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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

Cambodia Torches Log Trucks

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

http://forests.org/ -- Forest Conservation Archives

http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest Conservation

12/8/98

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE

Cambodia's forests are some of the most rapidly disappearing in the

world. Rampant illegal logging means that at current rates of

diminishment, the forests will essentially be commercially depleted

within three to five years. Against great odds, and perhaps as mere

stagecraft, the government is cracking down; including recent burning

of log trucks seized from an illegal logging operation. The act of

illegal logging, with largely ineffective governmental efforts to

prevent, is playing itself out around the world-in both commercial

forestry and protected areas; and threatens to scuttle any meaningful

national or international agreements to conserve forests.

g.b.

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Title: Cambodia torches log trucks to show world action

Source: Reuters

Status: Copyright 1998, contact source for permission to reprint

Date: December 6, 1998

PHNOM PENH Dec 7 (Reuters) - Authorities in Cambodia seized 1,000

illegally felled logs and destroyed 11 trucks to show the world that

the country is getting serious about its rapidly dwindling forests, a

top forestry official said on Monday.

The logs were seized in a forest in Kratie province, northeast of

Phnom Penh, on the weekend. The loggers managed to escape but left

behind 11 trucks which authorities put to the torch. ``We burnt the

trucks because we want the World Bank, IMF and donor agencies to see

the facts. We've changed from words to action,'' forestry department

director Ty Sokhun told Reuters.

Pictures of soldiers pouring petrol over the empty trucks and setting

them ablaze were broadcast on national television on Sunday evening.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) suspended a support programme to

Cambodia last year, largely due to the government's failure to collect

revenue from the logging sector.

The World Bank has cautioned of unsustainable rates of felling, and

many of Cambodia's aid donors have urged authorities to take action

against rampant illegal logging.

Prime Minister Hun Sen's new government, appointed late last month,

has vowed to get serious about the problem.

Ty Sokhun said forestry was expected to be high on the agenda when

Cambodia's main aid donors met in Tokyo next year.

``Forestry is the central issue that will be discussed in Tokyo. The

international community wants to see new commitment in action,'' he

said. ``The World Bank wants to see a review of our forest concessions

and so does the new government.''

Environmentalists and opposition politicians say powerful local

military and business figures are behind illegal logging, with most of

the timber exported across the country's porous borders despite an

official ban on log exports.

Ty Sokhun said Cambodia would seek the help of its neighbours in

tackling the problem. He said the World Bank had recently suggested

holding regional talks on the issue.

``We need help from the countries on our borders... Otherwise the

logging problem will not be solved,'' he said.

The regional talks, which would include technical experts and

political leaders, were due to be held before the aid donors' meeting

in February, he said.

The IMF said the government lost revenues of more than $100 million

due to illegal logging in 1996. The sum was equivalent to more than a

third of total budget revenue received that year.

A senior World Bank official said earlier this year that Cambodia's

forests were being cut at an alarming rate, with very little benefit

to government coffers.

The World Bank estimated that 4.2 million cubic metres (5.6 million

cubic yards) of timber was cut in 1997, and forest resources would be

depleted in three to five years if that rate of exploitation

continued.

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