PHNOM PENH: Stashes of timber, including expensive pieces of agarwood, as well as five locations of illegally encroached and cleared land were discovered in multiple-use zones and the Prey Lang Forest in Kratie province since Nov 30.
The 158 pieces of timber and the cleared land were found during an operation conducted by the Inspection and Law Enforcement Working Group of the Ministry of Environment’s General Department of Natural Protected Areas, in cooperation with the Kratie Province Unified Command.
A Friday (Dec 5) announcement by the environment ministry explained that the working group identified a site where agarwood had been felled in the Sasar Sdom Sat Tao multiple-use area, located in Sre Chis commune, O’Krieng Senchey district, on Dec 1.
The evidence included 20 logs and 138 planks. A team is preparing a legal case.
The multiple-use area was established in 2017 with an area of 839 hectares. In 2023, the Royal Government approved an expansion, increasing the total area to 5,327 hectares, all of it located within Kratie.
Following reports from journalists and the public, the working group also inspected five locations where land had been cleared and illegally occupied.
They were in Ponleu Pich, O’Teuk Krahom, Sasar Prambei Chrung, Tuol Ta Sek and Veal Yunhas, all of them within the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary, in Kratie.
The working group used drones and mapping tools to verify the area that had been cleared.
“The team determined that the land had been cleared for rubber cultivation. Some areas had three-year-old rubber trees, some were a year or less old, and some appeared to have been cleared in the past two weeks or so,” said the ministry.
With the support of the Kratie Provincial Court, the team confiscated several items, including two motorcycles, a small solar panel and lamp and a container with 20 litres of herbicide. The items are being kept as evidence.
Environmental officers from the court are preparing case files. - The Phnom Penh Post/ANN
