With numbers of luxury hardwood trees dwindling in Cambodia, loggers have begun stooping to a new low: Excavating the stumps of trees that have already been felled in the hopes they can make a profit from whatever’s left.
Vann Sophana, chief of the Forestry Administration’s coastal inspectorate, said there are large markets for the tree stumps in Vietnam and China, and that the trend to dig them up has begun escalating in the northern provinces of Banteay Meanchey, Siem Reap and Preah Vihear.
“Businessmen are offering high prices on the market,” he said, adding: “The market demand is a problem that could cause a forestry disaster.”
About two months ago, for example, an unknown businessman dug up the stump of a beng tree within the protected area surrounding the Angkorian-era Beng Mealea temple in Siem Reap’s Svay Leu district, area officials said.
Beng trees, which were much sought after by loggers in the 1990s, sells for more than $1,000 per cubic meter on local markets and even higher prices abroad. The stump in question was nearly four meters across at certain heights, according to Soeung Kong, deputy director-general of the Apsara Authority, which has jurisdiction over the area.
“Before, they cut the trees, and now it’s the stump for carving and selling on the market,” Soeung Kong said Sunday.
“We don’t know who did it…. It is a movement to dig luxury tree stumps because businessmen can get a high price,” he said.
Huot Pon Leu, chief of the Forestry Administration’s northern Tonle Sap inspectorate, said his department was actively trying to combat the digging up of stumps, and would seek legal redress against those who engaged in the practice.
“It is illegal to destroy tree stumps. They are useful and plants can grow up from them,” he added.
