Cambodia Could Lose Forests to Illegal Loggers
12/15/97
OVERVIEW, SOURCE & COMMENTARY by EE
The forests of Cambodia continue their downward spiral. Illegal
logging continues in National Parks. The resource, large intact
forest ecosystems composed of commercially viable timber, is expected
to be virtually gone within three to five years. Worldwide forest
liquidation continues unabated.
g.b.
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Cambodia could soon lose forests to illegal loggers: green
group
Source: Agence France-Presse
Status: Copyrighted 1997, contact source to reprint
Date: Monday, December 15, 1997
PHNOM PENH, Dec 15 (AFP) - Uncontrolled illegal logging and timber
exports -- aided by unscrupulous government officials -- could destroy
Cambodia's forests in three to five years, a British environmental
watchdog said Monday.
"Logging in Cambodia is out of control," said Patrick Alley of London-
based Global Witness, which has for three years been monitoring
deforestation here.
"Existing concessionaires say the forests will be logged out in three
to five years," he said, adding that illegal concessions were also
operating in Cambodia's natural parks.
"The situation is out of control and time is short," he said, noting
that if the forests vanished Cambodia faced not only a loss of revenue
but also environmental disaster.
Widespread concern about Cambodia's logging operations, coupled with
corruption which prevents the government from collecting full revenue
from timber, have led to cutbacks in aid to Phnom Penh.
Last year the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cancelled a 120-
million dollar loan and the World Bank has followed suit, suspending
direct aid to the government until the IMF restores its own aid.
The government has ordered a ban on the export of unprocessed wood and
the re-evaluation of some existing concessions and told the military
to clamp down on illegal loggers.
But Alley and Simon Taylor, also of Global Witness, told reporters
after their latest investigation trip here that certain government
departments and the military appeared to be colluding to thwart the
restrictions.
They presented an export licence signed by senior officials
authorizing the export to Vietnam of 11.5 million dollars' worth of
unprocessed round logs at the request of military officials.
The document, accompanied by several pages of preceding
correspondence, identifies the wood as 25,000 cubic meters of
processed wood "equivalent to 53,306 cubic meters of round logs."
The international export code written on the licence identified the
wood as "unprocessed round logs."
"This is an attempt to legalize an illegal export," Taylor said,
noting that the chief of the forestry deportment as well as the
minister of commerce had signed the document.
"They are fiddling with their own regulations," he said. "At a time
when the international community and the royal government are supposed
to be working together to improve the logging situation, the
government is not helping."
Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh was unavailable for comment.
Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Tao Seng Huor said he
was not aware of the document. But Oar Seourn, the forestry chief,
denied Global Witnesses claims and said the wood in question was in
fact processed.
"I completely deny this," he told AFP. "Their report is wrong. There
is no export licence for any such amount of raw logs given to any
company to export logs to Vietnam.
"Maybe they are confused between logs and already-processed wood," he
said, adding that his department was following the reform measures.
Earlier Monday at an unrelated conference to establish a national
disaster management plan, First Prime Minister Ung Huot took aim at
illegal loggers. He said they were contributing to the downfall of the
country, especially by abetting devastating floods.
"We must enforce regulations to prevent the ongoing destruction of the
environment," he said, adding that "natural events lead to a disaster
because of the carelessness and negligence of mankind."