Thai Loggers Cut Wood Despite Ban

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

4/11/96

OVERVIEW & SOURCE

United Press International reports on heavy logging by Thai

companies in adjoining Cambodia, despite Cambodia's recent

restrictions on cutting and exporting of wood. The Cambodian and

Thai prime ministers have authorized "17 Thai timber companies to

export 1.1 million cubic meters of 'already cut' wood from

Cambodia." Once again the delicate nature of preservation is

highlighted, as an area that was to be off limits to industrial

forestry continues to be incrementally diminished. Very few old

growth and/or late successional forests remain in much of newly

industrialized Asia.

g.b.

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Thai loggers cut wood despite ban

4/10/96

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, April 10 (UPI) -- Thai timber companies

operating in Khmer Rouge-held territory are engaging in widespread

logging despite a Cambodian government ban on cutting and

exporting new wood, an environmental group said Wednesday.

"Thai timber companies...are admitting that they are cutting,"

said Simon Taylor of the British-based environmental group Global

Witness, adding the companies are also making preparations to

export the wood out of Cambodia.

"They...are all gearing up, bulldozing rest areas, constructing

new fence posts, to begin work whether they have permits or not,"

said Taylor, who has just returned from a one-week investigation

into Thai timber activities along the Cambodian border.

The charge comes one week after Global Witness revealed agreements

signed between the Cambodian and Thai prime ministers authorizing

17 Thai timber companies to export 1.1 million cubic meters of

"already cut" wood from Cambodia.

Global Witness said that the agreement violates a Cambodian

government ban on the export of newly cut trees, which went into

effect in April 1995, and is tantamount to giving the companies a

license to cut.

The Ministry of Agriculture statistics indicate there are only

330, 000 cubic meters of felled wood in Cambodia, said Global

Witness, which asked, "Where is the rest of the wood coming from?"

First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh last week said

government statistics on felled wood do not include trees cut in

Khmer Rouge territory and that measures would be taken to prevent

the export of newly cut trees.

The prince said by giving the 17 Thai companies permits to take

wood out of Cambodia, the government would be able to collect at

least some revenue from the logs, which would be exported out of

Cambodia with or without the approval of Phnom Penh.

"At this time, we cannot move those logs back to Cambodia, so what

are we going to do? Let them rot?" the prince said. He said an ad

hoc committee would be formed to supervise the shipment of the

timber from rebel-controlled zones to ensure newly cut wood was

not exported.

Taylor said that investigations, carried out between March 31 and

April 6, revealed at least nine companies -- most operating in

Khmer Rouge territory and some without export permits from the

government -- were engaged in cutting new wood.

The Cambodian government has not yet responded to the allegations.

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