Cambodia’s largest island, Koh Kong Krao, off its southwest coast, is roofed in largely untouched old-growth forest, however current satellite tv for pc imagery exhibits deforestation is spreading.Much of the forest cowl loss is in areas tightly managed by Marine Brigade 2, a navy unit stationed on the island that has traditionally been accused of facilitating the illicit timber commerce.Residents of the island stated the navy controls nearly each facet of life there, with provincial officers afraid to intervene or examine the navy’s actions on Koh Kong Krao.Cambodia’s navy has lengthy been a key consider unlawful logging throughout the nation, and reporters discovered proof of its continued involvement in logging throughout the Cardamoms.
This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network the place Gerald Flynn was a fellow.
*Names have been modified to guard sources who stated they feared reprisals from the authorities.
KOH KONG, Cambodia — “I feel there’s a 30% likelihood we’ll have bother with the police,” stated Ly Chandaravuth, an environmental activist with the outlawed group Mother Nature Cambodia.
This was in August 2022, when Mother Nature Cambodia was planning a visit to Koh Kong Krao, an island off Cambodia’s southwest coast in Koh Kong province, to lift consciousness in regards to the pristine ecosystems there.
But the group’s activism has had penalties, and Chandaravuth’s calculations, close to one-in-three odds of being arrested only for visiting the island, weren’t unfounded.
On June 16, 2021, Chandaravuth, then a legislation scholar, was apprehended by police whereas accumulating water samples from the Tonle Sap River in Phnom Penh. He’d deliberate to have the samples analyzed to higher perceive water air pollution within the metropolis. Instead, he was charged with plotting towards the federal government, a cost that carries a sentence of as much as 10 years in jail.
He was launched in November 2021, together with 5 different Mother Nature Cambodia activists, three of whom had been in jail since September 2020. None have been acquitted and all stay below judicial supervision for a three-year interval. This means they’re unable to go away Cambodia and are required to report back to native authorities on a month-to-month foundation.
Notably, they have been warned towards offending once more. Yet this didn’t cease Mother Nature Cambodia from organizing what Chandaravuth described as an academic journey to Koh Kong Krao from Aug. 26-29, 2022.
“We’re simply visiting, we’ve got no calls for, no message for the federal government and we’ve got permission from the residents,” he stated previous to the journey. “The authorities needs to maintain the event of Koh Kong Krao quiet, so I feel it’ll solely look worse in the event that they arrest us.”
The week of their deliberate journey, Mother Nature Cambodia petitioned the Ministry of Environment to launch the findings of a 2016 research the ministry had carried out to evaluate whether or not Koh Kong Krao may very well be designated a marine nationwide park.
In August 2022, Mother Nature Cambodia took 24 individuals, some activists, others merely members of the general public, to Koh Kong Krao as a part of an academic journey to higher perceive the conservation worth of Cambodia’s largest island. Image equipped by Mother Nature Cambodia.
That identical 12 months, international conservation authority the IUCN and its partner-led initiative Mangroves for the Future highlighted the worth of ecosystem connectivity to Cambodian officers. This finally led to the island of Koh Rong, Cambodia’s second largest, buying marine nationwide park standing in 2018. But the surroundings ministry’s research into Koh Kong Krao stays unpublished, if it was ever carried out in any respect.
The solely proof to counsel a research had been carried out comes from a June 4, 2020, press launch issued by the ministry only a day after Mother Nature Cambodia activists had been detained by police and had their bicycles confiscated whereas trying to cycle from Phnom Penh to Koh Kong as a part of an consciousness marketing campaign to avoid wasting Koh Kong Krao. In its press launch, the ministry stated Koh Kong Krao can be a marine nationwide park by 2021.
But this by no means occurred, and Neth Pheaktra, spokesperson for the Ministry of Environment, couldn’t be reached to reply why, regardless of a number of makes an attempt to contact him by telephone and written questions despatched over the messaging app Telegram.
Despite the dearth of safety conferred upon it by the federal government, Koh Kong Krao, the biggest of Cambodia’s 60 islands, can be considered one of its greatest preserved.
Spanning some 100 sq. kilometers (round 39 sq. miles), nearly all of Koh Kong Krao is roofed in old-growth forest that sprawls throughout mountains earlier than giving solution to waterfalls that hook up with mangroves by way of creeks and estuaries, forming contiguous ecosystems with the seagrass meadows and coral reefs that fringe components of the island.
Such an unlimited, verdant island untouched by large-scale investments makes Koh Kong Krao stand out from its friends off the coast of the Cardamom Mountains, a lot of which have been purchased up by the Cambodian elite and seen their ecosystems degraded because of this.
The largest island in Cambodia, Koh Kong Krao is dwelling to only one small village who stay locked in a dispute with the Marine Brigade 2, the navy unit stationed on the island. Residents stated that the marines search to manage nearly each facet of life on Koh Kong Krao, however additionally they accused the troopers of operating unlawful logging operations from the island. Image by Gerald Flynn/Mongabay.
Rumors of a tycoon hurricane on the horizon
While the federal government stays largely silent on the standing of Koh Kong Krao, so too did the authorities throughout Mother Nature Cambodia’s journey to the island. Upon returning, Chandaravuth stated that when he and the 24 individuals — some activists, others merely members of the general public — arrived in Koh Kong province, police took pictures of them “in case anybody goes lacking.”
Other than this, he stated, troopers stationed on Koh Kong Krao watched the group for a number of hours, however there was minimal interference.
“We stayed with the fishing group in Alatang village, on the southeast of the island,” Chandaravuth stated, including that the group had agreed to host the activists and their company beforehand. “It’s lovely there, you’ll be able to see many alternative species of fish, which offer for the group — they usually need tourism to turn out to be a brand new earnings supply, so there’s a lot of choices for trekking, there are waterfalls and components of the jungle are so thick, there’s no daylight inside. Big islands like this, they’re uncommon.”
Rare or not, the specter of unconfirmed rumors that the island has been bought to Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) senator and tycoon Ly Yong Phat, a Thai-Cambodian nationwide, hangs heavy over Koh Kong Krao.
Ly Yong Phat was appointed by Prime Minister Hun Sen to develop the province of Koh Kong in 2000, and the prospect of a tycoon with an extended report of pressured evictions, unlawful logging and environmental vandalism in Koh Kong — all within the identify of financial improvement — has since made the island a goal for Mother Nature Cambodia’s activism.
The authorities’s alleged choice handy over Koh Kong Krao to Ly Yong Phat, who final 12 months was appointed private adviser to Prime Minister Hun Sen, seems thus far again to 2014. Documents seen by Mongabay counsel that three firms, together with Ly Yong Phat’s Koh Kong SEZ, utilized for the license to spend money on Koh Kong Krao, however it’s unclear whether or not the license was ever issued or to whom.
L.Y.P. Group, the eponymous conglomerate belonging to Ly Yong Phat, didn’t reply to questions despatched by Mongabay by way of e-mail, and calls to the corporate’s listed telephone numbers went unanswered.
The fisherman and his son who agreed to take reporters on a tour of the island refused to dock the boat in navy-controlled areas and warned that the marines would “shoot down” reporters’ drone. Image by Gerald Flynn/Mongabay.
When reached for remark, Sok Sothy, deputy provincial governor of Koh Kong, learn messages despatched in each Khmer and English earlier than blocking reporters’ numbers.
In a 2020 interview with Radio Free Asia, Koh Kong Governor Mithona Puthong appeared to verify that Ly Yong Phat had been granted the license to develop the island on June 14, 2019.
But when contacted in October 2022, Puthong stated she misspoke within the 2020 interview and that no purposes to spend money on Koh Kong Krao had been seen.
“We haven’t acquired any letter of utility [for investments] in 2019. I’m sorry after I gave the reply — my apologies, I’ve requested my individuals to double-check,” Puthong stated, including that neither the provincial nor national-level authorities had acquired an utility to develop Koh Kong Krao from Ly Yong Phat or any of his firms.
Some residents of Koh Kong Krao prompt that Ly Yong Phat had blocked ecotourism improvement initiatives on the island, with native authorities telling potential builders that the island had already been promised to the Cambodian tycoon since 2019. Others recalled seeing Ly Yong Phat with individuals they believed to be Chinese buyers visiting the island repeatedly over the course of 2022.
But whereas most of the island’s residents knew of Ly Yong Phat’s supposed buy of the island, none had any thought about his plans.
Chandaravuth stated that if Ly Yong Phat had certainly been given the island as a land concession, whether or not in 2014 or 2019, Article 62 of Cambodia’s 2001 Land Law requires buyers to make use of their concession inside 12 months of it being issued — one thing that clearly has not occurred on Koh Kong Krao.
“Maybe they’re as much as one thing, there’s timber, there are minerals, there’s wildlife, so we hope that our go to with vacationers will make [Ly Yong Phat] suppose twice about what the general public response can be,” Chandaravuth added. “They suppose if they simply ignore us, the individuals’s voice will fade away, however we’ll preserve defending Koh Kong Krao.”
When requested about Mother Nature Cambodia’s marketing campaign to guard Koh Kong Krao, Governor Puthong stated, “If they’ve considerations, it’s their rights as youths.”
She once more denied the island had been bought to Ly Yong Phat in a subsequent March 2023 telephone interview.
“We haven’t acquired any letter from the Council for the Development of Cambodia but relating to the event of Koh Kong Krao,” she stated. “There’s a letter issued by the Ministry of Environment already, to start making Koh Kong Krao right into a protected space, we’ll help this.”
Just a 30-minute boat trip from the mainland, Alatang village on the southeast of Koh Kong Krao is dwelling to 73 households. But the idyllic panorama hides an ongoing battle for management over the island between the residents of Alatang village and the Royal Cambodian Navy. Image by Gerald Flynn/Mongabay.
Koh Kong Krao below the gun
As it stands, Koh Kong Krao stays neither developed nor protected, however one other faction presents a extra rapid menace to the island, its ecosystem and its inhabitants: the Royal Cambodian Navy’s roughly 70-man Marine Brigade 2, completely stationed on the island.
“The troopers are attempting to interrupt the group,” stated Chheng*, a fisherman who has lived on Koh Kong Krao for the previous decade.
Sitting on the creaking stays of the island’s solely pagoda within the island’s solely village as the sunshine pale one night in November 2022, Chheng defined how the troopers stationed on Koh Kong Krao exert a stage of management over the island that even provincial authorities can not rein in.
“The pagoda fell into disrepair, it’s falling aside, however the troopers received’t allow us to restore it,” he stated apologetically. “This is why I attempt to entice vacationers to the island — to lift funds to rebuild the pagoda. It’s nonetheless crumbling although. If we’ve got a robust pagoda, a robust faculty, possibly it will likely be the navy who’re evicted as an alternative of us.”
But it’s not simply the pagoda — the entire of Alatang village groans below the burden of the 73 households who name it dwelling.
A cobbled-together assortment of sun-bleached planks makes up the rickety boardwalks that maintain the village collectively. The big selection of once-colorful boats that bob about within the water, paint peeling within the sea air, are moored to wood homes sporting tin roofs, awaiting their subsequent voyage searching for fish, shrimp and crabs.
“Marine Brigade 2 doesn’t need any villagers to chop timber for constructing homes with out paying them, they need us all to do as they are saying,” Chheng stated.
When requested whether or not he felt this was as a result of the navy needs to retain a monopoly on logging, Chheng stated he requested the troopers the identical query.
“If you don’t permit us to chop, do you narrow it for your self? They didn’t reply,” he chuckled.
According to Chheng, the commanding officers of Marine Brigade 2 management the whole thing of Koh Kong Krao and its infrastructure, together with water, electrical energy and meals deliveries.
“The navy block individuals from coming to purchase fish or seafood from Alatang village,” Chheng stated. “They purposefully shut our financial system to allow them to purchase from us at a lower cost.”
Residents of Koh Kong Krao complained that the navy retain a monopoly on logging on the island, stopping the group from taking timber wanted to restore the rotting boardwalks that join the stilted homes in Alatang village, on the south of the island. Image by Mongabay.
Other residents of Alatang village confirmed Chheng’s allegations. Sophal*, one other fisherman who has lived on Koh Kong Krao a lot of his life, famous there was no increased authority they may flip to, saying that complaints to officers in Chroy Pros commune or to Trapeang Rung district corridor have been met with silence.
“When we converse to the commune chief, we’re advised they may ask the provincial authorities, however nothing ever occurs,” Sophal stated. “Last time, the troopers advised us that if we can not dwell right here like this, then we should go away.”
As Koh Kong Krao is state-public land, not one of the residents of Alatang village are even allowed to dwell there. That leaves them relegated to a precarious life on the wood constructions simply off the island’s coast that deprives them of farmland, forcing the villagers to depend on the military-controlled groceries and deliveries.
“Nobody is allowed to construct a home on the land, as a result of the entire of Koh Kong Krao is below the management of the navy — even the seashores,” stated Seng Hak, the CPP-aligned chief of Alatang village, who has lived on the island for greater than a decade. “I’m speculated to be the pinnacle of the village, however the troopers have weapons, so their presence is extra highly effective than mine.”
Residents’ makes an attempt to cause with the troopers noticed them referred to the Ministry of National Defense, however those that have been interviewed stated that they had been unable to efficiently contact the nationwide authorities physique and most stated that they had no thought how one can.
Alatang village, the one civilian settlement on Koh Kong Krao, shouldn’t be on the island, however moderately it sits simply off the island’s coast. Residents have lengthy complained about their high quality of life being tied to the ramshackle wood constructions which are usually broken in storms throughout Cambodia’s moist season. Image by Mongabay.
‘They make their very own guidelines’
The navy has centralized its energy within the northern portion of the island, inside an space that Mongabay reporters weren’t allowed to entry and even dock a ship. What is thought regionally as First Beach is completely off-limits, even to Alatang villagers.
“If you fly your drone right here, the navy will shoot it down and arrest us all,” cautioned a fisherman who agreed to take reporters across the island by boat.
It can be right here, residents of Alatang village alleged, that the navy runs an unlawful logging operation. Oversight and scrutiny have been traditionally unusual amongst Cambodia’s navy, however in a spot as distant as Koh Kong Krao, these with weapons are in impact above the legislation.
“The navy come from the residents, they’re initially simply regular residents that may come below our authority, however now they’re troopers, they make their very own guidelines,” stated Hak, who famous that the Ministry of National Defense holds extra energy nationally than the Ministry of Interior, which he works for because the Cambodian People’s Party village chief.
Satellite imagery evaluation exhibits that between May and June 2019, a street was carved by way of the dense jungle that stretches from the northwest tip of the island down previous First Beach and Second Beach. Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, when residents confirmed no one was allowed to go to the island, patches of forest vanished throughout the military-controlled space.
Since the center of 2019, the northwest tip of Koh Kong Krao – the place Marine Brigade 2 are stationed – roads might be seen reduce into the forest. Small areas seem to have been cleared, which specialists have prompt may very well be for farming, though the navy wouldn’t touch upon this. Other components of the forest seem to have been cleared selectively, supporting allegations of unlawful logging that residents of the island leveled towards Marine Brigade 2. Satellite imagery offered by Planet Labs Inc. Image by Gerald Flynn/Mongabay.
Throughout 2022 and 2023, proof of selective logging turned seen by way of satellite tv for pc imagery, matching deforestation alerts seen on information visualization platform Global Forest Watch. These small, bald patches poking by way of the forest cover might be seen dotted in regards to the northwest of the island, but additionally operating down the western coast of Koh Kong Krao, all the way down to its southwest nook.
“We can not determine the loggers, we’ve got no proof to show who they’re, however we all know that they’re introduced in by the navy. They use the creeks within the island to enter the forest,” stated Chheng, whose fishing routes take him throughout the island.
These allegations match claims made by Hong*, an unemployed logger in Koh Kong city on the mainland, who beforehand labored for a community of timber merchants primarily based out of the Koh Kong provincial jail.
“When they [the prison logging network] despatched me to seek out rosewood, it was largely to Koh Kong Krao,” Hong stated in a July 2022 interview.
Hong’s description of his expertise logging on Koh Kong Krao matched the observations of Chheng: Hong claimed to be taken out on a ship from mainland Koh Kong by troopers, who protected him and his workforce as they traveled by way of the island’s creeks to entry untouched forest the place priceless timber continues to be hidden among the many mountains.
“Whenever we go to go online Koh Kong Krao, we’ve got safety from RCAF [Royal Cambodian Armed Forces],” Hong stated. “The timber from the island goes both to Thailand or to Sihanoukville Port, that was the way it labored after I was there final 12 months.”
Hong stated he didn’t know the names of the naval officers who facilitated his logging on Koh Kong Krao, however was in a position to verify roughly the place he had landed on the northwest of the island, the place entry is restricted to navy personnel.
Satellite imagery offered by Earthrise Media exhibits selective logging that may be seen on the northwest of Koh Kong Krao, scarcely 1.5 kilometers from Marine Brigade 2’s base in an space that solely navy personnel have entry to. 2020-2022 © Airbus DS / Earthrise.
“It can be totally not possible for this logging to not be, if not outright perpetrated by RCAF troopers, taking place with out the approval of navy commanders of the area,” stated Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, the founding father of Mother Nature Cambodia.
Gonzalez-Davidson was deported and barred from returning to Cambodia in 2015 for his function in Mother Nature Cambodia’s finally profitable opposition to a hydropower dam being constructed within the Cardamoms, however he has maintained shut contact with these working in Cambodia’s southwest.
“The incontrovertible fact that it has at all times been, apart from the final couple of years after the start of the arrival of vacationers, a spot the place troopers have been there just about alone,” he stated. “[This] implies that massive and costly species of timber turned out of date [on Koh Kong Krao] even sooner than in different forested components of the nation.”
But Gonzalez-Davidson stated that whereas rosewood species have been largely annihilated on Koh Kong Krao and nearly in all places else in Cambodia, navy officers may nonetheless promote what’s left to bolster their meager paychecks.
“Having stated that, the truth that logged timber must be transported out by boat versus by land, has additionally maybe helped protect a few of the massive timber you continue to see within the island,” he added, noting that this is able to add to the prices of transporting the timber.
Planet Labs Inc. satellite tv for pc imagery exhibits selective logging started to unfold from the navy base on the northwest tip out to the northeast of Koh Kong Krao’s coast. According to each residents and navy personnel, no one however the navy is allowed to entry this a part of the island, additional including weight to the claims that the navy is concerned in unlawful logging on Koh Kong Krao. Image by Gerald Flynn/Mongabay.
Off the coast and off the books
“Now, I’m getting ready a ship for Em Chantha, who requested me to construct it to provide merchandise for the marine officers off Koh Chhlam [Shark Island]. He’s the commander of the Marine Brigade stationed on Koh Kong Krao,” stated Chea*, a boatbuilder by commerce who has known as the island dwelling for nearly 20 years. “They rent different individuals to provide the timber, to go and reduce the timber right here on the island.”
Chea was hesitant to debate the legality of taking timber from Koh Kong Krao — or a lot of something. Like different residents on the island, Chea stated he lives on the mercy of the troopers, noting that “Technically, no one is allowed to dwell right here.”
According to Chea, Chheng and others residents, Koh Kong’s coast appeals to the navy past purely strategic places. Islands off the coast of Koh Kong have offered a key outpost by way of which timber smuggling may very well be facilitated by boat, with varied ranges of complicity throughout the navy.
“We used to have numerous rosewood throughout the province, however now it’s largely gone,” Chheng stated. “But the island nonetheless has different priceless species, like beng [Afzelia xylocarpa], though that is disappearing from Koh Kong [province].” Beng has been listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List since 1998, with the species’ distribution throughout Southeast Asia dwindling within the face of giant demand for luxurious furnishings, for which beng offers a priceless substitute to rosewood.
Chea*, the boat-builder, was ending up a provide boat for Em Chantha – commander of Marine Brigade 2 – on Koh Kong Krao and defined that the navy sources the timber from the island itself. Image by Mongabay.
Across the board, conservationists agree that rosewood has been primarily extirpated from Cambodia’s forests, most of which have already been picked clear of essentially the most priceless grades of timber. This is the place Marine Brigade 2 seems to return in, a minimum of within the context of Koh Kong Krao. Its alleged involvement in Cambodia’s illicit timber commerce is a mirrored image of the accusations which have dogged the RCAF for many years.
Chantha, the island’s highest-ranked officer, has been accused of unlawful timber smuggling since a minimum of January 2014, again when he was deputy commander of Marine Brigade 2 serving below Tep Vuthy, who now serves as deputy commander on the controversial Ream Naval Base. The pair have been accused by native fishermen of stockpiling illegally harvested rosewood on Koh Kong Krao in preparation for its sale to Vietnam, counting on their navy ranks and political allies in Koh Kong province to ensure its protected passage. These allegations have been repeated in March the identical 12 months, with the marines reportedly receiving help from then-chief of the Koh Kong provincial gendarmerie, Thong Narong.
The gendarmerie is meant to police the navy, however in actuality, this function has reportedly usually been abused throughout the nation and all through the gendarmerie’s ranks, with quite a few stories of collusion between the gendarmerie, the navy and unlawful loggers — significantly alongside Cambodia’s borders.
The long-standing coastal timber smuggling operation, residents of the island stated, was aided by the rotation of personnel between Marine Brigades 1 and a pair of, with Marine Brigade 1 stationed on neighboring Koh Yor, an island related to Koh Kong’s provincial city by bridge.
Rotational duties have been confirmed by a soldier who blocked Mongabay’s reporting workforce from docking at First Beach.
“Every three months I get transferred over to Koh Yor after which again right here once more three months later,” stated the soldier, who wouldn’t determine himself. “We serve the individuals, as a result of we’re the navy, however when individuals ask for timber to assist them restore their houses or the bridges, I don’t perceive why the navy chief doesn’t permit it.”
Media stories from 2013 counsel that the navy-controlled Koh Yor has been used as a secondary stockpile location for rosewood, resulting in shootouts between Cambodian gendarmerie forces and corrupt navy officers concerned within the timber commerce.
This map exhibits Koh Kong Krao in relation to Koh Yor and mainland Koh Kong. Marine Brigade 2 are stationed on Koh Kong Krao, Cambodia’s largest island, however they’ve rotating employees amongst Marine Brigade 1, who’re stationed on Koh Yor. This connection between the 2 islands and the navy has beforehand been reported as a method for navy personnel to facilitate the illicit timber commerce. Sources: Open Development Cambodia, Planet Labs Inc. Image by Mongabay.
Pro-government outlet Koh Santepheap reported in 2018 {that a} truck filled with luxurious timber was detained in Koh Kong’s Trapeang Rung commune, having traveled from Stung Treng province within the northeast of Cambodia. Rangers from conservation NGO Wildlife Alliance, which works with gendarmerie and Ministry of Environment rangers, stopped the truck, however provincial officers reportedly intervened and ordered the truck be allowed to proceed to its vacation spot: the naval base at Koh Yor.
By 2016, Chantha had been promoted to commander of Marine Brigade 2 and forged off any doubts that his alleged function in transporting unlawful timber had been solely all the way down to his former superior Tep Vuthy.
Local media that 12 months reported that Chantha sat on the helm of a timber smuggling operation, allegedly with Forestry Administration officers paid to show a blind eye. The identical 12 months, a navy official often called Tha was once more accused of smuggling neang nuon (Dalbergia oliveri), a prized rosewood species, out of Koh Yor with intent to promote to Vietnam.
The case was ultimately investigated towards the top of 2016, with police sources confirming that Tha was a naval officer who had conspired with an area police officer to move rosewood to islands off the coast of Koh Kong in preparation for cargo to Vietnam. It is unclear if expenses have been ever filed towards anybody reportedly concerned.
The impunity with which RCAF models and their commanding officers have been in a position to extract priceless timber from throughout Koh Kong and promote it both domestically or overseas is one thing that activist Gonzalez-Davidson stated is afforded by a community propped up on kickbacks.
“All models, and by extension troopers, have the unofficial proper to use no matter pure sources they see match, so long as funds up the chain of command are given after all,” he stated. “The extraction of rosewood of 2010 to 2013 or so, which I noticed with my very own eyes repeatedly, was a great instance of this.”
During this time, he stated, RCAF models have been deployed throughout the Cambodian sections of the Cardamoms to facilitate, and to take a reduce of, the multimillion-dollar timber commerce that was pushed by China’s insatiable urge for food for hongmu furnishings product of rosewood and abetted by Cambodia’s lax environmental safeguards. The RCAF’s involvement, Gonzalez-Davidson stated, was taking place independently, with out orders from Phnom Penh.
Both loggers on the mainland and residents of Koh Kong Krao defined that, with safety offered by Marine Brigade 2, unlawful loggers have been in a position to entry the island, taking boats by way of the meandering creeks to achieve deep into the largely untouched forest and cherry-pick the most effective timber to chop down, carve up and promote again on the mainland. Image by Gerald Flynn/Mongabay.
Many residents, together with Chheng, remained sympathetic to Chantha, regardless of the lengthy laundry record of allegations linking him to unlawful logging — many made by the group on Koh Kong Krao itself — saying that issues improved considerably for them within the transition from Tep Vuthy’s command to Chantha’s.
“Em Chantha took over and he’s higher, he tries to assist individuals,” stated Chheng on the rotten wood steps of the island’s pagoda. “Chantha used to work for [ruling party senator and tycoon] Ly Yong Phat as a logger, he would herald numerous timber, leftovers from different jobs, after which he would promote the timber low-cost right here so we may construct the first faculty.”
Fifteen years in the past, Chheng recalled, Chantha had not donned the RCAF uniform and was restricted by the dearth of schooling alternatives to freelancing within the forest for Ly Yong Phat, working with navy officers at Koh Yor, till he turned considered one of them.
“He has no different expertise and his community is within the navy,” Chheng stated. “In Cambodia, when you have a community, you are able to do something.”
Nobody on the island dared to share Chantha’s contact particulars and reporters have been barred from accessing First Beach, the place Marine Brigade 2 is headquartered, making it not possible to go to him in individual to confirm these claims.
Koh Kong provincial officers stated it was a matter for the Ministry of National Defense, however Chantha’s contact particulars should not listed on the ministry’s web site and repeated calls to numbers listed because the ministry’s data division went unanswered. Likewise, messages despatched to Chantha’s Facebook web page have been met with silence.
Neither Gen. Chhum Socheat, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, nor RCAF spokesperson Thong Solimo would reply questions on Chantha, Koh Kong Krao or the navy’s function within the illicit timber commerce when reached by telephone, and neither responded to detailed written questions submitted by Mongabay.
Experts and activists prompt that Koh Kong Krao has been stripped of the best worth luxurious timber, however whereas species like rosewood might have vanished, loggers and residents of the island agree that many different priceless species stay throughout the island, protected by the remoteness of the terrain. Only the navy, they stated, may entry it. Image by Gerald Flynn/Mongabay.
Cronies of Koh Kong
In a March 2023 telephone interview, Koh Kong Governor Puthong finally famous that she was powerless to intervene in issues in regards to the RCAF.
“This space is managed by the navy,” she stated of Koh Kong Krao. “I don’t know what to say, the navy is in cost there as a result of they dwell there. That’s the appropriate of the navy, I can not contact it.”
This is especially telling given Puthong’s relationship to Koh Kong province, which has solely been accessible by automobile since 2002 when CPP senator Ly Yong Phat bankrolled the bridge that linked the coastal province to the remainder of Cambodia. The isolation, coupled with the low inhabitants density and proximity to Thailand, has factored into the rise of the Thai-Cambodian elite that kind Koh Kong province’s semi-separate political local weather.
Taking the function of provincial governor in 2017, Mithona Puthong turned the newest in an extended string of influential figures from the Puthong household; she is the daughter of Yuth Puthong, who himself served as governor of Koh Kong. Both Mithona and Yuth are overshadowed by the imposing legacy of Say Puthong, Mithona’s grandfather, a founding member of the CPP, believed to be the get together grandee who nominated now-Prime Minister Hun Sen for the highest job in 1985. Both Hun Sen and the CPP stay in place immediately. While Say Puthong died in June 2016, an occasion that produced one of many few identified photographs of Hun Sen crying in public, his legacy continues to be keenly felt throughout Koh Kong.
In addition to being accessible by automobile to Cambodians for simply 21 years, Koh Kong has solely been Cambodian for 119 years — a brief interval given the nation’s lengthy historical past — since French Indochina took management of components of what’s now Trat province, Thailand, in 1904. The French returned management of Trat to Thailand in 1907, however Koh Kong remained part of French Indochina, earlier than Cambodian independence from France was declared in 1953 and it turned its personal Cambodian province in 1959, whereas retaining a robust connection to Thailand.
This is how Say Puthong, a Thai nationwide, got here to be so concerned and influential in Cambodian politics. He used that affect to mingle with different ethnically Thai Cambodians, like Tea Banh, a local of Koh Kong whose life has been dominated by battle — first rising up towards then-prime minister Norodom Sihanouk, then towards the next administration of Gen. Lon Nol, earlier than becoming a member of the Khmer Rouge after which the Vietnamese forces that ousted Pol Pot’s genocidal regime.
Now, for nearly 20 years, Tea Banh has served violently as protection minister and considered one of Cambodia’s 10 deputy prime ministers, whereas his brother, Tea Vinh, is admiral of the Royal Cambodian Navy.
This map highlights the affect of Say Puthong on the politics of Koh Kong, which has lengthy been dominated by a small, close-knit set of gamers that each one take pleasure in ties to Thailand, in addition to Cambodia’s high political and enterprise elite. Image by Gerald Flynn/Mongabay.
“Given the numerous hyperlinks between the Tea household and Thailand, it might be solely pure for them to strike monetary hyperlinks with Thailand,” stated Mother Nature Cambodia founder Gonzalez-Davidson. “More so within the early 2010s when rosewood and different sorts of timber was so costly and so simply out there.”
And so for Koh Kong Krao, the place the murkiness of political, navy and financial pursuits merge to obscure actuality, Gonzalez-Davidson prompt that the selective logging may very well be both a method for navy commanders similar to Chantha to make further money from the remaining timber species, or a extra broadly orchestrated plot to safe land as its worth rises, significantly forward of an funding by Ly Yong Phat.
“It may, nevertheless, even be one more case of RCAF commanders figuring out the worth of the land for future improvement and thus claiming it for their very own,” he stated. “The navy’s most important cause for claiming Koh Kong Krao was not solely to make as a lot cash as potential out of the timber and wildlife, but additionally to get entry to land that may ultimately turn out to be very costly.”
The arm that controls the hand that controls the fingers
This nexus of political, navy and financial management is felt throughout Koh Kong, even in locations as distant and sparsely inhabited as Koh Kong Krao.
“Em Chantha is the commander of Marine Brigade 2 and he’s Khmer,” Chheng stated. “But Ta Fiang is the deputy and he has extra energy, even than Chantha.”
Ta Fiang proved to be one other elusive character within the hyperlocal energy performs of Koh Kong Krao, however a number of residents gave the identical account of him: a Thai nationwide, in a position to converse damaged Khmer, who bought the identify of a deceased soldier to realize a navy rank and wage.
Em Chantha, commander of Marine Brigade 2, pictured with Tea Vinh, commander of the Royal Cambodian Navy, in 2017. Source: Em Chantha’s Facebook.
The shopping for and promoting of troopers’ “names” shouldn’t be unusual and dates again to the United Nations’ involvement in Cambodia through the Nineties, when Cambodian navy commanders would inflate the variety of troopers below their command to realize further monetary help. A 1999 inside investigation carried out by the Ministry of National Defense discovered some 13,000 “ghost troopers” whose existence was confined to paper. These issues, Cambodian officers argued in 2002, have been identified to worldwide donors, however ignored in favor of demobilizing the RCAF within the wake of an official finish to the battle in Cambodia.
Still, in 2008, an extra 10,000 ghost troopers and one other 10,000 ghost law enforcement officials have been uncovered by the federal government. Then, in 2010, the federal government deserted the donor-funded demobilization after donors such because the World Bank grew pissed off by the obvious lack of outcomes.
As such, the sale of ranks and salaries is believed to proceed in distant components of the nation removed from the reforms issued in Phnom Penh, and Ta Fiang has, based on Koh Kong Krao residents, absolutely capitalized on the dearth of oversight throughout the island.
“He can not learn or write Khmer, he can solely converse Khmer, however he has connections, so no one dares to the touch him,” stated Chheng, the fisherman.
“Anywhere he goes on Koh Kong Krao, persons are fearful of him as a result of he is aware of everybody, everybody is aware of him,” stated Sophal, one other fisherman who confirmed Chheng’s evaluation of Ta Fiang’s path to energy.
Chheng alleged Ta Fiang owned a coconut farm on the south of the island after which introduced in loggers to clear a number of extra hectares across the farm, the place satellite tv for pc imagery exhibits proof of extra selective logging.
It is Ta Fiang’s Thai ties, together with his Thai spouse, which have reportedly earned him connections to Tea Vinh, head of the navy, and several other villagers confirmed that Ta Fiang’s spouse has repeatedly bragged about delivering shrimp to Tea Vinh’s home in Peam Krasop.
The coconut farm that Ta Fiang allegedly cleared forest to plant. Residents stated they concern Ta Fiang resulting from his connections to Tea Vinh. Image by Gerald Flynn/Mongabay.
When reached by telephone, Ta Fiang used one-word solutions to reporters’ questions and denied buying the identify and rank of a deceased soldier. He additionally denied proudly owning the coconut farm that had seen a number of hectares of forest cleared on the island’s southwest, refuted that any logging had taken or was going down on the island, and rejected claims that the navy was facilitating transport of outsiders into Koh Kong Krao to fell timber. When requested in regards to the documented involvement of his boss, Em Chantha, in unlawful logging, Ta Fiang advised reporters to “Go ask him” earlier than hanging up.
“If Ta Fiang says no, then [Chantha] can not do something, however they’re each within the community of Tea Vinh,” Chheng stated. “[The marines] are all a part of the community of Tea Vinh, they’re his fingers, he’s the hand, Tea Banh’s the arm.”
Both Defense Minister Tea Banh and Admiral Tea Vinh are ethnically Thai and grew up on Koh Sralau, a small island barely half a kilometer north of Koh Kong Krao that sits inside Peam Krasop Wildlife Sanctuary.
But Peam Krasop, like a lot of Koh Kong’s protected areas, have suffered by the hands of the Tea household, whose current land-grabbing spree displays their outsized affect throughout the provincial political financial system that interprets to broader energy nationally.
Both the Tea brothers have an extended historical past of involvement in unlawful logging throughout Koh Kong that dates again to the late ’90s, with navy chief Vinh being hit with Magnitsky sanctions by the U.S. Department of Treasury in November 2021 for alleged corruption in connection to a controversial navy base being developed with Chinese help inside Ream National Park. The park itself has subsequently been devastated by additional Chinese investments, a lot of that are believed to be linked to the Tea brothers.
When reached for remark, Tea Vinh stated he was “in a gathering” after which subsequently declined a number of calls from reporters. He didn’t reply to detailed written questions submitted by way of the messaging app Telegram. The admiral’s brother, Tea Banh, couldn’t be reached, and Ministry of National Defense officers refused to share his contact particulars.
Throughout 2021, reporters documented environmental destruction tied to land grabs throughout Koh Kong province that have been linked to Tea Vinh and Tea Banh. Peam Krasop Wildlife Sanctuary, the place Tea Vinh’s home is, was amongst one of many worst affected protected areas. Image by Gerald Flynn/Mongabay.
An issue past the province
The Tea brothers’ Thai connections have endured all through successive generations of Puthong political dominance in Koh Kong province and have additionally helped the navy preserve an in depth reference to one other Koh Kong native, Ly Yong Phat. The latter is presently engaged within the improvement of a deep-sea port in his Koh Kong SEZ, in Kiri Sakor district on the coast of the mainland instantly east of Koh Kong Krao, and the development of a brand new bridge connecting Koh Yor to the Koh Kong mainland.
These aren’t Ly Yong Phat’s solely connections to the navy. While he doesn’t seem to have served or fought for the RCAF, he has employed them. A 2010 subdecree legalized the hiring of border safety forces in a bid to spice up navy funding noticed tycoons similar to Ly Yong Phat take up the provide. At least two battalions, Battalion 42 and Battalion 313, employed by the senator have been recognized finishing up armed evictions. While these troops cleared land for Ly Yong Phat’s enterprise pursuits, others, together with Battalions 42, 301, 302, 303 and 702, are additionally identified to have been employed by the CPP senator.
Ly Yong Phat was not the one tycoon identified for hiring the Cambodian navy to advance his enterprise pursuits in an armed vogue, however the observe is broadly believed to have been informalized since 2016, counting on relationships moderately than authorities coverage or approval. This seems to have been additional compounded by the alleged politicization of the RCAF in 2015, when the CPP added as many as 80 high-ranking get together loyalists to the highest ranks of the navy, successfully making certain it remained loyal to the ruling get together and its allies.
Progress on Ly Yong Phat’s deep sea port as of November 2022. The port is being constructed instantly east of Koh Kong Krao, serving as an extension of the tycoon’s particular financial zone, which has beforehand come below scrutiny for its use in facilitating the illicit timber commerce. Image by Gerald Flynn/Mongabay.
Timber magnate Try Pheap, one other Cambodian tycoon famed for his plundering of the Cardamoms’ rosewood species, was additionally discovered to have employed a spread of RCAF models. But lengthy after the power of tycoons to rent troopers ended, there stays proof to counsel the connection continues unfettered in Pursat province, one other key factor of Cambodia’s stretch of the Cardamoms.
The logging operations going down on Koh Kong Krao are however a fraction of the RCAF’s identified involvement within the illicit timber commerce, and whereas the RCAF’s historic involvement in unlawful logging is well-documented, reporters uncovered a beforehand unknown sawmill positioned throughout the Military Region III headquarters in Kampong Speu province, the tail finish of the Cardamoms in Cambodia.
Cambodia is split into navy areas, every aimed toward masking various the nation’s 25 provinces, with Military Region III consisting of Kampong Speu, Kampot, Kep, Koh Kong, Preah Sihanouk and Takeo provinces. But the headquarters’ logging operation was an open secret amongst Kampong Speu residents.
Shortly after reporters took this photograph of Military Region III headquarters in April 2023, troopers questioned Mongabay’s reporting workforce and denied the existence of a timber depot throughout the navy compound, regardless of photographic proof and testimony from close by residents suggesting that the navy is operating a timber enterprise from inside the ability. Image by Mongabay.
“Sometimes we see timber taken into the navy base, largely at night time, a few of it’s simply cooking wooden, however typically additionally they get huge items of timber,” stated Nithy*, a café proprietor whose property overlooks the street main into the primary entrance to Military Region III headquarters. “They have machines inside the bottom, a giant noticed, to course of the wooden, however I don’t know what they do with it afterward.”
The automobiles transporting the timber in don’t sport the recognizable blue-and-red RCAF license plates, Nithy defined — all of the timber is introduced in by way of minivan.
A person who declined to be named, however who operates what gave the impression to be a woodwork store that backed onto Military Region III headquarters’ sawmill, and that’s related to the sawmill by a gate, claimed to not find out about any logging exercise. He additionally denied that he was a soldier, regardless of the RCAF soccer shirt he was sporting denoting his membership in an RCAF soccer workforce. The man wouldn’t let Mongabay reporters entry the sawmill by way of the gate on his property, stating that, “There is nothing to see.”
In January 2023, reporters uncovered a sawmill and timber depot positioned contained in the compound of Military Region III headquarters. Image by Mongabay.
When reporters tried to talk to troopers contained in the headquarters, one reporter was bodily detained and dragged throughout the road. The state of affairs was defused whereas the primary soldier known as in a superior officer.
“Sometimes a automobile from exterior or a truck carrying wooden comes right here,” the primary soldier stated. “High-ranking troopers are those who purchase the wooden, however I’m unsure the place they put all of it.”
While he couldn’t make sure, the primary soldier suspected that the timber got here from Phnom Aural, a mountainous protected space that has reportedly been closely logged by navy officers. Perhaps it might be used for a brand new constructing throughout the headquarters’ compound, he added.
“People on this space have been slicing down timber since earlier than you have been born, however troopers not reduce down timber as our salaries have elevated as much as $600 monthly,” the primary soldier stated, including that any soldier discovered to have dedicated a forest crime can be fired instantly.
However, whereas the primary soldier reporters encountered overtly admitted the existence of a sawmill throughout the navy compound, his superior, who declined to present his identify or rank, denied such a spot existed.
“Soldiers are not concerned in logging. Other crimes have stopped too now that the wooden is not out there within the forest,” he stated. “This is a secret place that no one is allowed to {photograph}.”
He repeatedly denied that timber was processed contained in the navy base, contradicting his subordinate and photographic proof collected by Mongabay.
The unnamed second soldier then went on to counsel that “the enemy may very well be sat in entrance of us proper now,” however maintained that troopers, and the RCAF extra broadly, had been reformed since Prime Minister Hun Sen’s eldest baby, Hun Manet, was appointed head of the military. Rules have been stricter, troopers extra disciplined, and corruption not tolerated, the second soldier claimed.
“Firstly, troopers don’t commit these crimes anymore as a result of they’re paid higher; secondly, the brand new head of the navy is way stricter than earlier than; and thirdly, there isn’t a forest to log these days,” he stated.
When requested why, then, residents residing across the navy base reported seeing timber delivered to the bottom and why so many others had confirmed the existence of a sawmill with what conservationists prompt may effectively be a grade of luxurious timber processed inside it, the second soldier was incredulous.
“If individuals say troopers promote medicine,” he snorted, “do you consider we promote medicine?”
More freshly reduce timber was seen that earlier than when reporters revisited Military Region III headquarters in April 2023, suggesting that the navy continues to be utilizing the ability to retailer, course of and promote timber. Image by Gerald Flynn/Mongabay.
Mongabay didn’t discover any proof of drug gross sales on the Military Region III headquarters, however the proof of timber shouldn’t be one thing that the troopers exterior the bottom or RCAF spokesperson Thong Solimo have been ready to debate. Solimo now seems to have blocked reporters’ numbers. Chhum Socheat, the protection ministry spokesperson, once more didn’t reply to questions, or accompanying photograph proof, in regards to the RCAF’s involvement in unlawful logging.
“It is as soon as extra indicative of how the wants and agenda of felony constructions throughout the [military] is extra vital than the legislation, and even of official insurance policies,” stated Mother Nature Cambodia’s Gonzalez-Davidson when offered with this proof. “Ultimately, although, that is what has been taking place within the nation’s forests for a very long time, so nothing shocking.”
Banner picture: One of the numerous creeks that residents and loggers allege are utilized by unlawful loggers, with help from the Royal Cambodian Navy, to extract priceless timber from Koh Kong Krao. Image by Gerald Flynn/Mongabay.
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