One of Cambodia’s largest protected areas, Botum Sakor National Park, continues to lose tree cover, recent satellite data show.
Officially designated as a national park in 1993, Botum Sakor initially covered more than 182,000 hectares (450,000 acres) of evergreen, semi-evergreen and mangrove forests. Older surveys from the 1990s and 2000s show that the park was historically home to numerous wildlife, including the critically endangered Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica), and the pileated gibbon (Hylobates pileatus).
Today, Botum Sakor National Park (BSNP) is a whisper of the expansive old-growth forest it once was. From 2002 to 2023, the national park lost 30% of humid primary forest within the park’s originally designated limits, according to the Global Forest Watch (GFW) monitoring platform.
Much of the clearing has been a result of the Cambodian government handing off parcels of BSNP to tycoons closely aligned with the longtime ruling party, Mongabay has previously reported. On these concessions, the government has permitted a range of development activities, from commercial crop plantations like acacia and oil palm to hotels and infrastructure for tourism and energy projects. The Cambodian government has privatized more than 158,000 hectares (390,000 acres) of the originally designated park as of August 2023.
Recent preliminary satellite data on GFW show that between July and October 2024, there was further deforestation within the park’s boundaries, both within the concessions and inside the last remaining tracts of intact forest.
For instance, GFW recorded recent deforestation within concessions granted to the Royal Group, Cambodia’s largest conglomerate, owned by businessman Kith Meng.
The group recently received two substantial concessions in what used to be intact primary forest. In 2021, the Royal Group was granted an 8,631-hectare (21,328-acre) concession to build a special economic zone (SEZ), which was quickly followed by a spate of deforestation alerts recorded on the GFW platform, Mongabay’s Gerald Flynn reported. In 2023, the Royal Group received an additional 9,968 hectares (24,631 acres) next to the first concession, covering “a wide expanse of mostly untouched primary forest.”
The latest deforestation alerts suggest notable clearing within the new concession in the last few months. Satellite data and imagery also show recent tree cover loss within the adjoining primary forest still designated as part of BSNP.
Considerable deforestation alerts also show up in and around a concession granted to the LYP Kiri Sakor Koh Kong Special Economic Zone in 2008, located in BSNP’s northwest. Ly Yong Phat, the eponymous owner of the LYP string of businesses, was recently sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for involvement in human trafficking and cybercrimes.
Mongabay couldn’t confirm the underlying causes of these latest deforestation alerts, however, conservationists say they’re worried the rapid privatization and the ongoing loss of forest cover may not bode well for the future of the national park and its wildlife.
This article by Shrea Dasgupta was first published by Mongabay.com on 24 October 2024. Lead Image: Sunda pangolin by Piekfrosch via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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