How Politics Is Killing Cambodia's Forests

Cambodian forests, some of the most biologically diverse areas in the world, are vanishing fast as a result of the Vietnamese, Chinese and Cambodian political interests. Cambodia has one of the largest deforestation rates in the world. Forest Trends, an influential organization with a mission to conserve forests and other ecosystems, reported in 2015 that Cambodia’s national forest cover had dropped to about 55 percent, down from 73 percent in 1993.

In May 2016, the Cambodian government took a bold step, declaring five new protected areas totaling about one million hectares of forest area. The success of this step primarily dependent on how well the government manages the area with the sole intention of forest conservation. So far, conservationists worldwide have shown varied levels of optimism. Most of the wood of Cambodian forests ends up in China. As the largest global consumer, China has increased its rosewood imports by 1250 percent since 2000. The current market is worth more than $2.6 billion, double the value of a year earlier.

Vietnam is also a large consumer of Cambodia’s wood. Although recent figures show a decrease in the amount of timber exported to Vietnam since Phnom Penh crackdown on illegal timber exports, Cambodia remains the largest timber exporter to Vietnam. There was some hope when Hun Sen created a committee specifically to curtail illegal logging. He expressed his firm commitment by promising to remove the governor of the southeastern province that serves as the main gateway for the logs if he and local district officials failed to curb the illegal activities.

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