Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association

Villagers Camp Out, Patrol Forest Being Cleared by Soldiers

Villagers set up tents to guard disputed forest in Kampong Speu province’s Oral district. Photo taken on January 17, 2022. CamboJA/ Sorn Sarath
Villagers set up tents to guard disputed forest in Kampong Speu province’s Oral district. Photo taken on January 17, 2022. CamboJA/ Sorn Sarath

Kampong Speu—Oral district: The local villagers turned environmental activists who’ve pitched tents at the foot of Oral mountain are not giving up. Working in shifts, some 20 men patrol the area day and night to try and prevent soldiers from clearing the forest.

What was originally about 2,000 hectares of forest has been reduced to around 800, villagers say, with trees being cut down by soldiers who’ve been given the now privatized land.

Along a red dirt road, villagers have set up a makeshift campsite with tents, hammocks, and enough food to keep them going. Among them is 31-year-old Lork Sokly, who told visiting CamboJA reporters that while the group had managed to get rid of a bulldozer in the area, soldiers were still sneaking in to cut down trees.

“A bulldozer cleared about five hectares in the north and west areas,” he said, adding that his group patrols the forest twice a day, with each patrol a three to four hour walk.

“We are camping out because we love the forest and if it goes, we have a lot to lose,” he said, explaining that three separate villages use the community forest for collecting firewood, mushrooms and plants, and herding their cows and buffalo.

“There is only community forest left where we can feed cows because the other areas around are private land concessions,” said the father of three young children.

“We are struggling [to protect the forest] for the next generation,” said another villager, Chhoun Soum, adding that they also want to protect the wildlife in the forest including monkeys and peacocks.

A woman prepares to cook food for villagers guarding community land in Kampong Speu province’s Oral district. Photo taken on January 17, 2022. CamboJA/ Sorn Sarath

Another member of the patrol group, Soy Sat, is also determined to conserve the forest, despite being 70 years old.

“I don’t care if I’m handcuffed or thrown in prison, I will endure,” Mr. Sat said. “They will sneak in to cut down trees unless we patrol every day and stop them.”

He thinks the government’s explanation that the land was privatized to give to soldiers’ families was just a pretext, as of the 16 soldiers who received plots allocated for them, only two remain on the land, while others have left or sold off the land to private companies. 

He called on Prime Minister Hun Sen to revoke the land privatization and keep the community forest for local villagers.

“What I am demanding is not land for individual people but common property,” Mr. Sat said.

In August, the government issued a sub-decree that privatized 262.24 hectares of forest land near Pormeas village in Oral district’s Trapaing Chor commune. It said the land was for members of the army to build houses and farm.

Scores of villagers protested against the move in November when a group of soldiers from the Command Tank Unit came to demarcate the land boundary and started clearing it with a bulldozer. Following the protest, six villagers were summoned for questioning.

Villagers protest against soldiers over land clearance in Kampong Speu province’s  Oral district on November 23, 2021. Photo supplied.

An official forest ranger, who declined to be named, told CamboJA that he is not authorized to prevent soldiers from clearing the land because it has been privatized and what they’re doing is not illegal.

“The important thing is that the Samdech [Hun Sen] has signed [a sub-decree],” and an environment impact assessment was done, he said. He added that privatising Oral Wildlife Sanctuary as “state land” hasn’t affected the community forest which is claimed by villagers.

Pormeas village chief, Pork Chum, echoed the ranger, saying  there are still some 800 hectares of community forest land that were excluded from the privatized area.

“I think the villagers are wrong because they [soldiers] are legally permitted to be there,” Mr. Chum said.  “At my level I can’t resolve the issue because it was a land sub-degree.”

A tent abandoned by soldiers after villagers protested against them in a disputed area in Kampong Speu province’s Oral district. Photo taken on January 17, 2022. CamboJA/ Khuon Narim

Trapaing Chor commune chief Tep Nem concurred saying that the villagers pitching tents are “land activists” who oppose government development.

“Some villagers are land activists, who have protested to demand land in Thpong and Phnom Srouch districts as well, and other villagers easily trust these instigators,” he said.

He said that soldiers will move forward with land clearance because they have legal permits from the government and the area that will remain community forest and state land within Oral Wildlife Sanctuary has already been decided.

For his part, Kampong Speu Governor Vei Samnang said that the villagers camping out are opposing government development and occupying state land.

“It is not a community forest. As you know when did villagers live in this area? it was a battlefield area” under the Khmer Rouge, he said.

A villager sits in his hamock on a break from patrolling community land in Kampong Speu province’s Oral district. Photo taken on January 17, 2022. CamboJA/ Sorn Sarath

However, Heng Kimhong, research and advocacy program manager at the Cambodian Youth Network, expressed disappointment in what he said is the government continuing to destroy the country’s forests by privatizing land.

Mr. Kimhong pointed to the fact that in the past, two major private companies — HLH agriculture and Phnom Penh Sugar, owned by tycoon Ly Yong Phat — received huge economic land concessions in Oral.

“It’s not transparent to privatize land without consulting local villagers, or punishing them for wanting to protect natural resources,” he said.

Mao Phalla, a spokesman of the Royal Cambodian Army, declined to comment on the soldiers’ concessions and referred the question to Thong Solimo, spokesman for RCAF’s High Command Headquarters. Mr. Solimo referred the question back to Mr. Phalla.

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