River of controversy

What may prove to be some of the most important decisions on the fate of Cambodia’s environment are being shaped not in Phnom Penh, but in Beijing. With China’s investment sphere of influence increasing each day in Cambodia, there seems to be no single government agency, no one in Washington, nor any independent environmental body casting a critical eye on dam construction in the upper reaches of the Mekong River flowing through China. Some observers charge that the Mekong River Commission (MRC) is abandoning its charter of cooperation and sustainable development along this great river system. Although China is now an important investor in and ally of Cambodia, it refuses to become an MRC member. Meanwhile, hydropower development’s ascendancy appears to offer a questionable solution to the region’s pressing economic and energy needs. This exclusive report from Cambodia for Asia Times Online examines the conflicts affecting this ancient watercourse and the millions of people who depend on it in the six countries through which it flows.

PHNOM PENH - Cambodia’s ominous blue-gray clouds signal the annual arrival of the southwest monsoon. This low-lying landscape that nurtured the civilization of Angkor is home to 62-year-old Meas Eng, a survivor of Pol Pot, Vietnamese invasions, US bombs, land mines and the seasonal changes along the Mekong. Flowing since time immemorial, this river remains the heart and soul of Southeast Asia - a reservoir of life and a vital transport artery.

Sadly, the river no longer offers this spry old fisherman his once abundant daily supply of fish. No more than a decade ago “the Mother of Rivers” supplied to Eng and many other villagers who live not far from the Laotian border in Stung Treng province more than enough fish for their families. It was once easy living as these seasoned fishermen only needed to cast their kramas, traditional scarves, as nets in one fell swoop into the sacred water source, effortlessly hauling in their bountiful catch.

Today many of the families living in a myriad bamboo thatched-roof houses jutting up from the Mekong’s red-clay banks almost 700 kilometers upstream from Phnom Penh and within earshot of the Laotian border lament the daily challenges the changes in their river have imposed.

“It is difficult for us now, and we also see many bad people even using poison and electricity in the waters to kill what fish they can find, and than they sell it to Laotians so they can have some money,” said the old man.

The might of the Mekong is indeed being challenged, and perhaps has already been partially eclipsed. For years the river has remained a silent and enduring witness through numerous Indochina wars and other sorrows. Wild and free, subject to its own transient rhythms - annual monsoons, floods, drought, bountiful fishing - flowing through the eons without regard to national borders, the murky river is fast becoming a pawn for economic development involving Beijing, Phnom Penh and Washington.

Chinese government officials are moving at breakneck speed with their plans to construct massive dams and to blast out a navigational channel in the upper reaches of the Mekong River near Yunnan province. For the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a nation of 1.3 billion, the six large dams planned along the river and another nine along its tributaries mean electricity for an impoverished rural population, and the scheduled navigational channel will offer a valuable trade and tourism route.

Although Chinese researchers argue that these dams will reduce flooding and drought for countries downstream, other scientists fear that this development will prove disastrous for Cambodia and will also harm Vietnam’s lower delta. “We are very concerned with the dam construction. Of course, the Chinese say there is no impact from their dam projects. The reality is otherwise: the dam’s release or flow of water during the monsoon season creates more flooding in Cambodia,” said Dr Touch Seang Tana, an environmental scientist who belongs to a think-tank at Cambodia’s Cabinet of Council Ministers.

The four countries that share the lower basin of the Mekong - Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam - have understood all too well for more than a half-century how their river became a turbulent and, at times, political channel for numerous government agencies and well-intentioned donor countries. The river’s hydropower development has become a lighting rod for policy shapers and marine scientists in the countries that line its banks, as well as in far-off Washington. War, endless bureaucratic mismanagement and heartbreaking poverty along the river’s edge have gradually eroded the Mekong’s promises of prosperity and idealized regional cooperation.

“We are now dealing with one of the most important river basins in the world, and we need to make some accountability on the injustices and damages done to this precious river system over the past 45 years,” said Joern Christensen, the chief executive officer at the Mekong River Commission (MRC).

This extremely well-funded river-management body was re-established in 1995 when the governments of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam jointly signed the Agreement on Cooperation for Sustainable Development of the Mekong River Basin. The politically motivated document provides the institutional and legal framework for exhaustive basin-wide studies and joint development projects.

On the surface, the agreement appears to reflect a major shift from development planning or dam construction to a regional ecosystem policy designed to foster resource-sharing among countries. The document promotes “cooperation in all fields of sustainable development, management and conservation of the water of the Mekong River Basin, including but not limited to hydropower, navigation and flood control”.

The vision for the MRC was created to offer all countries in the region the freedom of navigation along any part of the great Mekong as long as they avoid damage to other countries as each pursues an economic and environmentally sound purpose.

Yet at the MRC Secretariat’s modern office on Monivong Boulevard in Phnom Penh, controversial questions are being raised behind closed doors that are creating inter-departmental dissension and confusion among donor countries. And many of these questions involve a country that does not belong to the MRC: China.

Will the alterations to the Mekong’s flow resulting from the newly constructed dams upriver in Yunnan province have a serious effect on the fisheries requirements in the regions of the river downstream from China? Will the reduced wet-season flow of the Mekong, and its converse, an increased flow in the dry season, have a negative impact on the ecosystem of Cambodia’s Great Lake, Tonle Sap? Most importantly, what will happen if the pro-development forces for hydropower prove to be wrong and the Mekong’s ecosystem is irreparably damaged in the name of progress? Will Cambodians still be able to feed themselves from the Tonle Sap?

Asia Times Online has accessed an internally circulated document commissioned by the MRC Secretariat that carefully states that while “the scheduled removal of 21 upstream shoals and reefs [the blasting is already in progress by the Chinese] will cause limited impact on the environment, no further stages of this project should be permitted until a comprehensive environmental-impact assessment is completed to international standards”.

According to fisheries expert Tana, the issues associated with the present dam construction go far beyond the flooding. There is ample and increasing evidence that the existing dams are already changing the ecology of the wetlands. This is especially noteworthy since more than 20 percent of Cambodia’s present land mass consists of wetlands. “People are much better at adapting to flood-region changes than marine life, and we are seeing a dramatic detrimental impact not only the destruction of coral life near Yunnan province but downriver with an increasing dramatic decline of fish,” remarked Tana.

Keen observers maintain there’s increasing evidence at MRC that a cold war has been in place for some time between some directors who still support hydropower development and many who acknowledge the efficacy of a sound and socially responsible environmental plan. The proper resolution matters daily to the more than 70 percent of Cambodians dependent on the Mekong or on the linked Tonle Sap for their food supply. At least 8 million poor people subsist on less than a dollar a day, including Meas Eng and, farther downstream, Sok Lim, a 64-year-old fisherman living near Kombor. For these families, their daily fish caught from Tonle Sap and the Mekong is essential for their livelihood and that of their families.

“Production of clean and renewable energy like hydropower development is an attractive option to meet the urgent needs for Cambodia’s economic development, and for exporting and rural electrification,” says Khy Tainglim, Cambodia’s minister of public works and transport and a ranking member of the MRC.

No one disputes that the Lower Mekong Basin’s population is expected to increase by more than 60 percent to about 100 million by 2025. With this anticipated growth will come a dramatic corresponding increase in the demand for food and clean water. It is this primary concern that bolsters ongoing financial support from a large consortium of donors including Australia, Denmark, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States.

The dilemma facing the Cambodians is protecting their bread basket, Tonle Sap, from increased sedimentation while pursuing the needs for power generation brought by economic and industrial development. Meanwhile, for the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, the Mekong is a navigational backbone and hydropower earns the poor country nearly a quarter of its total foreign-exchange revenues through the sale of electricity to Thailand.

Inside the MRC itself, the dialogue is heated. The battle lines are demarcated between those who strongly advocate dam construction to meet hydropower generation needs and those arguing for a far more cautious, environmentally sound policy.

Meanwhile, upstream north of Laos, the Chinese, who have chosen not to become a part of the MRC, and whose construction history is rife with a gross disregard for the environment, are now blasting a channel along the Mekong River’s course that will allow large boats to travel from Yunnan province to Vientiane throughout the year. Marine scientific evidence suggests that the clearing away of rocks and sandbars leads to increased river flow and with it dramatic erosion.

All along the upper reaches of the Mekong, including the northeastern river towns of Kratie and Stung Treng, the hardwood trees that once stood tall as sentries, hugging the shores of the river, have been logged, resulting in more erosion and in dramatic changes in the quality of the water.

“I know the water is much dirtier as it travels down from Laos and I do not know what has happened,” said Sok Lim, another bewildered and challenged fisherman living in his traditional Khmer bamboo home with its plain thatched-leaf roof.

Compounding the challenge is the volume of illegal fishing on the Mekong. In many Cambodian provinces, some fishermen use as bait sticky-rice balls laced with poison, and many resort to electrocution of fish to meet their increasing fishing needs. Many fishery officials and experts are in agreement that overfishing, deforestation, erosion and an increase in the population place ever greater demands on the fragile river system.

Sin Niny, vice chairman of Cambodia’s National Mekong Committee, has urged China to take another look at the ecological impact of the navigation channel, although this appears a little late. As for the construction of the dams, Chinese officials show no hurry to provide any environmental assessments.

The boat captain on the Mekong steers clear of the shoals since he does not dare run aground. Even with experience and well-marked concrete channel markers, boats still manage to get hung up. The same can be said for the Mekong River Commission, who appear eager to negotiate their way through potential areas of water-use conflict, development, and damage to a traditional way of life for millions of people along this precious and fragile river system.

Next: The challenge of China

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River of controversy

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Next: The challenge of China

The challenge of China

Facing regional rivalries, China has been seeking new friends in Asia. Two years ago, President Jiang Zemin’s arrival in Cambodia was observed with much interest in Washington and also by Southeast Asian leaders.

A drive down Phnom Penh’s Mao Tsetung Boulevard today confirms China’s neighborly interest, from its investment in Cambodia’s new sewer system, highway construction, bridges, and the Phnom Penh market to a recently completed US$30 million hydropower station.

At the time of the proposed Kompong Speu power plant in November 2000, members of Cambodia’s National Assembly vigorously debated the deal that its government had made with China. There were numerous questions over the bidding process and the price of electricity, but at the end of the session, lawmakers acquiesced and China won another important round in Phnom Penh’s shifting geopolitics.

It’s no wonder that very few in Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government or, for that matter, senior directors at the Mekong River Commission (MRC) are protesting much against China’s failure to join the Phnom Penh-based water-management body. Among the factors bolstering China’s sphere of influence in Cambodia is its provision of interest-free loans or grants to reconstruct the country’s Senate and National Assembly building.

Warmer relations with China began after the Cambodian People’s Party seized power in July 1997: Cambodia quickly asserted a “one China” policy and told Taiwan to close down its representative office.

“China does exercise a great deal of influence in Phnom Penh and, on more than several occasions, their embassy complained to us about reporting too much on Taiwan investments and business developments in our independent Chinese newspaper,” said Loh Swee Ping, general manager of Cambodia Sin Chew Daily, the country’s largest-circulated Chinese-language newspaper.

But even before the 1997 change of government, China had offered sanctuary to King Sihanouk in 1970, and the king still travels regularly to Beijing for medical attention. As well, some sources in Phnom Penh speculate that it is in Beijing’s best interests not to see the surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge on trial, fearing that China’s role in the genocide will prove to be far too damaging.

What is key is China’s need to win influential friends in a neutral Cambodia as Beijing pursues upstream hydropower projects. Instead of confronting its shadowy past, China has built a dozen or more Chinese-language schools across the country. Beijing’s assistance and community-based public-relations campaign includes providing textbooks and Chinese teachers.

“Probably the most significant offer from China in recent years was the announcement of a $200 million interest-free loan in the form of a line of credit that could be tapped for future projects, and Chinese contractors have been bidding to rebuild several national roads,” said Yum Sui Sang, chairman of the Phnom Penh-based China, Hong Kong and Macau Business Association.

Upstream at the controversial Lancang (the Chinese name for the Mekong) river cascade, blasting continues, not within earshot of the MRC headquarters, but its political reverberations are felt all way to the delta in Vietnam. Two dams have already been completed in China’s Yunnan province and six more are scheduled to be built. These are designed to exploit the rapid fall of the level of the Mekong’s main tributary as it flows through Yunnan.

The Manwan Dam, completed along the Lancang more than a decade ago, has a 1.5-million-kilowatt electricity-generating capacity. Additionally, construction is under way on the Dachaoshan Power Station. Once it is completed along with the six additional dams, China will be able to generate more than 20 million kilowatts from the complex. For the Chinese, the term “run of the river”, which was initially coined to describe how power could be generated without negative impact on the river flow, has taken on a more damaging interpretation for the countries downstream.

This idea to develop a clean source of energy for local industries in Yunnan goes back to the 1970s, when China was largely closed to the outside world. In the past decade or so, the need to develop its poor regions became far more pressing for reasons of political stability. Unfortunately, such domestic concerns are at odds with China’s hopes of expanding its influence in the region through cooperation with the countries downstream.

Some Mekong countries have joined in an anti-China chorus. Although a direct beneficiary of some of the electricity generated by China, Thailand’s Songkhram River Conservation Group believes that the high-wall Manwan dam has already caused “the lowest water level and lowest fish catches in Laos and northern Thailand in living memory”. The conservation group’s position on the future dams is clear: “No more dams, please!”

The scale and impact of China’s plans continue to trouble officials in the lower-basin countries. “We had no idea about the potential of the upper basin,” said Prachoom Chomchai, formerly Thailand’s representative on Mekong issues. Prachoom and marine-life scientists have been concerned not only about the potential reduction in the flow of water during the dry season, but also pollution. China dumps toxic wastes into the Mekong from paper mills around Dali in Yunnan. In that area alone, China’s once clean and sparkling Lake Erhai is now choked with waste and agricultural runoff.

Two years ago, China’s minister of water resources, Wang Shucheng, in an article in the Three Gorges News, reaffirmed the need for dam construction. “We must boost hydroelectric power generation because a power shortage remains a major bottleneck for our country’s economic growth and increasing per capita energy consumption,” said Wang.

China is now blasting a channel through the Sambor rapids at a reputed cost of $5.3 million, according to a recent article in Cambodia Daily. This project is primarily to build dikes and remove shoals along the Mekong from the China-Myanmar border to Ban Houayxai in Laos. It aims to link China to Southeast Asian export materials and raw materials, and results from a joint agreement of China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand.

The spokesman for Yunnan’s Navigation Affairs Bureau, Mei Ruichang, claims that all countries will benefit from the increased trade. However, neither Cambodia nor Vietnam is part of the agreement. Joern Christensen, chief executive officer of the MRC, warns that the increased trade could hurt small-time producers who are not ready to compete with imports from monolithic China.

“Of course, we have also formally invited China to become a formal member of the Mekong River Commission on several occasions, but they have declined,” said Christensen.

Some experts think the construction of more dams and the channel construction could spell disaster for Cambodia’s Great Lake, Tonle Sap. Marine biologists have calculated that during Cambodia’s wet season some 60 percent of the water that brings the lake to its maximum size results from floodwaters that come down the Mekong and then turn north, reversing the flow of the Tonle Sap River. Understandably, the evidence is not completely in on the impact of the dams and channels. Nevertheless, China’s channel-widening project may also affect fisheries by destroying shoals that act as spawning grounds for fish that live in Cambodia and also Vietnam but migrate upriver to lay their eggs, claims fisheries expert Touch Seang Tana.

Countering this argument, Yunnan researcher He Daming claims that the dams will hold back water flow during the flood season and release necessary amounts of water during the dry season to generate necessary electricity in the dry season, thus minimizing both flooding and drought long experienced by both Cambodia and Vietnam each year.

These facts are evident. Dams will empower China with the capacity to cause artificial floods or droughts in downstream countries in any season. Their dams will decide the fate and livelihood of 65 million people living in four countries: Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Some critics have suggested that the industrial waste discharge from Yunnan alone, if flowing unchecked, could turn the Mekong into an industrial sewer line, and Tonle Sap Lake into a septic tank.

As the dialogue heats up between development forces and environmentalists, the facts remain most transparent under the murky Mekong waters and scores of environmental-impact reports. The delicate ecosystem of the Tonle Sap is vital for Cambodia since it produces 100,000 tons of fish a year, providing 80 percent of the protein consumed within the country, just as the fertile Mekong Delta has always been the rice bowl of Vietnam. There the poor farmers struggling against recurrent flooding and increased salinity from the South China Sea work their rice paddies and still manage to produce more than 14 million tons of harvest to feed the country of 80 million and still have sufficient surplus for exporting.

China’s response to political pressure from various non-governmental organizations and the MRC was encouraging for some environmentalists when Beijing announced that it would provide regular information about water levels in the Mekong River to serve as flood warnings to downstream countries. Under a recent agreement with the MRC, China said it would give water-level data every 24 hours from two sites on the Upper Mekong.

These reports directed to the MRC will provide Cambodian and also Vietnamese authorities more time to broadcast rapid changes in the river’s depth to farmers living along the Mekong. More than 800 Cambodians and Vietnamese died during severe flooding in 2000 and the large-scale natural disaster resulted in more than $430 million in combined costs of flood damage in both countries. More than 8 million lives in Cambodia and Vietnam were affected. With seasonal floods expected again, more fishermen and farmers appear most anxious about their plight.

Careful not to place the blame at the doorstep of any dam construction, the MRC’s annual report in 2000 said “that the river flow could also have been aggravated by the side-effects of urbanization and infrastructure built over the past decade”.

Khy Tainglim, an engineer and Cambodia’s minister of transportation, has thrown his considerable weight behind China and technology. “Water is our oil, our mines of gold, our main natural resource, and we should use our water to export and get foreign currency to develop the country,” said Tainglim.

The Chinese offer to report river levels almost seems conciliatory and may also have been triggered by Hun Sen’s unconditional praise for the $26 million power station built by the Chinese Electric Power Technology Import and Export Council. The plant produces 12 megawatts of power, which will be distributed throughout Kompong Speu province and will also boost Phnom Penh’s own power supply.

“Cambodia badly needs Chinese investors to come and invest in power plants as much as possible,” said Hun Sen at a recent news conference in Phnom Penh.

Next: Hey, big spenders

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Hey, big spenders

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Next: Reform in the forests

Reform in the forests

No one knows more than Cambodia’s timber association that the country’s forests are a national asset. After all, logging companies earn tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue, while giving small remittances to the local villages.

Illegal logging and deforestation have resulted in a vast reduction of Cambodia’s precious forestry. Some 2.6 million hectares of forest have disappeared over the past two decades, according to figures from officials at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

“We are aware of this precious natural resource and now are taking steps even though there is a government-mandated moratorium to rein in the rogue companies,” says Henry Kong, chairman of the Cambodian Timber Association.

In any developing economy, it often takes years, even with the efforts of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and thousands of concerned citizens, to effect change. All the data are not in, but the timber association recognizes the problem: almost 50 percent of Cambodia’s forest cover has been logged. While some timber has been cut by villagers for fuel, home construction, and the cultivation of more crops to feed an expanding population base, the logging companies are responsible for decimating much of the timber along the Mekong.

One month ago, Cambodia’s National Assembly enacted a new forestry law making it illegal to cut trees outside concession areas, in national parks, in wildlife sanctuaries or in other designated areas. The legislation imposes heavy penalties of up to 10 years’ jail and fines of up to 100 million riel (US$25,600) for illegal logging.

The law also establishes a traditional tree-planting day, July 9, to be recognized as Arbor Day and even encourages newlyweds to plant two trees before filing for their marriage certificate.

“It is an important instrument for guaranteeing sustainability of our valuable natural heritage,” Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun said upon passage of the bill.

Prior to the passage of this law, Global Witness, a United Kingdom-based environmental and human-rights organization that has been campaigning against illegal logging since 1996, claimed there were 18 logging concessions in Cambodia covering more than 7 million hectares, or almost 45 percent of the country’s land mass.

NGOs have been concerned for years about large-scale granting of land concessions throughout Cambodia and are now especially sensitive about the environmental implications of building a pulp-and-paper-manufacturing facility in the vicinity of the Great Lake, Tonle Sap.

Glen Barry, a conservation biologist and president of Forests.org, describes an improving situation in Cambodia’s logging industry.

“There have been two highly positive developments regarding Cambodian rain-forest conservation. A huge new 1-million-acre [0.4-million-hectare] protected area has been established, and yet another pledge has been made to rein in illegal logging,” says Barry.

Like other environmentalists, Barry is aware that Cambodia’s forests remain gravely threatened, but he is confident that the country is on a road toward reform and that it is not too late to save the forests.

In 1999, Cambodia was widely regarded as one of the worst timber offenders, clear-cutting massive swaths of jungle to sell abroad or to neighboring countries, including Vietnam. That year, major donors to Cambodia, including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank, insisted that their roughly $1.5 billion in aid be linked to major improvements in forest conservation. A large part of that deal guaranteed that Global Witness serve as the independent environmental monitor.

Cambodia initiated efforts to reorient its economy in the mid-1980s after a long, dark shadow fell over its people and landscape. The world has watched with much interest as this poor country has slowly taken the steps to climb out from a deep dark hole into the sunshine offered through economic liberalization and painful and difficult reforms. Although the work is still unfinished, the process has brought about a changing role in both the public and private sectors.

The country’s reforms move at a snail’s pace, largely because the economy is rural and agriculture-based. It’s no wonder that some excesses have been committed during this democratic transition. The World Bank has made clear that the formula for conservation and development is necessary for sustainable management of the country’s forests. But with increasing investment challenges, Cambodia does need a self-regulating and sustainable timber industry.

“Since there was never any baseline, many companies logged without regard for tomorrow’s future,” shrugs Kong at his quiet Phnom Penh timber-association office. An articulate spokesman for the industry, Kong implies that his association’s 17 member companies now wish to become part of the solution rather than being perceived as the problem.

A contentious issue surrounding the law is an annual permit system enabling small-scale loggers to operate in Cambodia’s almost denuded forests. However, there is hope among environmentalists that a sub-decree will designate and protect the Cardamom Mountain Range, which comprises an important watershed, with streams and rivers running off its slopes to feed the Tonle Sap and Mekong River.

The average hardwood tree in Cambodia is almost 150 years old and has a market value of $120 per meter. The upstream timber operations employ nearly 3,000 people and also include a support staff of 800. The average monthly wage is between $80 and $100. There are 14 sawmills operating downstream processing plywood and veneer.

The more than 17 logging companies all recognize and readily admit that past cutting around Tonle Sap has endangered fishing. Of course, wide-scale cutting along the Mekong has contributed to a reduction in the important fisheries and many suggest there is a direct correlation with increased flooding. Constant logging has so eroded the Mekong’s shoreline in places that disastrous flooding is virtually guaranteed; last year’s floods in Cambodia and Vietnam killed 500 people and wiped out herds, crops and orchards.

Upstream in neighboring Laos, trees have also disappeared when dams were built, and that too impacts on the delicate ecosystem of the Mekong and its tributaries.

More Cambodian timber companies are accepting the reality of the mounting pressure from environmental groups such as Global Witness. “Of course the association’s membership acknowledges our responsibility and complicity in the logging of the country’s tropical forests and we are now committed to abiding and supporting the essential forestry reforms,” says Kong.

It is true that the logging companies have provided some economic benefits to those villagers employed by the few companies with lawful concessions. According to the World Rainforest Movement, Cambodia’s timber companies from 1994-2000 generated about $95 million.

As a direct result of donor-country pressure and to address the widening illegal logging trade, Prime Minister Hun Sen imposed at the first of the year a moratorium on any further logging.

“We have succeeded in forestry reforms better than other countries in Asia,” claims Ty Sokhun, director of the Ministry of Agriculture’s Forestry Department. He argues persuasively that no country in the region can match Cambodia’s level of forestry reform, including the development of master plans.

Observers indicate that this has been a challenging year for logging companies. In fact, Hun Sen’s decision to enact a moratorium was largely in response to the fact that logging worsened the Mekong’s flooding conditions last year, costing much more in road and bridge repairs than what was collected in the form of flagging logging royalties.

Grainne Ryder of Toronto-based Probe International and editor of the book The Mekong Currency says “it is generally understood that deforestation increases the volume and speed of runoff, which can lead to more severely damaging floods”.

Government officials agree that the Cambodian Timber Association’s member company’s are complying with Phnom Penh’s request for management plans. “Let us face the facts: our timber industry can participate in sustainable development only if we have an effective sustainable business model,” remarks Kong.

A few timber companies are continuing to cut trees by exploiting a loophole in the moratorium. While logging is banned in forestry concessions, the moratorium wording does not mention land concessions, which several logging companies own.

Cambodia’s forests and its section of the Mekong River are still challenged by poor economics, exploitative policies, and donor-driven environmental consultancy companies, all preaching a gospel of “sustainable development”.

The struggle between man and the environment remains a perennial question. It seems that in this time of peace, Cambodia has more at stake than during the darkest days of war. These “new Cambodians” are determined to reclaim their lives and their invaluable environment from the long shadow cast by Pol Pot.

THE END.