May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post



Community activists and conservationists commemorating slain environment activist Chut Wutty on the weekend used the occasion to shed light on what they allege are the shadowy practices of a logging company in the southwestern Cardamom forests.

Activists amongst the hundreds of people who travelled to Koh Kong province’s Mondul Seima district discovered a yellow vine processing facility, which are generally prohibited under Cambodia’s forest law, at the premises of the firm Timbergeen.

But Suwanna Gauntlett, CEO of the conservation group Wildlife Alliance, which monitors the area where Timbergreen is licensed to clear the reservoirs of the Lower Stung Russey Chrum dam site, said the company had a permit to process yellow vine there.

“This [processing area] is right next to the reservoir, and it’s for yellow vine coming from the reservoir and they have licence for that from the Forestry Administration,” she said.

Chut Wutty, the late director of the Natural Resource Protection Group, was killed after military police officer In Rattana allegedly attempted to take the memory card of a camera he had been using to photograph stockpiles of yellow vine with two journalists on April 26.

A security guard who was working for Timbergreen, Ran Boroth, has been charged with accidentally shooting In Rattana during an attempt to disarm him.

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