Four in K Kong, K Thom held for clearing protected forest
IN SEPAR ATE community protected areas i n Koh Kong and Kampong Thom prov inces last week, four people were detained for i l lega l ly clea ring forests to occupy them.
A warrant issued by Kampong Thom provincial court Investigating Judge Seng Bunna and obtained by The Post on Monday ordered security forces to bring three charged people to be provisionally detained at Kampong Thom prison.
The warrant said one of the three suspects was a village chief. He and two accomplices were accused of using bulldozers between 2016 and this year to clear forest land in the Chaom Mrech community natural protected area, in Prasat Balang district’s Sala Visay commune, for their personal use.
They were charged under Article 62 of the Law on Natural Protected Areas, the warrant said.
It said the suspects were a 67-yearold village chief, the 42-year-old head of Chaom Mrech community natural protected area and a 33-year-old accomplice. All three were residents of Prasat
Balang district’s Sala Visay commune.
Prov incia l Department of Environment spokesman Tob Kakada said as custodians of the Chaom Mrech community land, instead of helping to protect it, t hey instead colluded to grab and sell it to residents from ot her prov inces.
He said 180 residents representing hundreds of families had sued the suspects for clearing some 30ha of community land.
In a separate case, the Koh Kong provincial Department of Environment collaborated with Military Police and Wildlife Alliance forces to crack down on natural resource crimes on Sunday.
During the operation, a man was arrested for allegedly clearing forest land with a bulldozer in Sre Ambel district’s Dang Peng commune to bring under his ownership.
Koh Kong provincial Department of Environment director Morn Phalla could not be reached for comment on Monday.
But a prov incia l Department of Env ironment press release dated Sunday and obtained by The Post on Monday said t he suspect’s wife had asked for 10ha of land to be set aside.
It said the suspect depended on 4ha for his livelihood and had built a house to live in without being prevented from doing so by t he aut horities or env ironmental of ficia ls.
Another 6ha was on protected land that env ironmental officia ls and Wildl i fe Alliance forces had made clear should not be cleared, t he press release said, but t he suspect began to clear it any way.
An environmental official said the suspect had contravened the first section of Article 62 of the Law on Natural Protected Areas.
He said the law required the Department of Environment to gather a case to be presented to the provincial court prosecutor.
Soeng Sen Karuna, the senior investigator at rights group Adhoc, said enforcing the law against ordina r y people was only a small par t of tack ling t he problem. “Lega l act ion must be ta ken fa irly aga inst t he r ich a nd poor.
“In t he past, we’ve seen fewer Oknhas [t ycoons] a r rested for encroaching on la nd. But when it comes to t he poor, we’ve seen many,” he cla imed.