One in all Cambodia’s largest protected areas, Botum Sakor Nationwide Park, continues to lose tree cowl, latest satellite tv for pc knowledge present.
Formally designated as a nationwide park in 1993, Botum Sakor initially coated greater than 182,000 hectares (450,000 acres) of evergreen, semi-evergreen and mangrove forests. Older surveys from the Nineties and 2000s present that the park was traditionally residence to quite a few wildlife, together with the critically endangered Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica), and the pileated gibbon (Hylobates pileatus).
Right this moment, Botum Sakor Nationwide Park (BSNP) is a whisper of the expansive old-growth forest it as soon as was. From 2002 to 2023, the nationwide park misplaced 30% of humid main forest inside the park’s initially designated limits, in response to the World Forest Watch (GFW) monitoring platform.
A lot of the clearing has been a results of the Cambodian authorities handing off parcels of BSNP to tycoons intently aligned with the longtime ruling celebration, Mongabay has beforehand reported. On these concessions, the federal government has permitted a variety of growth actions, from business crop plantations like acacia and oil palm to resorts and infrastructure for tourism and vitality tasks. The Cambodian authorities has privatized greater than 158,000 hectares (390,000 acres) of the initially designated park as of August 2023.
Current preliminary satellite tv for pc knowledge on GFW present that between July and October 2024, there was additional deforestation inside the park’s boundaries, each inside the concessions and contained in the final remaining tracts of intact forest.
As an illustration, GFW recorded latest deforestation inside concessions granted to the Royal Group, Cambodia’s largest conglomerate, owned by businessman Kith Meng.
The group lately obtained two substantial concessions in what was once intact main forest. In 2021, the Royal Group was granted an 8,631-hectare (21,328-acre) concession to construct a particular financial zone (SEZ), which was shortly adopted by a spate of deforestation alerts recorded on the GFW platform, Mongabay’s Gerald Flynn reported. In 2023, the Royal Group obtained an extra 9,968 hectares (24,631 acres) subsequent to the primary concession, overlaying “a large expanse of principally untouched main forest.”
The newest deforestation alerts counsel notable clearing inside the new concession in the previous few months. Satellite tv for pc knowledge and imagery additionally present latest tree cowl loss inside the adjoining main forest nonetheless designated as a part of BSNP.
Appreciable deforestation alerts additionally present up in and round a concession granted to the LYP Kiri Sakor Koh Kong Particular Financial Zone in 2008, positioned in BSNP’s northwest. Ly Yong Phat, the eponymous proprietor of the LYP string of companies, was lately sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Division for involvement in human trafficking and cybercrimes.
Mongabay couldn’t verify the underlying causes of those newest deforestation alerts, nonetheless, conservationists say they’re frightened the fast privatization and the continuing lack of forest cowl could not bode properly for the way forward for the nationwide park and its wildlife.
This article by Shrea Dasgupta was first printed by Mongabay.com on 24 October 2024. Lead Picture: Sunda pangolin by Piekfrosch by way of Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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