Cows die en masse at Ratanakkiri plantation

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9F0_5rDabLCP_e7ejl_UBxgsrwVCYtG8FN5I4zVqfPcNJOoHCl5uWjYRtHAV5QWiujrKhcVUvqayxYKmuNS4XysTjB-_FLRkM01QHKxzobmbzXafd68YQ_0l72M-_hCAnC6hueEzof6uF/s1600/dead_bovine_in_ratanakkiri_11_05_2016_adhoc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9F0_5rDabLCP_e7ejl_UBxgsrwVCYtG8FN5I4zVqfPcNJOoHCl5uWjYRtHAV5QWiujrKhcVUvqayxYKmuNS4XysTjB-_FLRkM01QHKxzobmbzXafd68YQ_0l72M-_hCAnC6hueEzof6uF/s640/dead_bovine_in_ratanakkiri_11_05_2016_adhoc.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> A least 50 cows have died at a Vietnamese plantation in Ratanakkiri over the past several weeks, with some officials blaming food poisoning.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> The cattle came from Vietnam and belonged to Hoang Anh Andong Meas, a subsidiary of Vietnamese agricultural firm Hoang Anh Gia Lai.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Authorities, experts and locals had different estimates of the death toll. Provincial agriculture director Soy Sona said that only 50 had died, while Phan Bel, a nearby village chief said that at least 80 had died. Local villagers put the number above 300.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “The animals ate palm oil food and they died from poisoning. We don’t know whether the palm oil was sprayed with [chemical] substances,” said Sona, adding that the cows had been burned.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> However, a villager speaking on condition of anonymity said he witnessed the carcasses brought out of the company to be sold.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “I saw them transporting dead cows but we were unable to stop it,” confirmed Sre Angkrang commune chief Chhim Sokhim. Traders bought some of the carcasses, he said.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Some local villagers’ cows died during this period as well, from food and water shortages stemming from the drought. But villagers said the plantation had plenty of feed and water.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Hoang Anh Gia Lai director Nguyen Van Thu could not be reached for comment. His assistant said that he was unaware of the deaths.</div>

Cows die en masse at Ratanakkiri plantation

A least 50 cows have died at a Vietnamese plantation in Ratanakkiri over the past several weeks, with some officials blaming food poisoning. The cattle came from Vietnam and belonged to Hoang Anh And…

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This year's lightning fatalities outpace ’15

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9zQK9wZ9Ib8QjoZWZozCN8CyWqT-sndownltJuGNHDtZsr0q-_P7LdcnfpnP6EcYjJsxlsgJ3UxaZfIfnC-FCYStk_m7_bI8kQTHwNWKnJ87aOjE5d0cjtI_I-v5onkL6pNaX_qvJD7Oc/s1600/lightning_strikes_over_the_river_from_phnom_penh_09_06_2014_hong_menea_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9zQK9wZ9Ib8QjoZWZozCN8CyWqT-sndownltJuGNHDtZsr0q-_P7LdcnfpnP6EcYjJsxlsgJ3UxaZfIfnC-FCYStk_m7_bI8kQTHwNWKnJ87aOjE5d0cjtI_I-v5onkL6pNaX_qvJD7Oc/s640/lightning_strikes_over_the_river_from_phnom_penh_09_06_2014_hong_menea_0.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Storms and lightning strikes have killed more people in the first five months of this year than in the same period in 2015, an official said yesterday.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> National Committee of Disaster Management spokesman Keo Vy said the uptick did not include three people killed during lightning storms on Wednesday, which injured 12 people and damaged 620 houses in Stung Treng, Kampong Speu and Battambang provinces.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Vy said from January to the first week of May, 85 storms hit the capital and 20 provinces, killing seven people and injuring 71. At the same time, 2,433 houses were damaged, included 473 severely.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> During the five months, lightning has killed 15 people, injured 16 and left a dozen cattle dead.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “The number of deaths caused by storms has increase four-fold, while the death toll caused by lightning slightly increased,” Vy said.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Separately, since January, some 362 fires have killed 13 people and injured eight, according to the Interior Ministry’s fire department director, Net Vutha.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Vutha said 43 per cent of the fires – which damaged 601 houses and 1,220 market stalls – were caused by electrical faults, 36 per cent by careless power usage, and 20 per cent by other factors.</div>

This year's lightning fatalities outpace ’15

Storms and lightning strikes have killed more people in the first five months of this year than in the same period in 2015, an official said yesterday. National Committee of Disaster Management spoke…

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Foreigners ‘liking’ PM less

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB8qyb6dl9RsQC-b5n45RH4n4npoyjTBH3eSOZA4xdB31nGU-78L4H1D7xV3vQ74nP_2ugU17hVk-JbVsFN7YtvbFbInsIxzEDyWnC8o3TpfECV_X-pqZrnvxRc19_TDigZw9KmPg1-fwy/s1600/likes_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB8qyb6dl9RsQC-b5n45RH4n4npoyjTBH3eSOZA4xdB31nGU-78L4H1D7xV3vQ74nP_2ugU17hVk-JbVsFN7YtvbFbInsIxzEDyWnC8o3TpfECV_X-pqZrnvxRc19_TDigZw9KmPg1-fwy/s640/likes_web.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Two months after revelations that the majority of new fans to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Facebook account were coming from outside Cambodia, the page has experienced an abrupt drop in foreign “likes”.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Beginning early this year, the page of the self-proclaimed “e-premier” saw a <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/only-20-cent-pms-recent-facebook-likes-cambodia" style="border: 0px; color: #01599d; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">boost in “likes”</a>from countries such as India, Myanmar and Brazil, gaining hundreds or thousands of followers per day from each.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> But on May 7, the flow of new “likes” arriving from those countries plummeted, according to data from social media analytics site SocialBakers.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> The influx of new likes from abroad has fallen to a fraction of the prior rate, while likes from within Cambodia have remained steady.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> On some days, certain countries have registered negative growth. For example, the size of the prime minister’s Indian fanbase decreased slightly on May 8, 10 and 11, when a week prior it had been increasing by 2,000 to 3,000 likes per day.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> In March, technology and social media experts told the <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Post</em> that the flood of new followers from abroad could be evidence that the page was boosting its numbers by purchasing likes from so-called “click farms”.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Prime Minister Hun Sen and other officials have denied this suggestion, instead attributing the rapid growth to the premier’s popularity abroad.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> But the sudden halt seemingly gave those theories credence. “This is probably the best indication that the allegations were true,” said an anonymous IT expert based in the capital. “These things don’t just happen by accident.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Government spokesman Phay Siphan yesterday said he “did not know” about fake “likes” but reiterated the premier’s Facebook page was intended as a tool to hear the views Cambodians. “It is not a competition,” he said.</div>

Foreigners ‘liking’ PM less

Two months after revelations that the majority of new fans to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Facebook account were coming from outside Cambodia, the page has experienced an abrupt drop in foreign “likes”. …

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Overloaded trucks in crosshairs

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT_Hv_Uvlc1JVHskmq-gNFw_6enG4DPzGyDwLlvrQ8E-ldVvrY5aOmc5LC6970efomQu-ZxW93U4WujtZ7mijMesQfZ21A_8sEvP7nYdX2vCkD3l2A7e_oxHfMDbo2fOnBgj5qAlnhiSPk/s1600/an_overlaoded_truck_travels_down_street_217_in_phnom_penh_28_05_2015_hong_menea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT_Hv_Uvlc1JVHskmq-gNFw_6enG4DPzGyDwLlvrQ8E-ldVvrY5aOmc5LC6970efomQu-ZxW93U4WujtZ7mijMesQfZ21A_8sEvP7nYdX2vCkD3l2A7e_oxHfMDbo2fOnBgj5qAlnhiSPk/s640/an_overlaoded_truck_travels_down_street_217_in_phnom_penh_28_05_2015_hong_menea.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> <br /></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> The new minister of public works and transportation yesterday threatened to introduce tough new measures, including fines, for officials who turn a blind eye to overloaded vehicles, which he claimed caused $100 million in road damage every year.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Minister Sun Chanthol yesterday said in a meeting that fines would be introduced for scale station officials who conspired with transport companies to allow overloaded trucks to travel, but he did not stipulate the cost of the fines or elaborate on potential “administrative discipline”.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “We have to have our measures, and we cannot let them collude with one another and allow the [overloaded] vehicles to run on the road and damage 100 kilometres of road; we have to fine our officials. We will prevent this at the root,” he said.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Also in the minister’s sights were almost 2,000 repair garages that had not yet registered with the government to ensure vehicles were kept at regulation standards.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> San Chey, network fellow for Cambodia Affiliated Network for Social Accountability–EastAsia Pacific, said he welcomed the reinforcement but said the issue was “nothing new”.</div>

Overloaded trucks in crosshairs

The new minister of public works and transportation yesterday threatened to introduce tough new measures, including fines, for officials who turn a blind eye to overloaded vehicles, which he claimed …

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Massive blaze threatens Battambang bird sanctuary

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2tZFNCwPP_wKHf49jG6d9-D8K_e9eGFQV2PcWp0cXfaGAAH32Q2XWaVwLMqisws-8-20lmdsbIEOipDdRINo1KH8bUZL4hc7GaerW0UKFHDUiNYFMCC89bAFRdz7SrpO3sSAjPa65dshk/s1600/preak_toal_flooded_forest_fire_in_battambang_province_11_05_2016_alessandro_marazzi_sasson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2tZFNCwPP_wKHf49jG6d9-D8K_e9eGFQV2PcWp0cXfaGAAH32Q2XWaVwLMqisws-8-20lmdsbIEOipDdRINo1KH8bUZL4hc7GaerW0UKFHDUiNYFMCC89bAFRdz7SrpO3sSAjPa65dshk/s640/preak_toal_flooded_forest_fire_in_battambang_province_11_05_2016_alessandro_marazzi_sasson.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Twenty six men armed with plastic jugs and three hoses drawing water from the Sangke River are all that stand between what’s left of the Prek Toal bird sanctuary, and a fire that has already destroyed more than 5,000 hectares of flooded forest.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Prek Toal forms the “core area” of the Tonle Sap biosphere, an area some experts have called the single most important breeding ground for water fowl in Southeast Asia.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “In 16 years of patrolling, I have never seen a fire like this,” said one Environment Ministry ranger who declined to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the press. The men, who have been divided into three teams, are trying to contain a fast-moving fire on difficult terrain.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Suspected negligence started the fire in early April and it has since spread across the wetlands thanks to exceptionally dry conditions related to the El Niño-induced drought, climate change and yet-to-be-understood changes of the Tonle Sap flood cycle.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> For the past 10 days, the conflagration has come within hundreds of metres of Prek Toal village, and on Wednesday, a column of smoke loomed over the floating settlement.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Variable winds that changed direction by the hour meant the group of rangers and volunteer villagers, none of whom had protective clothing, were constantly outmanoeuvred.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Read: Scenes from a drought</strong></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “It is very difficult to fight this fire because it burns the peat underground,” the ranger continued, explaining that the very surface they stood on was fuelling the conflagration. The burned ground now presented an added obstacle, as it was liable to give way. The amateur fire fighters could only tread on ground that had been dampened and tested first.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “We cannot run fast,” he said.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Still-smouldering patches dotted the charred earth, while about a hundred metres away, flames consumed trees that during the wet season would be half submerged. The men hurried across the hot ash to dump water wherever smoke rose from the ground, as the burning peat could potentially kindle fires in new directions.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> At one point, a connection in the hose came apart. For a few minutes, the team was in disarray as one man equipped with a screwdriver and circular clamps sprang into action, binding the tubing back together.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> </div> <div class="node-image full-width" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> <a class="shadow-box-item" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/sites/default/files/styles/full-screen_watermarked/public/2preak_toal_flooded_forest_fire_in_battambang_province_11_05_2016_alessandro_marazzi_sasson.jpg?itok=6FCyRg1-" rel="shadowbox" style="border: 0px; color: #01599d; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="A man carries a container of water toward a fire in Battambang’s Prek Toal village earlier this week in a desperate effort to control the blaze. Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon"><img alt="A man carries a container of water toward a fire in Battambang’s Prek Toal village earlier this week in a desperate effort to control the blaze. " height="364" itemprop="contentURL" src="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/sites/default/files/styles/content_full_width/public/2preak_toal_flooded_forest_fire_in_battambang_province_11_05_2016_alessandro_marazzi_sasson.jpg?itok=wUdSORGa" style="border: 0px; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; width: 546.5px;" title="A man carries a container of water toward a fire in Battambang’s Prek Toal village earlier this week in a desperate effort to control the blaze. Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon" typeof="foaf:Image" width="546" /></a><div class="node-image-caption" itemprop="description" style="background: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: white; height: auto; line-height: 18px; margin: 6px 0px 0px; padding: 7px 0px; width: 546.5px;"> <div class="node-image-caption-inner" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 12px;"> A man carries a container of water toward a fire in Battambang’s Prek Toal village earlier this week in a desperate effort to control the blaze. <a class="photographer" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/author/alessandro-marazzi-sassoon/80153" style="border: 0px; color: white; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span class="icomoon photo" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; font-family: icomoon_ppp; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></span>Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon</a></div> </div> </div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Meanwhile, Prek Toal core area director Long Kheng was in Phnom Penh on Wednesday reporting to officials the situation on the ground and collecting salaries for the rangers and the villagers who volunteered to fight the fires.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “A lot of forest was burned outside the core area,” Kheng said in a phone interview, adding that there was no estimate yet available on how much fire damage the Tonle Sap biosphere suffered as a whole.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “Inside the core area, at least 25 per cent of the flooded forest area’s total area [21,342 hectares] was burned,” he claimed. Kheng said that he was also appealing to UNESCO for support.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “We will have to plan to assess the impact of the fire, and we have to have a forest fire response management plan for the Tonle Sap [area], which is different from the uplands,” he said.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “The forest fire affects the local community’s livelihoods; it’s the habitat of the water birds and other wildlife, but it’s also important for the fish, and if there’s no flooded forest . . . the fishermen will not find food, you know? Their livelihood will also be impacted.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “Prek Toal is the heart of the Tonle Sap; it supports the fish stock in the Tonle Sap lake. If there’s no forest, the fish stock will decline,” Kheng continued. The UNFAO predicts a 17 per cent drop in fish production this year due to El Niño.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “The international community and the Cambodian government should pay more attention,” Kheng said.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Independent researcher Veerachai Tanpipat, in an email late last month, said findings “showed that fire activities in the region are still going on, which is not normal, as forest fire season usually should be over by now”.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Meanwhile, experts from ASEAN nations are set to discuss the region’s fire concerns later this month at a meeting organised by the Thai Royal Forestry Department and the Korean Forest Service.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “We hope, we will talk more about how to find ways to work together in order to get forest fires in this region under control again,” Tanpipat said on Tuesday.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Back in Prek Toal, the forest ranger’s short-term assessment was grim.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “We can’t control the fire”.</div>

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Massive blaze threatens Battambang bird sanctuary

Twenty six men armed with plastic jugs and three hoses drawing water from the Sangke River are all that stand between what’s left of the Prek Toal bird sanctuary, and a fire that has already destroye…

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Irrawaddy dolphin’s body tangled in illegal nets

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlZ0q4Ok36uh_DUtVea4cke93hdDuqx7yRgiHa-nSsM1KFMPDVxhgARXd8GCV_8l0jDFVKBaEyDChgzcllP9y-nzrY3DLpa9Z-NCmjHw6dlsjKUJ-A-65aCtv_Z97metb2mKaZ_AYVwDQ2/s1600/dolphin_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlZ0q4Ok36uh_DUtVea4cke93hdDuqx7yRgiHa-nSsM1KFMPDVxhgARXd8GCV_8l0jDFVKBaEyDChgzcllP9y-nzrY3DLpa9Z-NCmjHw6dlsjKUJ-A-65aCtv_Z97metb2mKaZ_AYVwDQ2/s640/dolphin_0.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> A vulnerable Irrawaddy dolphin was found dead in Kratie’s Sambor district on Tuesday after being caught in fishermen’s illegal gill nets, authorities and environmental watchdogs said.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> ‘‘I think this dolphin may have been dead for three or four days – its body was swollen and rotten, and its tail was tangled in nets,’’ said Seang Sokhim, a guard for the Koh Pdav natural dolphin pool.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Emma Fry, a communication assistant with the World Wildlife Fund, said the female dolphin was 183 centimetres long and weighed 80 kilograms.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> This is the first time that locals saw a dolphin succumb to illegal fishing equipment, according to Sokhim.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> However, communities in Stung Treng and Kratie have been aware of gill nets’ threat to dolphin populations for a long time, according to experts from WWF and environmental group MLUP Baitong.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Dolphins entangled in the nets usually die because they can’t come up for air, they said</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> WWF country director Chhith Sam Ath said yesterday last year’s survey found only 80 dolphins in Kratie and Stung Treng. Nine dolphins died over the course of 2015. So far, two have died this year.</div>

Irrawaddy dolphin’s body tangled in illegal nets

A vulnerable Irrawaddy dolphin was found dead in Kratie’s Sambor district on Tuesday after being caught in fishermen’s illegal gill nets, authorities and environmental watchdogs said. ‘‘I think this …

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