Cambodian National Park sold off

Farmers from the Cham muslim ethnic minority in Phum Thmey commune in Cambodia's Botum Sakor national park, explain how authorities have burnt their neighbours houses and intimidated them to leave.

Botum Sakor national park is one of Cambodia’s biodiversity hotspots, where indigenous tribes have long lived in harmony with the forest and its wildlife, writes Rod Harbinson. But now they are being violently evicted as the park is being sold off piecemeal to developers for logging, plantations, casinos and hotels. Now local communities are defending themselves and their land.

Cambodia – a country built on sand?

Sand-dredging is big business, especially in Asia, where demand has sky-rocketed thanks to the booming construction industry. Rod Harbinson reports from Cambodia on an extractive industry that is mired in corruption and scandal, and meets some of those on the frontline of the fight against it.


Published by New Internationalist