{"id":87,"date":"2021-07-20T11:34:28","date_gmt":"2021-07-20T11:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/daire-houlihan\/?p=87"},"modified":"2021-07-20T11:34:30","modified_gmt":"2021-07-20T11:34:30","slug":"commodity-driven-deforestation-in-cambodia-the-sorry-decimation-of-its-unique-biodiversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/daire-houlihan\/2021\/07\/20\/commodity-driven-deforestation-in-cambodia-the-sorry-decimation-of-its-unique-biodiversity\/","title":{"rendered":"Commodity-driven Deforestation in Cambodia \u2013 The sorry decimation of its unique biodiversity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>The exploitation of our planet\u2019s\u00a0natural landscapes\u00a0has continued unabated for decades. Deforestation threatens to wipe out countless species of plant and animal life across the world, with short-term economic gains trumping\u00a0pragmatic\u00a0conservation efforts. The clearing of mass swathes of forests to make room for palm oil, rubber, and cashew plantations\u00a0is a major concern in Cambodia. This blog post will look at the threat this small\u00a0South-East Asian\u00a0country\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0already\u00a0on its knees after a half century of political turmoil\u00a0and genocidal horror\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0faces from\u00a0illegal logging operations.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Video \u2013 <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/gallagher-photo.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sean Gallagher<\/a><\/strong>, an independent environmental photographer documented the scale of the issue beautifully in their short documentary <strong>\u2018<\/strong>Cambodia Burning\u2019. This can be seen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-vimeo wp-block-embed-vimeo wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Cambodia Burning [4K] \u1780\u1798\u17d2\u1796\u17bb\u1787\u17b6\u1780\u17c6\u1796\u17bb\u1784\u1786\u17c1\u17c7\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/420937537?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Cambodia\u2019s natural temperate forests are home to a host of iconic endangered species, while also providing critical carbon sequestration services. Asian elephants,\u00a0black-shanked douc langurs, and sun bears have found refuge\u00a0under\u00a0the dense, knotted treetops\u00a0that traverse the country.\u00a0The past two decades have seen threats to their habitat grow wildly though, as\u00a0top-level corruption allied with vast corporate greed has sent illegal deforestation activities spiral wildly out of control. Much of this systematic destruction has been carried out within the supposedly\u00a0protected\u00a0areas\u00a0of\u00a0forest known as Prey Lang, and Keo Seima.\u00a0So much of the\u00a0Snuol\u00a0Wildlife Sanctuary\u00a0was cleared for cashew and rubber plantations,\u00a0that\u00a0in 2018, its protected status was revoked due to there being so little of it left to protect.\u00a0The uniformity of the plantations is unable to replicate the landscape of the primary forests, with biodiversity diminishing greatly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.globalforestwatch.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Global Forest Watch<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>track the activity in Cambodia\u2019s forests extensively. Their\u00a0estimates\u00a0indicate that between 2001 and 2020, the country lost about 1.29Mha of forest cover, this being equivalent to 834Mt of CO2e emissions, and 30%\u00a0of their total tree cover<sup>1<\/sup>.\u00a0This is a deeply worrying\u00a0statistic, with the deforestation accelerating at a pace higher than both Indonesia, and Brazil, two countries stalked and preyed upon\u00a0in perpetuity\u00a0by\u00a0high-profile\u00a0illegal logging networks. The issue of illegal logging and exports has been hampering conservation efforts in Cambodia for decades, with the <strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.globalwitness.org\/en\/archive\/civil-war-goes-hold-cambodian-government-and-khmer-rouge-cooperate-over-timber-deals\/\" target=\"_blank\">million metre deal<\/a><\/strong> an infamous landmark from the 1990s.\u00a0International demand for Cambodian rubber, as well as other cash crops such as palm oil, has also spiked in recent years. This demand\u00a0comes mainly from its\u00a0neighbours\u00a0Vietnam, China, and Singapore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/daire-houlihan\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/145\/2021\/07\/Defor-Camb.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-89\" width=\"514\" height=\"289\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/daire-houlihan\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/145\/2021\/07\/Defor-Camb.jpg 976w, https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/daire-houlihan\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/145\/2021\/07\/Defor-Camb-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/daire-houlihan\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/145\/2021\/07\/Defor-Camb-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 514px) 100vw, 514px\" \/><figcaption>Illegal logging in Cambodia decimates biodiversity. Photo &#8211; https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/science-environment-33702814<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Poor countries like Cambodia\u00a0are always likely to struggle to eradicate such activities on their own. The weakest economies on the planet\u00a0will always be vulnerable to lucrative activities, regardless of the\u00a0morality,\u00a0and legality of the situation. Illegally logged timber, smuggled into Southern Vietnam, and rubber exported to the\u00a0aforementioned nations\u00a0provide a significant revenue injection. Corruption across all levels of Cambodian society facilitates the deforestation crisis. Mongabay interviewed Marcus Hardtke, a Cambodian forest expert, in August 2020. The interview described a \u201csteady stream of timber from the Seima protected area across the Vietnam border\u201d<sup>2<\/sup>. Hardtke spoke of \u201ca balanced system of bribes and influence\u201d, with involvement of \u201cpeople in uniform at several levels. Worryingly, the corruption can mean violence, and at the beginning of 2018, security and conservation workers; Thol Kna, Seng Vattana, and Tern Soknai were killed after confiscating the equipment of illegal loggers<sup>3<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>International\u00a0governments\u00a0need to collaborate on\u00a0strategies\u00a0to alleviate pressures on economies such as Cambodia\u2019s if the forests are to be conserved successfully.\u00a0The Paris Agreement has already stated that wealthy nations should pay poorer countries in exchange for reducing carbon emissions from forestry<sup>4<\/sup>. It\u2019s clear these\u00a0efforts\u00a0now\u00a0need to be stepped up, with the so-called \u2018decade of change\u2019 well underway. Developed nations, and major corporations are working to remove products of deforestation from their supply chains<sup>5<\/sup>. Pressure needs to be put on these key actors to ensure they deliver on their promises. Lower CO2 emissions,\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-020-02341-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reduced zoonotic disease<\/a><\/strong> risk, and conservation of some of the planet\u2019s most unique lifeforms. These are the rewards\u00a0that can be attained if we act now and stop reckless deforestation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>References<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\" type=\"1\"><li>Global Forest Watch &#8211; What\u2019s happening in Cambodia\u2019s forests? https:\/\/www.globalforestwatch.org\/blog\/data-and-research\/whats-happening-in-cambodias-forests\/<\/li><li>Mongabay &#8211; https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/2021\/04\/deforestation-ramps-up-in-cambodias-keo-seima-wildlife-sanctuary\/<\/li><li>The Guardian &#8211; https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2018\/jan\/31\/cambodian-forest-defenders-killed-after-confronting-illegal-loggers<\/li><li>Paris Climate Agreement &#8211; https:\/\/unfccc.int\/news\/un-climate-change-process-steps-up-action-on-deforestation-0<\/li><li>European Union &#8211; https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/environment\/forests\/deforestation.htm<\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The exploitation of our planet\u2019s\u00a0natural landscapes\u00a0has continued unabated for decades. Deforestation threatens to wipe out countless species of plant and animal life across the world, with short-term economic gains trumping\u00a0pragmatic\u00a0conservation efforts. The clearing of mass swathes of forests to make room for palm oil, rubber, and cashew plantations\u00a0is a major concern in Cambodia. This blog &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/daire-houlihan\/2021\/07\/20\/commodity-driven-deforestation-in-cambodia-the-sorry-decimation-of-its-unique-biodiversity\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Commodity-driven Deforestation in Cambodia \u2013 The sorry decimation of its unique biodiversity&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":151,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[36,37],"class_list":["post-87","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cambodia","tag-deforestation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/daire-houlihan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/daire-houlihan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/daire-houlihan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/daire-houlihan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/151"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/daire-houlihan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/daire-houlihan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91,"href":"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/daire-houlihan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions\/91"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/daire-houlihan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/daire-houlihan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/daire-houlihan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}