[Vietnamization] Last stand of the forest [4 of 6 articles in The Guardian series]

Last stand of the forest

 The Guardian

One hundred miles west in central Cambodia, Prey Lang forest is the last great swath of lowland primary forest in the region. It escaped being sprayed with Agent Orange and other herbicides and defoliants in the Vietnam war but 50 years later its dense jungles are being plundered by rubber corporations, illegal forestry operations, as well as palm oil and international farm conglomerates.

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According to Cambodian human rights group Licadho, “land grabbing” to clear forest and farmland to make way for giant corporate concessions has forced 700,000 people off their land without consultation or compensation.

Tree loss in the Mekong region

Cambodia is exchanging its dense jungles for giant agribusiness concessions granted to international companies to grow commodity crops for the world markets. In 14 years the companies have felled around 14,000 sq km to plant rubber sugar, cassava, and other plantations, says Marcus Hardtke, a former official Cambodian forestry monitor with Global Witness and co-author of a new report that shows round 2,000 sq km of the country’s forests are being lost every year.

In climate terms it is a disaster. Governance of the forests in Cambodia has broken down. We will see more warming and a devastating human toll if forestry loss is not halted.

Marcus Hardtke Forest activist

Leng Ouch, one of Cambodia’s leading investigators of illegal forestry said: “Cambodia’s forests are being felled faster than almost anywhere else on earth. If Prey Leng falls, climate change can only worsen.” Travelling from village to village and living for months at a time in the forests, Leng documents illegal sawmills, records the activities of illegal logging companies and exposes their links with corrupt military and local government officers. “Communities are not consulted, impact surveys are not done, exclusion zones are ignored, logs are taken from outside concessions areas and permits are often fake,” he said.

Leng risks his life to expose forest crimes. In 2012 his colleague, Chut Wutty, was murdered by a military policeman after refusing to surrender photographs of illegal loggers and Leng says he has received many death threats himself. But he said that communities in and around what remains of Prey Leng have started to fight back. Using Facebook, an app and other social media, the villagers send teams of young motorbike riders out in large groups to document crimes. When they find illegal loggers they confiscate their equipment.

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“We have uncovered more than 2,000 cases of forestry crime so far this year. A Chinese company grabbed our land in 2012. They took about 20,000 ha. They cut down the rosewood and other valuable trees. We complained to the authorities and the police but nothing changed. So we started a people’s movement. We patrol every week. Last month we confiscated about 250 planks of valuable wood, worth at least $20,000 and 49 chainsaws. Last year we captured two bulldozers used by loggers to get into the forest,” says Promer community leader Kuoy Lutsang. “The company can have its bulldozers back when we get our land back.”

Hardtke said: “In 14 years the companies have felled around 14,000 sq km of forest and evicted hundreds of thousands of people to plant rubber, sugar, cassava and other crops. In climate and human terms it is a disaster. Industrial farming contributes up to 30% of all climate emissions.” The German investigator’s work with international resource rights Global Witness in the 1990s exposed how the Khmer Rouge and Phnom Penh government were gutting the country’s forests to fund their military campaigns. Global Witness was made official government forestry monitors but was later expelled. “Governance of the forests in Cambodia has broken down. We will see more warming and a devastating human toll if forestry loss is not halted.”