Memories of a land unspoiled

The constant hum of chainsaws almost drowned out Buddhist monk Sam Kim Sath, 65, as he stood this week in a wildlife sanctuary on Oral Mountain, Cambodias highest peak.

Forest in the Phnom Oral Wildlife Sanctuary, in the eastern part of the Cardamoms, is being obliterated by systematic logging, Kim Sath said while men in homemade tractors drove piles of timber out of the sanctuary without hindrance.

Kim Sath has lived in this area since childhood, days when a vast array of creatures roamed what was much thicker forest.

The animals that remain, including a small number of elephants and tigers, are being driven further up the mountain by land clearing and are in danger of being lost altogether, Kim Sath said.

Whenever I go here now, I see open space the natural greenery is gone, he said. I almost shed tears at what has been lost in the past few years.

A royal decree issued by the late King Norodom Sihanouk in the 1990s once protected the area, which stretches across parts of Kampong Speu province into Pursat.

In the past five years or so, vast chunks of the sanctuary have been carved up by companies, including some with obvious links to the government.

According to past editions of Cambodias Royal Book, the HLH Agriculture company, controlled by Prime Minister Hun Sens sister Hun Seng Ny, holds an economic land concession (ELC) in the area.

The Phnom Penh Sugar Company and the Kampong Speu Sugar Company, both owned by ruling party senator and tycoon Ly Yong Phat, also possess thousands of hectares of land.

Timber felled inside those ELCs, so the companies can cultivate corn and sugar, ends up with firms owned by logging tycoon Try Pheap, Kim Sath and others, villagers alleged.

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Memories of a land unspoiled