A Cambodian tycoon infamous for his affiliation with unlawful logging has expanded his grip over the nation’s largest nationwide park, with a swath of forest awarded to his son’s rubber firm.This provides Ly Yong Phat, a ruling social gathering senator, and his members of the family efficient management of tens of hundreds of hectares of land inside Botum Sakor National Park.The carving up of the park, awarded in parcels to politically linked tycoons, has led to widespread deforestation that’s pushed each folks and wildlife out of Botum Sakor.Longtime residents evicted by Ly Yong Phat’s varied operations within the park have protested to demand their land again, however to no avail, with many even being jailed for his or her activism.
BOTUM SAKOR, Cambodia — Once Cambodia’s largest nationwide park, Botum Sakor has shriveled below the gaze of tycoons, whose parcels of land have swallowed up greater than 80% of the complete park since 1998.
This land rush has seen a 28% lower in forest throughout the 182,342-hectare (450,577-acre) park between 2001 and 2022. According to Global Forest Watch, some 45,600 hectares (112,700 acres) of tree cowl vanished throughout these 21 years, as tycoons and political allies of longtime Prime Minister Hun Sen carved up the coastal protected space in Cambodia’s southwestern Koh Kong province.
Key amongst these political allies is Ly Yong Phat, a multimillionaire Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) senator, an adviser to Hun Sen, and president of the Oknha Association — a union for Cambodia’s many tycoons, or Oknha — who has been awarded 16,275 hectares (40,216 acres) of Botum Sakor National Park since 2008.
The senator has acquired tens of hundreds of hectares of land throughout Koh Kong and Kampong Speu provinces, largely for plantations operated by firms run by his spouse, Kim Heang, and their 5 kids.
In January this 12 months, one other concession handed a 6,234-hectare (15,405-acre) plot of Botum Sakor to an organization the place Ly Phoonrat, the youngest son of the senator, serves as a director.
In whole, three new roads spanning some 45 kilometers have been lower by means of the best-preserved a part of Botum Sakor National Park. All three roads hyperlink to concessions owned by Ly Yong Phat, a ruling social gathering senator and Cambodian tycoon with a protracted historical past of unlawful logging. At least two of the three roads function demarcation boundaries for a brand new concession awarded to the senator’s son, Ly Phoonrat. Photo by Gerald Flynn/Mongabay.
King of Koh Kong
A leaked U.S. diplomatic cable from 2007 dubbed Ly Yong Phat “the king of Koh Kong”; within the wake of his takeover of the coastal province, which he was particularly tasked with creating by Hun Sen, the growth of the senator’s huge enterprise empire has seen forests throughout the Cardamom Mountains soften away.
These shut relations with the Hun household gave him virtually unique entry to pure sources equivalent to timber, sand and land in a province that they had been, at the least as soon as upon a time, in abundance.
This, mixed with Ly Yong Phat’s Thai-Khmer heritage which has earned him allies throughout Koh Kong, has given Ly Yong Phat a fearsome repute amongst residents in Botum Sakor National Park who’ve stated they concern tycoons “the identical approach they [do] tigers.”
There aren’t any tigers left in Botum Sakor now, solely tycoons. But to each residents and the nationwide park, the tycoons are arguably extra harmful.
Few tycoons have such a repute for pressured evictions or environmental vandalism as Ly Yong Phat; a lot of the senator’s wealth is reportedly earned by means of his ties to the illicit timber commerce and thru plantations that pressured villagers from their land.
Since Ly Yong Phat was granted his first 12,178-hectare (30,092-acre) concession inside Botum Sakor on Sept. 5, 2008, the senator set about incomes his repute as a prolific logger.
Between 2008 and 2022, Global Forest Watch reveals that the nationwide park misplaced some 37,100 hectares (91,700 acres) of forest cowl. While it might be inconceivable to find out how a lot of this was the handiwork of Ly Yong Phat or those that labored for him, the logs neatly stacked up by the senator inside his Kiri Sakor Special Economic Zone in Botum Sakor numbered so many who they’re simply seen in Google Earth satellite tv for pc imagery from 2012.
Two years prior, on April 13, 2010, Ly Yong Phat’s eponymous LYP Group obtained one other 4,097-hectare (10,124-acre) concession that adjoined onto the Kiri Sakor SEZ, however no categorical function or plan for the event of the land was made public previous to it being declassified from protected forest — nor was any environmental influence evaluation.
Google Earth imagery from Dec. 28, 2012 reveals rows of logs stacked up inside LYP Group’s concession in Botum Sakor National Park. Image by Gerald Flynn/Mongabay.
Path to a dynasty lower by means of Botum Sakor’s final pocket of forest
In latest months, Ly Yong Phat’s concessions have begun to increase as soon as extra. In early December 2022, roads main on to the 4,097-hectare LYP Group concession had been lower by means of what’s arguably the final, finest patch of forest in Botum Sakor.
By the beginning of May 2023, three new roads totaling some 45 kilometers (28 miles) linked Ly Yong Phat’s concession within the north of the nationwide park to Union Road, a paved four-lane freeway that cuts by means of everything of Botum Sakor National Park, connecting it to the remainder of Koh Kong province.
The most jap of the 2 roads coming from inside Ly Yong Phat’s concession has since been revealed as demarcation borders that carve out the 6,234-hectare concession awarded in January, based on a newly launched Jan. 11, 2023, subdecree that degazetted the protected land and awarded it to Koh Kong Rubber, regardless of a 2012 moratorium on new concessions being issued.
This timelapse, made with satellite tv for pc imagery offered by Planet Labs Inc., reveals how the brand new roads had been lower by means of Botum Sakor earlier than Koh Kong Rubber’s concession had been authorized. Image by Gerald Flynn/Mongabay.
A predominantly Thai-run agency, Koh Kong Rubber has operated in Cambodia for nearly 12 years. One of the administrators listed for the corporate is Ly Phoonrat, the youngest son of Ly Yong Phat. At the age of 33, Phoonrat was given the distinguishing title of Oknha, which means tycoon, in July 2022, however has seemingly been groomed, together with Ly Yong Phat’s different kids, to step into his father’s footwear as Cambodia seems to be set to witness a generational switch of energy among the many ruling elite.
Beyond Koh Kong Rubber, which was included in November 2011, when Phoonrat was simply 22, the senator’s youngest son has largely been concerned in household ventures, barring one notably outstanding firm the place Phoonrat is listed as a director: Electricity Private Co. Ltd. C.E.P.
Phoonrat’s fellow administrators at Electricity Private embody Hun Sen’s two daughters, Hun Maly and Hun Mana — who each run highly effective actual property empires — and Hun Sen’s second son, Hun Manith, Cambodia’s army intelligence chief.
The Hun and Ly households are exceptionally highly effective in Cambodia and are intertwined by enterprise, political and army ties. These shut connections have allowed Ly Yong Phat’s environmental vandalism in Koh Kong province to go unchecked. Image by Gerald Flynn/Mongabay.
Like father, like son
Neither Koh Kong Rubber nor Phoonrat might be reached for remark at press time, however safety guards on the finish of the brand new roads that connect with Ly Yong Phat’s concession — and that border his son’s new concession — stated they knew little concerning the roads’ function.
“I’m working right here as a guard. There are officers from the setting ministry additional down the street,” stated one man working a makeshift safety checkpoint consisting of a big stick.
“They don’t enable anybody to go down this street,” stated the person, who declined to offer his title. “It goes to the concession for [Ly Yong Phat’s] sugar firm. The firm constructed the street earlier this 12 months. If you need to go there to see it, you’ll have to get permission from the rangers.”
The hiring of presidency rangers, army police and even troopers from the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) is a standard phenomenon amongst Cambodia’s tycoons. But in Koh Kong province, Ly Yong Phat has enmeshed himself with each the political and army elite — all bonded by a shared Thai heritage — and is broadly believed to retain RCAF personnel as guards for his investments, regardless of the Cambodian authorities outlawing the follow someday round 2016.
The checkpoint at first of 1 newly constructed street that additionally serves as a border for Koh Kong Rubber’s new concession. Photo by Gerald Flynn/Mongabay.
Some 18 km (11 mi) south, the place one other street coming from Ly Yong Phat’s concession meets Union Road, one other man who claimed to work for the tycoon stated the street wasn’t accessible as a result of it wasn’t completed.
“It’s simply 2 kilometers [1.2 mi] lengthy to date,” the person stated. “It’s being constructed by an organization for the time being, so if you wish to go to the corporate’s concession in Botum Sakor, you possibly can’t go this fashion.”
The man declined to reply questions when introduced with satellite tv for pc imagery that confirmed the street actually runs roughly 25 km (16 mi), largely by means of verdant jungle.
Emailed inquiries to LYP Group went unanswered and calls to cellphone numbers listed by the Ministry of Commerce as registered to the tycoon’s eponymous firm both didn’t join or weren’t answered.
One of the three new roads carved by means of Botum Sakor’s final pocket of intact forest hyperlinks as much as Union Road, a paved freeway that runs by means of the entire park. Photo by Gerald Flynn/Mongabay.
A decade of protesting Ly Yong Phat
Despite the huge swaths of land that Ly Yong Phat’s enterprise empire has taken from the Cardamoms, the guarantees of jobs for native communities, worldwide commerce and funding in primary facilities that concessionaires have made have largely did not materialize.
“[With] Oknha Ly Yong Phat’s improvement tasks [it’s] seen that [he] all the time abuses human rights and impacts the setting and pure sources,” stated San Mala, an environmental activist who was imprisoned in 2015 for 10 months and 15 days after being concerned in protests towards sand mining operations in Koh Kong, together with these owned by Ly Yong Phat.
“He’s a businessman who topics the residents of Koh Kong to many various impacts attributable to his improvement tasks,” Mala added.
Those who had misplaced their properties to Ly Yong Phat’s sprawling enterprise empire took their grievances to the Ministry of Land Management in Phnom Penh on April 6, 2023.
On April 6, an estimated 240 households who had been affected by Ly Yong Phat’s concessions in Koh Kong and Kampong Speu provinces protested exterior the Land Management Ministry in Phnom Penh to demand the tycoon return their land or provide compensation for taking it. Photo by Gerald Flynn/Mongabay.
Hun Khon, 56, was born in Botum Sakor National Park and lived there his complete life.
“The village chief and the commune chief got here to inform me I wanted to maneuver off my farm. The previous land that we lived on was cleared by Ly Yong Phat’s firm in 2006,” Khon stated. “The native officers, they advised us we’d get a big plot of land to farm, however they lied to us, we by no means bought any compensation — my spouse and my 9 kids.”
According to Khon, some 7,000 households had been affected by Ly Yong Phat’s sugarcane plantations, which span throughout Koh Kong and Kampong Speu provinces and have been implicated in gross human rights abuses. But Khon represented simply one of many 243 households who had are available from throughout the Cardamoms to protest land misplaced.
This was not their first protest, however with yearly that handed, hope of a decision from the federal government — which has largely ignored his petitions and protests, Khon added — was working out.
“We misplaced our land, we’d like it for farming, for our kids, so we got here to Phnom Penh to discover a answer,” he stated. “Nothing will get carried out, although. All I need is my land again. We’ve seen that Ly Yong Phat stopped rising sugarcane 5 or 6 years in the past. We used to work for him after he took our land, however now now we have no jobs and no land.”
Chuntey Sreykhan, 36, stated she had left house at 5 a.m. to take part within the protest, noting that that they had made the identical journey on March 29 to ship their petition to the ministry and that April 6 was the date that officers advised them to return to see the outcomes.
“We haven’t any hope left, however we simply have to attend,” she stated, whereas plainclothes law enforcement officials took images of her speaking to reporters. “I can’t rely the variety of occasions now we have come right here to protest, however nonetheless they [the government] can’t discover a answer for us.”
Since dropping her land to Ly Yong Phat in 2006, Sreykhan moved from Botum Sakor to Sre Ambel district in Koh Kong, however her household couldn’t afford to purchase sufficient land to farm and he or she stated was anxious for her household’s future as she has no coaching for work past agriculture and building.
“There’s no respect for us from the ministry,” she stated. “We are offended. Why do they do that to us?”
Chea Lu, a 49-year-old lady who misplaced her land to Ly Yong Phat in 2011 when his sugarcane operations moved to Kampong Speu province, additionally stated officers had been detached to the issues confronted by these communities.
“My kids needed to cease learning so they may work for $5 a day on Ly Yong Phat’s plantation. We misplaced our land to him, now our kids should work for him so we will survive,” she stated. “Then once we complain, officers misinform us, they don’t care.
“Please write about our protest,” Lu added. “Please inform folks.”
Two months after the protest, 10 of the complainants had been charged with incitement and 9 of them are presently in pretrial detention at Koh Kong provincial jail, which rights advocates say is at 300% capability as inmates are crammed in.
This is identical jail the place a Mongabay investigation in May revealed an unlawful logging operation that seems to be exploiting jail labor.
Protesters await a response from the Cambodian Ministry of Land Management in Phnom Penh on April 6, 2023. Photo by Meng Kroypunlok/Mongabay.
Government silent as forest’s future seems to be bleak
The transformation of Botum Sakor National Park is felt not simply by the communities who’ve been evicted from the park, but in addition by the wildlife, on condition that Botum Sakor was as soon as a hotspot for biodiversity.
Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), Malayan solar bears (Helarctos malayanus), Asiatic black bears (Ursus thibetanus), pileated gibbons (Hylobates pileatus), Sunda pangolins (Manis javanica), fishing cats (Prionailurus viverrinus) and big ibises (Thaumatibis gigantea) might as soon as be discovered within the nationwide park, however the lack of habitat led to by the privatization of the vast majority of the park has seen residents — each human and wildlife — pressured out.
Lou Vanny, program supervisor at Fauna & Flora Cambodia, stated there are roughly 20 elephants left in Botum Sakor, however that the fragmentation of the panorama has resulted in a lot of the elephants’ habitat being misplaced. “We recommend that improvement needs to be balanced with the conservation wants of the realm, working along with the personal sector to reduce undesirable destructive impacts,” he added.
Meanwhile, but extra buyers pile in to take what few parcels of land stay.
This map reveals how Koh Kong Rubber, which is directed by Ly Yong Phat’s son, Ly Phoonrat, was awarded a brand new
“We see that Botum Sakor National Park is steadily lower and handed over to the personal sector,” stated Mala, the environmental activist, pointing to the continued clearing of forest in Botum Sakor by the hands Royal Group, Cambodia’s largest conglomerate, headed by one other key ally of Hun Sen, to make approach for a brand new particular financial zone contained in the park. “And if we actually look [at whether] the nationwide park zone is protected, in actuality, we see that the federal government solely cuts land from the nationwide park to [give to] the personal sector.”
Adding to the personal sector takeover of Botum Sakor National Park, the Koh Kong provincial administration in December 2021 introduced it had given the inexperienced mild for a 6,145-hectare (15,185-acre) “multipurpose zone” contained in the park. Officials had been quoted in native media on the time as saying the zone would come with at the least one five-star lodge, together with different tourism amenities.
The concession was awarded to Anco Group, a neighborhood conglomerate owned by Kok An who, like Ly Yong Phat, can also be a sitting CPP senator and a Thai-Cambodian tycoon with the same repute, notably in his native Koh Kong. Kok An’s son, Phu Sae Ping, is married to Ly Yong Phat’s daughter, Ly Yaowalak, additional intertwining the fates of two of the province’s strongest households.
But within the 18 months since Kok An’s newest enterprise was introduced publicly, no progress has been seen on the bottom and no documentation of an environmental influence evaluation or perhaps a map highlighting the proposed undertaking’s location have been launched.
Mithona Puthong, provincial governor of Koh Kong, stated she was busy and hung up on reporters when reached for remark; deputy provincial governor Sok Sothy stated he didn’t learn about any of the developments going down in Botum Sakor National Park and directed reporters to the Ministry of Environment.
When despatched satellite tv for pc imagery of the brand new roads and questions concerning their function, possession, legality and environmental influence, Neth Pheaktra, spokesperson for the Ministry of Environment, didn’t reply.
While Ly Phoonrat’s Koh Kong Rubber has taken one of many slots carved into the final pocket of Botum Sakor, it’s nonetheless attainable that Kok An’s 6,145-hectare concession might be allotted between the extra westward roads which have shot out of Ly Yong Phat’s concessions previously eight months.
Given the familial ties shaped by their kids, Ly Yong Phat and Kok An sharing adjoining concessions would replicate the expected dynastical handover of wealth.
Calls to Anco Group’s head workplace in Phnom Penh went unanswered, as did calls to a quantity listed as being registered to Kok An within the Ministry of Commerce’s information.
As such, particulars concerning Kok An’s potential funding zone in Botum Sakor stay scarce. Previous ventures linked to the senator have been steeped in allegations of human trafficking, which have extra just lately made their approach throughout the provincial border from the coastal metropolis of Sihanoukville to Koh Kong.
The future seems to be bleak for Botum Sakor National Park as residents and wildlife are squeezed out to make approach for tycoons. Photo by Gerald Flynn/Mongabay.
Nobody linked to any of the businesses concerned within the transformation of Botum Sakor National Park, nor anybody from both the native or nationwide authorities, would communicate concerning the park’s future — though the Koh Kong provincial administration introduced in June 2023 {that a} additional 7,126 hectares (17,609 acres) of the park might be changed into one more multiuse zone with a give attention to ecotourism and agrotourism. It’s unclear who’s behind this undertaking or whether or not it’ll ever materialize, however house is working out within the park.
Mala stated each the silence and lack of publicly obtainable info concerning funding tasks in Cambodia was contributing to a broader lack of transparency, wherein corruption breeds.
“We see that in each giant and small improvement undertaking in Cambodia, the federal government has by no means publicly proven the related paperwork, particularly the environmental influence evaluation reviews,” he stated. “This hasn’t mirrored the transparency, duty, [accountability] and good governance [needed] in managing [and] preserving the pure sources.”
Many of those tasks, notably within the Cardamoms, depend on extracting or exploiting pure sources, Mala added.
“And the absence of transparency can also be contributing to corruption, particularly [making] it exhausting to make sure that these tasks really contribute to constructing and creating our nation of Cambodia,” Mala stated. “In the previous, we see that each improvement undertaking that pertains to the extraction of pure sources, the nation generates much less revenue, whereas the true earnings go into the pocket of rich and highly effective teams.”
Banner picture: The new roads that lower by means of Botum Sakor’s final, finest part of forest sign a gradual, unhappy demise for what was as soon as Cambodia’s largest nationwide park. Photo by Gerald Flynn/Mongabay.
Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corruption, Deforestation, Development, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environmental Crime, forest degradation, Forest Loss, Governance, Government, Illegal Logging, Illegal Timber Trade, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, National Parks, Plantations, Protected Areas, Protests, Rainforest Deforestation, Rainforest Logging, Rubber, Sugar, Tropical Deforestation
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