Hundreds of kilograms of a Koh Kong plant known for murky links to ecstasy production were found in the car of a Koh Kong resident, sparking the arrests of three individuals.
Protected areas in Kirirom National Park and the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary are being privatized for companies run by family members of notorious tycoon Choeung Sopheap as well as the wife of the country’s finance minister.
The government continued the trend of giving state institutions and private individuals tracts of land on Phnom Penh’s Boeng Tamok lake, handing over 70 hectares to state utilities supplier Electricite du Cambodge.
A Preah Sihanouk spokesperson said private property encroaching onto the province’s beaches was OK as long as owners had the requisite land documents to prove ownership.
As thousands of families evicted from Angkor Wat move to a desolate relocation site, they are leaving behind plots of land they have used as collateral for microfinance loans — putting them in the tenuous position of having to repay loans without income or access to the land itself.
Communities are already facing lawsuits for traditional farming practices and seeing encroachment on ancestral lands as new draft laws are set to further erode protections, indigenous groups warned in a forum with government officials on Wednesday.
A leaked report from experts at an international body overseeing Angkor Archaeological Park reiterated past congratulations for Cambodia’s efforts to dismantle illegal structures in heritage areas amid mass evictions of roughly 10,000 families from the site.
A plot of 50 hectares — or possibly 80 — within state land that was allocated to a major airport development is instead being transferred from a controversial tycoon to the prime minister’s sister, according to murky details emerging from a public spat among elites.
A week after a riverbank collapsed in Kandal’s Takhmao city, nearly 70 families are still living on the sidewalk next to the water as they plead with authorities to expedite the building of temporary shelters for them.
Youth environmental activists advocating against the development of a Koh Kong island say they are facing threats and surveillance after authorities blocked an advocacy push at a Royal University of Phnom Penh event earlier this month.
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