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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

Cambodia Could Lose Forests to Illegal Loggers

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

http://forests.org/

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."

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