"As loggers exploit virus, Cambodian forest protectors defy state ban", 2 May 2020

A Cambodian conservation group has warned that logging in the protected Prey Lang forest has ramped up during the coronavirus pandemic, vowing it would continue to monitor the destruction despite government threats of legal action to stop that work.

Members of the Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN) told … officials were allowing timber to be laundered through agri-business projects bordering the forest, …

Neth Pheaktra, an environment ministry spokesman, said only “very small-scale illegal logging by local people” had taken place in Prey Lang, and authorities were working to stop it.

… Cambodia lost a quarter of its total tree cover between 2001 and 2018, among the highest deforestation rates in the world, according to data collated by international monitoring service Global Forest Watch (GFW).

… “It’s a similar model in Prey Lang,” said Ouch Leng, a PLCN member and winner of the 2016 Goldman Prize for his work exposing corruption and illegal logging…

PLCN member Hoeun Sopheap said the government had imposed restrictions on the group’s activities because “our reporting is very specific, showing in detail what is happening”.

“The government should thank us for doing this work, but instead they do the opposite - reject us and issue threats,” he said.

He said the “local people” the ministry accuses of logging in Prey Lang were paid to do the “dirty work” of tycoons who own nearby concessions…

Chak Sopheap, head of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said PLCN members had been “targeted” by the government in recent months despite their “peaceful ... and legitimate pursuit to protect the environment”…