• A new report suggests that the garment industry is contributing to deforestation in Cambodia due to factories relying on illegal forest wood to generate electricity.
• Garment factories were found to use at least 562 tons of forest wood every day, the equivalent of up to 1,418 hectares (3,504 acres) of forest being burned each year, according to the report.
• Between 2001 and 2019, Cambodia is reported to have lost an estimated 2.7 million hectares (6.7 million acres) of forest through deforestation.

Main photo: Special Assistant to PM on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam addresses the media about the launch of the Forest Restoration and Carbon Offset Programme at the Ministry of Climate Change. Image Credit: PID

Islamabad: The Pakistan government has announced it will collaborate with the private sector to restore at least 50,000 acres of degraded forest land across the country.

Four years ago, Phu Thap Boek -- a popular mountainous attraction in Phetchabun province -- became synonymous with the success of the military regime in reclaiming forest land, or the Tuang Kuen Phuen Pa campaign when the state took back forest land from illegal occupants.

Kep provincial police said they have identified a group who used the replacement Khmer New Year holiday to encroach on 4ha of flooded mangrove forests.

Police took down tow sheds measuring 18sqm and removed 100 stone poles used to mark land boundaries in an area inhabited by a community of fishermen in Angkorl village, in Damnak Changaur district’s Angkorl commune.

Provincial administration spokesman Ros Udong told The Post on Monday that having received information on the case, Kep provincial governor Som Piseth instructed officials to inspect the location.

JAKARTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Indonesia has cut back its planned transfer of state forests to local communities this year by half - an area twice the size of Los Angeles - because of the coronavirus outbreak, according to the Ministry of Environment and Forestry.

Bambang Supriyanto, the ministry’s director general of social forestry and environmental partnership, said social distancing measures from March to June had halted the technical work needed on the ground to certify the handover of land.

Koh Kong provincial authorities said they would not approve the sale and purchase of land in protected areas without proper paperwork.

They vowed to weed out land corruption following a July 3 Facebook post by Prime Minister Hun Sen calling for the return of land to locals living in protected areas.

In an announcement on Tuesday, officials said land transactions are taking place in protected areas around villages and communes, especially in Botum Sakor, Kiri Sakor and Thma Bang districts.

Resort operators in Wang Nam Khieo district in Nakhon Ratchasima province, a popular holiday spot where several resorts face charges of encroaching upon public forest land, have welcomed Deputy Agricultural Minister Thamanat Prompow's proposal to let them rent Sor Por Kor land plots.

The operators said the policy will create jobs for local people and help the tourism industry.

For decades, deforestation in Georgia has been putting the livelihoods of communities at risk. It has not only led to an increase in the impact of natural disasters, but has also deprived communities of clean running water.

TAK: Three large tracts of woodland -- about 45 rai altogether -- were found to have been encroached on inside the Mae Sot National Forest Reserve in Phop Phra district, according to a local media report.

The encroachment was reported to the 6th Forest Protection Unit in Mae Sot district by local villagers.

On Saturday, forest protection officials were dispatched to an area near Moo 7, Ban Pakha Kao, in tambon Khirirat of Phop Phra district to investigate.

What do you get from fighting for land rights in Thailand? You cannot ask Den Khamlae, 65, a prominent grassroots land rights activist. He mysteriously disappeared in a forest reserve near his rickety home in Chaiyaphum last year.

Source: The Nation

By: Pratch Rujivanarom & Stella Davies

Academics have urged the authorities to admit that people can live in forests while adjusting methods to prove land rights to include evidence from the field and from local residents to resolve land and forest management conflicts.