Prime Minister Hun Sen has granted two more economic land concessions inside Virachey National Park, bringing the total number of concessions located in the park to seven.
In two sub-decrees signed on May 19, 7,079 hectares were granted to Fu Sheng Hai Cambodia for rubber and other crops in order to develop eco-tourism and create a special economic zone in Ratanakkiri province’s Taveng and Andong Meas districts. An additional 9,936 hectares were granted to Jing Zhong Tian company in Taveng.
The two awards continue the precipitous pace of privatizations within conservation areas that have since February resulted in the conversion of 1,200 square km in 10 conservation areas nationwide.
The bulk of these fall within a 500-square-kilometer economic zone along the Lao and Vietnamese borders inside the 3,300-square-kilometer national park. All told, concessions cover a total 54,725 hectares in the park.
Provincial governor Pao Ham Phan hailed the plans, saying the industry would generate job opportunities. He said that, while representatives of the two companies had not yet met with him, no villager farmland would be affected as the area was remote and unsettled, adding that the concessions would bring development to villagers.
“The companies have come up with master plans where trees can be bulldozed to plant rubber and where trees can be kept intact,” he said. As with previous concessions, the sub-decree said the area was in a “sustainable multiuse zone.”
But Pen Bonnar, provincial coordinator for Adhoc, voiced concerns that more concessions in the province would result in more protests by the local villagers worried over the decline of forest cover. “The local villagers are very worried because the trees that offer the [non-timber] byproducts will disappear,” he said.
“Granting economic land concessions one by one along with illegal forestland encroachment” is bound to affect the environment, he said. “I think the forest in this province will be gone some day.”
