PU TROM, Cambodia — The quiet life that Sambo leads today seems as distant from her past plight as the searing-hot streets she once trod as a tourist attraction in the far-off capital of Phnom Penh.

“Elephants are not meant to walk on concrete,” says Jemma Bullock, deputy director at the Elephant Livelihood Initiative Environment and the Elephant Valley Project (EVP) near the community of Pu Trom in eastern Cambodia.

Sambo is one of 12 elephants currently residing at the EVP site in a blanket of forest draped over a scuttle of hills and valleys in Mondulkiri province. All but one of them have followed similar trajectories to this place. Aging and in many ways made obsolete by the mechanized world, these elephants have found solace living out their days wandering around the forest.

Jack Highwood, a British archaeology student-turned-elephant mahout, and Chhaeul Plouk, a member of the local Bunong Indigenous community whose family had kept elephants for generations, started the project in 2006 and began taking in elephants in 2007. The project sits on titled land leased from families living in the nearby villages of Pu Trom.

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A two-lane dirt road truncates the northeastern tree line of Phnom Tamao Forest, marking the start of a housing complex on private land bordering the protected area.

Dozens of boundary markers cemented underneath the tree canopies of the forest indicate the plans for land exchange deals that would clear the way for development within the protected area itself.

Phnom Tamao, originally believed to be protected, is now threatened by shadowy construction plans, according to conservationists who worry for the future of a rescue centre and endangered wildlife in the sanctuary forest. Additionally, the privatisation of a protected area so close to Phnom Penh could indicate increased danger for Cambodia’s protected forests beyond the watch of environmental groups.

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An Asian elephant supports itself on one leg, completely submerged in garish electric-blue water, while a keeper tugs painfully at its ear. The photograph shows bubbles rising from its trunk as it offers a stick of sugarcane toward a crowd of onlookers on the other side of the glass tank, enthralled by the performance. In contrast, the elephant stares blankly ahead.

The scene, captured by photojournalist Adam Oswell at Khao Kiew Zoo in Thailand, is representative of how animals are held captive for human entertainment at venues all over the world. “To me, the image is a powerful metaphor of our global relationship with animals and nature, showing just how exploitative and manufactured it can be,” Oswell tells Mongabay.

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Myanmar’s military junta exported more than $37 million worth of timber to nations with active sanctions on the country’s state-run timber monopoly, according to the environmental advocacy group Forest Trends. In a report released yesterday, the U.S.-based organization examined the impact of sanctions imposed since the military’s seizure of power in February 2021, arguing that much more needs to be done to choke off the junta’s ability to profit from sales of timber and other natural resources.

Since the coup, Western powers including the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, and Canada, have imposed several rounds of economic sanctions on the junta’s leading members. They have also targeted military-controlled enterprises that allow the regime to collect revenue from sectors such as mining, forestry, and oil and gas – all of which have become more vital for the regime as it has become isolated from the West.

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The trafficking of illicit timber has hit the forested, tropical countries around the Mekong River Delta hard in recent years. Regulations and laws in places like the European Union and the United States, as well as from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), have sought to decouple trade from the illegal harvest of timber. But the situation has created a complex and at times confusing working environment for customs, law enforcement and forestry officers.

In late October, more than 100 of these officials from half a dozen countries in and around the Lower Mekong region met online to bolster their skills in timber identification. The aim of the CITES-led workshop was to give them the tools to root out illegal shipments of timber and wood products into and out of their countries.

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The People’s Committee of southern Ben Tre province has issued a plan to carry out a project on coastal forest protection and development in adaptation with climate change and green growth promotion for the 2021-2030 period.

Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Minh Canh said the plan aims to sustainably manage, protect and use 4,368ha of coastal forests while effectively promoting their role and function in environmental protection, biodiversity preservation, contributing to socio-economic development, national defence-security in coastal areas, and disaster mitigation.

The province also looks to increase forest coverage to 2 percent by 2025 from 1.77 percent in 2020.

During 2021-2025, Ben Tre will plant 416ha of new forests and replant 453ha to achieve a forest coverage of 2 percent. Later from 2026 to 2030, the province will plant 60ha of new forests, replant 363ha after exploitation, restore 10ha and gain a forest coverage of 2.1 percent.

To such end, the province will embark on aquaculture models in mangrove forests, pool the involvement of enterprises in forest plantation and livelihood models based on environment services, and strictly deal with violations regarding forests and forestry land.

It will also raise public awareness of the role of coastal forests in climate change response, as well as legal regulations in forest protection and management.

Ben Tre is now home to over 4,300ha of forests, mostly mangrove forests in the coastal districts of Thanh Phu, Ba Tri and Binh Dai./.

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THE mangroves in Cai Gio District hold a deep, dark secret. They are the only ones to have recovered from chemical warfare.

Formed in the large delta at the estuaries of three rivers – Dong Nai, Sai Gon and Vam Co – the Can Gio mangroves were almost completely destroyed during the Vietnam War by more than 4.5 million litres of the herbicide known as Agent Orange used mostly by the United States military.

More than half of the trees were destroyed. What was once a vast green forest turned into a desolate zone when the war ended.

Today, the Can Gio mangrove forest accounts for 97% of the total forest area of Ho Chi Minh City, a bustling metropolis with nine million people. The mangrove forest, just more than 50km away from the hustle and bustle of Vietnam’s largest city, not only serves as a shield against storms but also protects the capital against coastal erosion.

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USAID Greening Prey Lang (GPL), Cambodia has decided to shift financial support from monthly patrol stipends to a ‘one-time small grant package’ for institutional and technical capacity improvements to protect forests.

The small grant will be handed out to 56 Community-Based Organisations (CBOs) in Preah Vihear, Kratie, Kampong Thom, and Stung Treng between 12 to 18 months for natural resource protection.

USAID GPL has been working to assess 56 CBOs in the Prey Lang Extended Landscape in preparation for providing small support grants.

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An illegal company that was not identified was stopped by authorities from filling in a protected flooded forest area in Banteay Meanchey province.

Some villagers in Preah Netr Preah district’s Rohal commune said that in less than one year, 300 hectares were cleared and filled and accused authorities of conspiring with the company while others are just happy the company was stopped.

Sok Rithy, a district resident, said many families are worried that they cannot catch fish like they used to but the fact that the authorities stopped the company makes him happy. 

Preah Netr Preah district governor Khun Pao told Khmer Times yesterday there was no conspiracy.

“I care (about the people in my district) and solved the problem. I went to the location last week to stop the land clearing by the illegal company because they did not have an official licence,” he said.

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