Cambodian Prime Minister Calls for Ceiling on Logging

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

August 1, 1996

OVERVIEW & SOURCE by EE

Following is a photocopy of a United Press International article

relating Cambodia's Second Prime Minister's recent call for protection

of Cambodia's remaining virgin forests. We had reported earlier in the

year that all of Cambodia's remaining forests were slated for logging,

as "dozens of foreign logging companies, mainly Malaysian, Thai,

Indonesian and Taiwanese, have been granted massive logging concessions

in the past two years." Prospects now appear more favorable, with this

recent call for forest protection and removal of logging licenses from

companies which have not yet commenced harvesting. Once again,

environmental stereotypes are misleading as the International Monetary

Fund and other multi-lateral lenders took the initiative in pushing

Cambodia to examine and rationalize its forestry policy.

g.b.

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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

PM calls for ceiling on logging

7/30/96

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, July 30 (UPI) -- Second Prime Minister Hun Sen

threw his weight behind international and local calls for protection of

Cambodia's remaining virgin forests Tuesday.

The prime minister said logging export bans failed to reduce

deforestation and the rapid expansion of timber mills outstripped

Cambodian timber supplies.

"Satellite pictures of Cambodia's forests taken in 1992-93 can no

longer be used because during 1994-95 so much thick forest was

cleared... and so many saw mills quickly spread out over the country,"

the prime minister said.

"The number of sawmills has now exceeded the capacity of Cambodian

forests to supply timber, so we should stop importing sawmill

equipment," he told graduating agriculture students.

Referring to recent donor concern over Cambodia's anarchic logging

industry, the prime minister said changes must occur as "the World

Bank, the Asia Development Bank and the United Nations had made clear

they were seriously concerned.

"Forest concessions are a sensitive point," he said, claiming he

had only recently become aware that all of Cambodia's remaining forest

cover was earmarked for logging by foreign companies.

Hun Sen, who led a communist Cambodian government from the mid-80s

until a 1991 Peace Accord and subsequent election, resulted in him

ruling in a coalition government with the royalist Funcinpec party.

Hun Sen said Tuesday although economic conditions were difficult under

his communist government, only 150,000-200,000 cubic meters of logs had

been cut annually.

"Now just one saw mill needs at least 300,000 cubic meters, another

500,000 cubic meters and so on, which is well over the capacity of

Cambodia's forests," he said.

The prime minister said companies that had been granted logging licenses

but had not started operations should have their concessions canceled.

"Now is the time to stop, don't let them continue," he said.

Dozens of foreign logging companies, mainly Malaysian, Thai, Indonesian

and Taiwanese, have been granted massive logging concessions in the past

two years.

But recent pressure from development banks and the International

Monetary Fund has foreshadowed a shakedown in Cambodian government

policy on logging.

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