The Forestry Administration is following the government’s policy by actively hunting down and destroying logging operations, Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun wrote in a letter to the National Assembly last week.
In the Aug 10 letter, the minister wrote that the Forestry Administration is following the government’s policy on illegal logging and has scored successes against illegal logging operations.
In addition, environmental NGO Global Witness’ most recent report alleging top officials are involved in illegal logging in the Aural Wildlife Sanctuary in Kompong Speu province is wrong, Chan Sarun wrote to National Assembly Secretary-General Kim San.
“For the first five months of the year, the Forestry Administration at all levels has cracked down on forestry and wildlife offenses,” he wrote.
He said 540 logs had been seized, 48 sawmills and 15 wood processing plants destroyed and 75 people arrested and sent to the court.
“Due to the above result, it shows that the crackdown at all levels is still continuing with the government policy, not as some newspapers have published,” Chan Sarun added.
The biggest operation was a crackdown in Aural Wildlife Sanctuary in March in which 63 RCAF soldiers dropped out of two helicopters and destroyed numerous sawmills and other equipment, Chan Sarun wrote.
The raid was prompted by a complaint from RCAF Joint Chief of Staff General Meas Sophea about anarchic logging in Kompong Speu. Three forestry officials and three police officers were transferred “for not fulfilling their duties,” the letter said. No arrests were made.
In November, Global Witness released a report focusing on logging operations within the sanctuary, implicating top officials including military, police and forestry administration officials working in the area.
Since February, 20,000 copies of a Global Witness report have not been allowed through customs at Phnom Penh International Airport under orders from Information Minister Khieu Kanharith who said the government wasn’t given a chance to respond and that the information is already available on the Internet.
Mike Davis of Global Witness said despite Chan Sarun’s positive message, there is little indication that any real action has been taken to crack down on illegal logging by going after those officials behind the operations.
“It sounds like they’re not claiming any major breakthrough on prosecution, rather this is a superficial form of law enforcement,” he said Sunday.
“We don’t see any signs [of the illegal logging industry] changing anywhere at all around the country,” he said.