A
man fires up a chainsaw in a village in Preah Vihear province.
Villagers in three districts have been clearing areas of forest at will
for timber exports. May Titthara
A logging free-for-all
The scale of mass logging in once-dense woodlands in Cambodia’s
north now more closely resembles the free-for-all of a gold rush than
the sustainable forestry more often associated with these communities.
With the financial backing of powerful businessmen, villagers in
three districts of Preah Vihear are clear-felling at will, transporting
the logs on homemade tractors to their houses, ready for Try Pheap’s MDS
Import Export Co Ltd to carry them to the border with Vietnam.
Nearly every household here has at least one chainsaw at the ready
for the daily harvest. In two months, MDS will move its operations to
another province – Stung Treng – as it becomes less profitable to
continue the trade here.
The tractors, overladen with rare thnong wood, travel freely in Chey Sen district’s Thmear commune, unhindered by security forces and officials.
“The boss comes to buy timber at people’s homes, and they spray paint
a notification of purchase,” says Thong Kosal, a resident protesting
against the logging in one village in the commune.
“But I do not know what it [the paint] says, because it is written in
French. At night, after they collect it, they will transport it from
the village.”
Kosal says a representative of MDS came to the village, asking them
to go into the forest and clear as much as possible. Traders from the
company arrive in the evening to weigh and price the stacks of wood
piled under each house.
Villagers say the authorities are tolerating this great rush to log
Preah Vihear because they have been bought off by the company.
“Since before and after the election results, Try Pheap and his
representative Sreang Meng have come to the commune to encourage people
in the village to go log the forest to sell,” Kosal says.
About $10 is paid to the police and forestry officials per tractor
load, villagers say. The money flowing into this community has turned
previously ardent conservationists into lumberjacks. In one village in
Thmear commune, locals estimate that on any given day 3 million riel
($750) worth of protected thnong wood sits ready for its long journey to
the carpenters’ workshops of Vietnam and China. By the time it reaches
Vietnam, the same haul can fetch about $9,000 for MDS.
“Currently, doing forest business is easier,” Kosal says.
“Previously, police and soldiers did the business, but now it is the
people’s turn.”
Try Pheap declined to comment on the allegations this week, initially
saying a reporter called the wrong number before adding “I am in
France.” Pheap’s representative in Preah Vihear, Ouk Kimsan, who is also
a former director of Pursat province’s Forestry Administration, and
Meng could not be reached.
Logging has intensified in Cambodia over the past five years,
according to several recent studies. Satellite data from NASA analysed
by Open Development Cambodia in December last year estimated that about a
third of the country’s total forest cover has been lost since 1973. The
figure is likely higher, as it includes cash crop plantations such as
rubber.
Chheang Vuthy, a forest activist in Preah Vihear, says the last
scraps of forest in the province will be gone if Pheap’s company
continues to provide incentives for the villagers to log.
“We are allowed to do business at our will without fearing arrest,
because the company pays the authorities. This has taken place since the
company arrived. They do not make arrests and they allow us to do
whatever we want. They do business like they’re harvesting cassava,” he
says.
Vuthy says that while local communities have always logged and made
use of the forest resources, without the companies’ presence, there
would be no danger of the forest disappearing altogether.
“Without Try Pheap and Sreang Meng here, the forest would be sustained,” he says.
The loggers say that since the clear-felling business in Preah Vihear
mushroomed in mid-2013, it has become less profitable for MDS to
continue to operate there. The next target, they say, is neighbouring
Stung Treng province.
A
man in Preah Vihear province heads back to a drop-off point with a
truck carrying timber that was felled by local villagers. May Titthara
“The forest there [in Preah Vihear] is gone. The government cannot
deny that the forest is logged. It is logged out,” says Pha Doung, a
lumberjack in the Sre Veal area of Thmear commune, adding that he has
recently been on MDS-sponsored logging trips to Stung Treng.
A logger in Sangkum Thmey district, who claims to work for Pheap,
says the logs piled on his truck were owned by Meng and a former senior
intelligence official.
“We transport it for Try Pheap. I just transport it for them. I
cannot say how much I am paid. But if we commit forest crimes, we will
make much money,” he says.
Since the fatal shooting of forest activist Chut Wutty in 2012, Chhim
Savuth has spearheaded the struggle to end industrial-scale logging. He
describes how Pheap’s company MDS has driven villagers to carry out
work that would normally be reserved for company employees.
Savuth blames the former intelligence official, along with local
businessmen and his deputy, Kimsan, for the deluge of illegal logging.
He estimates 190 cubic metres of timber has been exported daily to
Vietnam since MDS started collecting from locals in Sangkum Thmey, Chreb
and Chey Sen districts in May.
“Try Pheap’s company is responsible for transporting all the timber
to Vietnam via the Dong 7 checkpoint in Memot district, Kampong Cham
province,” he says. “They charge $1,800 per cubic metre.”
If the figures are accurate, this means MDS is raking in $360,000 each day from this provincial business alone.
Cambodia is often praised by the UN for having strong conservation
laws, however Savuth says that what is done in law and in practice are
worlds apart.
“Without hope for illegal logging prevention, people cut down trees
to sell for companies, because they think that if they do not cut it,
timber traders will,” he says.
Chheng Kimsun, director general of the Forestry Administration, could not be reached for comment.
Sen Chey district’s forestry chief, Chhim Sok Sivutha, said Pheap’s
MDS firm was not licensed to collect and transport wood in the area, but
declined to comment as to the inaction of the authorities.
According to a report by the Cambodian Human Rights Task Force,
Pheap’s companies are licensed to buy wood from 27 economic land
concessions in 12 provinces, as well as from its own concessions, which
cover about 70,000 hectares in 10 provinces.
Sat Yorn, chief of police in Chey Sen district, said the authorities
had banned the loggers from blanket-felling the forests. “But we cannot
stop them completely.”
THIS SUMS IT UP . Might as well make some monies before trees run out in the forest.
ReplyDelete“...people cut down trees to sell for companies, because they think that if they do not cut it, timber traders will,” he says.