Cambodia’s environment minister has ordered a ban on deforestation at hydropower project sites, where activists and media outlets, including Mongabay, had previously reported signs of illegal logging. The Stung Metuk hydropower project is being developed by a company led by ruling party senator Lee Yong Huat. Mongabay is notorious for its long history of environmentally and socially destructive business. In April, Mongabay documented illegal logging operations at the project site where logging routes leading to the nearby Phnom Samkos Wildlife Reserve had been cut off. Activists have welcomed the order to halt deforestation. However, he noted that wood processing continues at the site and expressed skepticism that a ban would be imposed against such powerful people.
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PHNOM PENH — In an unprecedented move to combat forest crime, Cambodian Environment Minister Eng Sophales on September 2 banned all deforestation on the site of a dam project in the country’s southwest.
The ban came after reports of multiple illegal logging incidents in protected areas by Mongabay and others related to the Stung Metuk hydropower project in Koh Kong and Pursat provinces.
However, activists monitoring logging operations on the ground remain skeptical about the effectiveness of the ban, noting that wood processing continues at hydropower project sites.
In a Sept. 2 letter to Lee Yong Huat, chairman of Stung Metuk Hydropower Co., Mr. Sofares ordered the company to suspend activities related to deforestation for the 150-megawatt dam’s reservoir. ordered it to stop. Processing of felled wood.
Forest activists witnessed timber trucks operating deep in the jungle outside the hydropower project site. Image courtesy of Tat Oudom.
After forestry crimes were reported by the Pursat provincial environment department, Mr. Soales’ letter states that a total of $440 million was charged, including transporting timber without permission, felling and collecting timber outside designated areas, and transporting timber. A number of illegal incidents related to hydropower projects were detailed. You can also process wood without paying taxes.
Mongabay has previously documented illegal logging operations that began under the cover of the Stung Metuk project since its construction began in late 2023. When Mongabay visited the project site in April, it discovered a logging route that had been cut from within the dam reservoir. The watershed flows into the approximately 362,000 hectare (895,000 acre) Phnom Samkos Wildlife Reserve, where the REDD+ project is being developed.
The reserve is home to a wide range of wildlife species, many of which are listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, sheltering in the rugged terrain of the Cardamom Mountains, a remote and lush rainforest. I am. Cardamom’s mountainous nature, tendency for heavy rainfall, and relatively low population density keep it in far better condition than much of the remaining forest throughout Cambodia.
But that hasn’t stopped loggers from trying to smuggle valuable timber from one of Cambodia’s last best remaining rainforests. Historically, well-connected tycoons have cut down vast tracts of forest under cover of building hydroelectric dams.
Activists who have made multiple visits to the Stung Metuk project have repeatedly found evidence of selective logging and wood washing. Image courtesy of Tat Oudom.
Contacted by Mongabay, Sofares confirmed the letter, which has since been widely circulated online in Cambodia, and said: “Until the company establishes an appropriate mechanism (for forest management), logging at the Stung Metuk site is prohibited. The suspension will continue.” The team is in place. ”
The company in question is one of a number of companies controlled by Lee Yong Huat, a notorious tycoon and ruling party senator who was once dubbed the “King of Koh Kong” in leaked diplomatic cables. Much of its wealth comes from a variety of environmentally and socially destructive businesses. Crossing the southwestern part of Cambodia. Natural resources, from timber to sand, have increased the influence of the senator within Cambodia’s ruling party, who has been tasked with a number of infrastructure projects as a member of the Central Party Committee, and has been appointed by Stung Metuk. He is just its latest project.
However, Lee Yong Fat’s notoriety recently rose to worldwide fame after he was sanctioned by the US Treasury on September 12 this year for his alleged involvement in human trafficking and cybercrime. The Treasury Department did not mention his plundering of natural resources across the Cardamom Islands, but it did impose sanctions on the LYP Group, the conglomerate that bears his name. According to Ministry of Commerce records, Ly Yong Phat’s Stueng Meteuk Hydropower Company lists a LYP Group email address as its contact details.
The logging route meanders through the protected forests of Phnom Samkos Wildlife Reserve, and the timber will be cleaned and processed within the Stung Metuk project area. Image courtesy of Tat Oudom.
Will the ban be enforced?
In the aftermath of the Ministry of Finance’s announcement, the question of how effective the ban on logging in the Stung Metuk project will be is the question of how effective the ban on logging in the Stung Metuk project area will be, as the rankings of government agencies and politicians close in on the recognized senator. It remains unclear.
Since visiting Mongabay in April, activists who have frequently monitored illegal logging operations, including Stung Metuk, have reported that logging has significantly intensified in recent months, despite the onslaught of Cambodia’s rainy season.
Forest activist Tat Udom, who visited the site of the Stung Metuk hydropower project the week after the Sofales logging ban, said stockpiles of recently felled wood could be seen at each of the project’s three cascade dams. . Oudom’s team found piles of sawn planks and unprocessed logs both inside and outside the designated reservoir.
“There used to be many types of trees, including types like klong hun (rosewood),” Odom said. “However, the premium wood species known as Grade 1 are no longer available. Today, we only have low-value woods such as sularao (crape myrtle), shachial (dipterocarp), and sokram (xylia xylocarpa).”
These valuable timber species are being over-harvested across Cambodia, but Udom said the timber harvested by Lee Yong Huat’s company will be sent to a storage facility within the Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary. It is said that Fresh tire tracks from timber trucks along the logging route showed Udom that logging, or at least the transport of timber, continued despite the ban.
Activists on the ground have found evidence of huge logs of valuable wood being pulled out by workers at the Stung Metuk hydroelectric project. Image courtesy of Tat Oudom.
Asked if he thought the Environment Minister’s suspension would be respected by Lee Yong-fat, Udom said that eradicating low-level corruption in local governments, especially among the Ministry of Environment’s rangers, was of paramount importance. He said it was a step.
“To fight corruption, you have to have ethics and professionalism, and salaries should be increased enough. If there is enough money, people will not steal or take bribes,” he said. said. “Using multiple levels of authority and oversight is also important. It is not enough to rely solely on local authorities to fight, monitor and investigate crime.”
In a September interview with the online media “Eco Business,” Minister of the Environment Sofales reportedly said: There are no excuses, those who violate the law will be sent to prison. ”
In the same interview, Sofares appeared to criticize foreign media for suggesting that illegal logging “happens every day in Cambodia.”
How will Sofaless’s zero-tolerance approach to illegal logging work when dealing with politically connected perpetrators like Lee Yong Fatt, or how new bans will fare on the ground? It remains to be seen whether it will be enforced.
Prior to the ban, logging intensified both within the Stung Metuk project area and in the surrounding protected forests. Image courtesy of Tat Oudom.
Is it too early to tell?
A soldier stationed at a military base near the Stung Metuk hydropower project site, speaking on condition of anonymity as he is not authorized to speak to the press, said the ban was not effective given that construction had been suspended due to the return of workers. He told Mongabay that it was difficult to determine whether it would be effective. I’m going to their house for the upcoming Pchumben vacation.
“Recent rains have caused the river level to rise and it is now difficult to access the road,” the soldier said. “The Ministry of the Environment has set up a station about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the basin, so I don’t know if logging is still going on, but I think it will resume once the rainy season ends. ”
The soldier indicated that if reports of logging were to reach Ministry of the Environment rangers, they would likely investigate alongside conservationists.
One of the key actors in this region of Cambodia is the Wildlife Alliance, a New York-based NGO working in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment to operate REDD+ projects in the Cardamom Mountains.
Suwanna Gauntlett, director of the Wildlife Alliance, previously told Mongabay that rangers from both NGOs and the Ministry of Environment were denied access to monitor logging at the Stung Metuk hydropower project site; He said he was aware of the illegal logging related to this.
Logging associated with the Stung Meteuk hydropower project is not only encroaching on protected forests, but also on the planned area of the REDD+ project. Image by Andres Alegría/Mongabay.
Gauntlett said there was no new information about illegal logging on the ground and declined to speculate on the effectiveness of the ban or its enforcement.
Meanwhile, Eng Rasmy, acting director of the Pursat Provincial Environment Department, did not provide specific details on how his team would monitor timber extraction at the dam site, but said the department has legal requirements. He stated that he has the authority to execute the
“As far as the ministry is concerned, it has the authority to implement (the ban) in accordance with legal principles and will continue to implement the process,” Rasmy said.
But for Odom and his team, skepticism prevails.
“If the company owners are powerful people who financially support the ruling party, how dare they say no to the government or their bosses?” he said. “Will those responsible for protecting forests and natural resources dare to speak out or resist the development projects of powerful businessmen like Lee Yong Fatt? That’s fine, but the most important thing is whether the government has the will to protect (the forests).”
