Prime Minister Hun Sen Monday railed against a group of logging companies that have said they plan to defy a government order placing a temporary moratorium on logging concessions.
“If the logging companies do not abide by the order, we will remove their license,” he said in a speech at the opening of a road project in Kampot province.
“If you dare to [disobey the order] and if I do not then remove your forest concession and close your factory, I will cut my own head off,” Hun Sen vowed.
Lawyer David Chaniawa, representing six major logging concessionaires, said on Sunday the government was breaching the companies’ 30-year contracts by issuing the moratorium. Chaniawa said Monday the companies would obey the order until they can negotiate new contracts with the government.
An official with logging concessionaire Mieng Ly Heng, one of the six companies Chaniawa represents, said Monday that his company planned to cooperate with the moratorium rather than risk retribution by defying it.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said his company is already preparing the impact studies requested by the government.
Chaniawa said Monday that he sent a letter to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries asking officials to negotiate new contracts with the companies rather than simply calling a halt to their old ones.
Hun Sen said Monday that the moratorium is necessary so the government can study the logging concessions and insure that they are not causing environmental or socioeconomic damage. Once the concessions are studied, the companies will be allowed to log again.
“It is better to suffer briefly than to suffer a long time,” Hun Sen said. “It is better to have no logging now than later, when there are no trees left.”
The prime minister also attacked logging companies for overloading their trucks and ruining Cambodia’s roads. “There is a small group of transport companies that do not think of the long-term interests of the people,” he said. “If this continues, we can’t build enough roads for the people, as the big transport companies will destroy them all.”
Hun Sen said he had seen recent photos of trucks crossing a Japanese-funded bridge in Kompong Cham province, weighed down with six or seven logs each. He told authorities to crack down on the companies.
“We will shut down all transport companies that overload their trucks. If they do not obey the warning, we will remove their licenses,” he said.
In August, Hun Sen blamed the collapse of a bridge on National Route 6 on logging companies. He said overloaded trucks weakened the bridge and enabled floods to sweep it away.
In Monday’s speech, Hun Sen repeated his threats to take away the land concessions of companies that overload their trucks.
“This is the message I send to all logging companies: If they do not respect the order, they will face destruction,” he said. “Do not think that the prime minister or the government will give up—we will not. We will close the logging [concessions] because they will destroy the forests, roads and bridges.”
Ty Sokhun, director of the Forestry Department for the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said the ministry likewise had no plans to back down. “The government is doing the right thing with this forestry reform,” he said. “We will move forward without stopping.”
The moratorium is necessary to ensure sustainable forest management in the long term, said Ty Sokhun. “We are the forest defenders…and we must answer to history,” he said.
According to the UK-based environmental watchdog group Global Witness, logging generated $92 million for Cambodia between 1994 and 2000. But in 2000 alone, floods caused in part by deforestation cost the country $156 million.
Logging went virtually unchecked during most of the 1990s until donors demanded the industry be regulated.
“Foreign logging companies have been plundering Cambodia for years, with the collusion of corrupt officials and politicians, and at the expense of the country and its people,” said Global Witness’ spokeswoman Rosie Sharpe. “They perform a charade of negotiation whilst at the same time logging as fast as they can.”
