environmental activists donning facepaint and animal costumes were met with a police blockade when they gathered in Phnom Penh yesterday to mark World Environment Day. Dressed as a Siamese crocodile, 31-year-old Thai Kini said there was a serious message behind the costume. “I pretend I am a Siamese crocodile, because I want to protect the natural resources such as forests and wildlife,” he said. Tim Malay, director of[…]

The NGO that screened a banned documentary about Chut Wutty on Tuesday to mark the anniversary of the environmental activist’s death will not face any punitive action, according to the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts. Cambodia Youth Network president Sar Mory said a representative of the ministry yesterday went to Solidarity House, where I Am Chut Wutty was shown, and demanded the film be handed over. “We refused,” said Mory. Sin Chansaya, director[…]

Despite a government ban, a documentary about Chut Wutty was screened at several locations around Phnom Penh yesterday to mark the fourth anniversary of the environmentalist’s murder – but not without some interference. The Ministry of Culture last week ordered the managers of the Meta House Café not to show the film on the grounds that the film had not been submitted for approval. However, in the city’s Sen Sok district[…]

Political and business elites have been directly involved in and profited from illegal logging in the Prey Lang forest in northern Cambodia, according to a new report from members of the Prey Lang Community Network. The 142-page study, titled Our Forest Remains Under Destruction and released yesterday, says law enforcement and forest management officials consistently fail to act in the face of illegal activity in the forest, for which they also lack[…]

Local and national government officials are complicit in the widespread illegal logging that continues to devastate the sprawling Prey Long forest in the country’s north, according to a report released Monday by the Prey Long Community Network. The 650,000-hectare forest straddles Preah Vihear, Kompong Thom, Kratie and Stung Treng provinces. Despite a draft sub-decree, which if adopted would officially give the forest protected status, it remains largely defenseless against loggers.[…]

, activists and residents have said. Sar Mory, a deputy of the Cambodian Youth Network (CYN), said that his group organised the session to teach 30 residents about ways of protecting the depleting Prey Lang forest and about their legal rights to the area. “We taught them about ways to protect Prey Lang, because they are the people who live and depend on [the forest], so they really do not[…]

A youth group plans to march in support of World Environment Day today, despite being told not to by municipal authorities. Tim Malay, director of the Cambodia Youth Network (CYN), said yesterday that he met with Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Khoung Sreng and asked permission to march from the Ministry of Environment to the Ministry of Agriculture today. “I do not know what measures City Hall will take, but I[…]

Amid the continued arrest of activists who have defied a ban on public gatherings, a group of unions and associations yesterday revealed plans for a large demonstration in Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park on Sunday. About 10,000 people are expected to attend the rally, according to a letter to Phnom Penh Governor Pa Socheatvong, which is signed by nine unions and associations. “I have not received a reply from City Hall[…]