The Cardamom Mountains in southwest Cambodia are one of the largest rainforest ecosystems in Southeast Asia. But the construction of a new hydropower project is threatening the integrity of these forests, a Mongabay investigation has found.
In April 2024, Mongabay journalists Gerald Flynn and Vutha Srey traveled to the construction site of the recently approved Stung Meteuk hydropower dams. The company Steung Meteuk Hydropower Co. Ltd. is chaired by Ly Yong Phat, a multimillionaire with a history of alleged environmental crimes, the report notes. Phat, who holds Thai-Cambodian dual citizenship, is also a sitting senator with the ruling Cambodian People’s Party.
Mongabay’s investigation found several “sprawling, crudely cut paths,” not featured in any plans for the Stung Meteuk dam complex, radiating out from the dam’s northernmost reservoir into the intact forests of the Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary. The sanctuary is a massive protected area that’s historically been home to several rare and threatened species including the Siamese crocodile (Crocodylus siamensis), the green peafowl (Pavo muticus), the clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa), Malayan sun bear (Helarctos malayanus) and Asian elephants (Elephas maximus).
“The reservoirs themselves are within a shrubby valley, offering minimal supplies of valuable timber, but these routes have been carved out over the rolling slopes and into pristine forest,” the reporters write.
The investigation found that at least three of these paths led to what looked like a timber depot with stacks of logs. Moreover, initial timber auctions had already been held, the reporters found, although details hadn’t been made public.
The opaque auctions and evidence of logging paths running into pristine forests, suggest that the Stung Meteuk dam project could be another timber grab, the Mongabay report notes. Timber laundering is likely made easier by the location of the construction site, the reporters write. It is very remote, close to the Thai border, with few communities nearby.
Illegal logging linked to hydropower projects isn’t uncommon. Other companies, too, have reportedly used permits received for dam construction as a cover for illegal logging in the Cardamom mountains.
Mongabay’s investigation also found that the dam plans within Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary overlap considerably with the Samkos REDD+ Project by New York-headquartered NGO Wildlife Alliance.
REDD+ is short for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. Recognizing that tropical forests are major carbon sinks, REDD+ projects generate carbon credits in exchange for protecting forests that would otherwise be logged or degraded. The Samkos REDD+ Project “aims to generate carbon credits from more than 282,000 hectares (697,000 acres) of forest in the wildlife sanctuary,” the Mongabay report notes. However, the construction of the Stung Meteuk hydropower dams, and the associated tree-felling, could be at odds with the goals of the REDD+ project, the journalists write.
Credits
