Cycling campaign for Prey Preah Roka starts
SOME 10 environmental activists launched the Riding a Bicycle for Prey Preah Roka campaign from November 29 to December 2.
They will ride across 300km from Phnom Penh to Preah Vihear province to promote natural resource protection and conservation amid threats of deforestation in the forestry and wildlife preserve.
San Mala, t he youth group’s representative, said the campaign was launched due to ev ident signs of deforestation and illega l logging conducted in the preser ve.
“We want to promote Prey Preah Roka because some people remain unaware of its existence. The campaign also aims to seek support from [Cambodians] to protect it.
“We want the government, especially the Ministry of Environment, to establish more thorough and effective measures to stop forest crimes which continue unabated despite the preserve being declared a wildlife sanctuary in 2016,” Mala said.
The youth group and local communities had noticed the recent escape of wild animals from t he forest into t heir v illages due to poachers t hat use loud pieces of machiner y, driv ing away the animals from t he safet y of t heir natura l env ironment.
“After completing the campaign, we will write a letter petitioning t he Ministr y of Environment to prove what we had witnessed through photos ta ken during our recent v isit to t he forest and ask t he ministr y to inter vene.
“It has come to our attention the ministry’s protective and monitoring measures still has a lot of loopholes,” he said.
Ministry’s spokesman Neth Pheaktra considered the campaign a right of the youth but said that they should obey the existing law on Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Management.
“The ministr y welcomes ever y loya l and lega l activit y t hat helps to protect and preser ve natura l resources. The ministr y has prepared enough st rategies [for t he protection of t he preser ve], including tra ining rangers to patrol at t he protected areas,” he said.
He said 17 rangers are stationed at Prey Preah Roka and patrol the forest day and night.
The ministry said it had set several plans regarding forest protection, among which are registering such areas to protect forest lands from illegal land grabbers, improving the ability of rangers to patrol and equipping them with weapons, with the approval of the ministries of Interior and National Defense.
It has a lso been crack ing down on natural resource and forest crimes, of which t he minister attested t hat no la rge-sca le illega l operations remained.