EarthAction

Meet Pok Hong, Indigenous Kuy Activist

Pok Hong is an indigenous Kuy activist who has been instrumental in the campaign to save the Prey Lang Forest. EarthAction recently sponsored her visit to the United States as a delegate to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York. She is currently continuing her tour of the U.S. and meeting with officials in Washington D.C. If you would like invite Hong to speak at your meeting, event, or for a media publication, please email contact[at]earthaction.org. Read the interview below to get to know Hong and why she's fighting to save the Prey Lang.

Thank you to the Prey Lang Network for sharing this interview with us.

Image Left: Pok Hong, Indigenous Kuy Activist

 

Why is PL important to you?

Prey Lang forest is life itself. It is central to the lives of indigenous people. If we lose the forest, we lose the lives of all of us who are part of the forest. Prey Lang is full of bio-diversity. When we lose the forest, we lose life itself. We can never get back what is destroyed when the forest is lost.

Why is PL important to the Cambodia?

The loss of Prey Lang would contribute to climate change, floods, droughts and food shortages. Many Cambodians depend on Prey Lang to survive. We look for food in the forest, where no chemicals or pesticides have been used. The forest provides us with medicine which we could otherwise not afford and resins and other non-timber forest products which we sell for profit. Without the forest, many of us have no livelihoods.  Like many forests Prey Lang is a rainmaker. All around the country we have noticed that when we lose forests, we lose critical rain particularly in the dry season. Then when rainy season comes, deforested areas tend to flood and have been badly affected by storms. Prey Lang is important in local climate regulation and for our water and food security.

Why is Prey Lang important to the world?

Prey Lang offers immense treasures to the people of the world.. . miraculous plants, wildlife, and the knowledge of indigenous forest communities. The forest enriches us and protects us. It’s a place we can all learn from. This is why we call Prey Lang “our forest.”  By sustaining Prey Lang we can support a different kind of development. One that is more respectful and inclusive of nature, indigenous people, and the poor. Instead of using up the forest, we use the forest to build our future. Prey Lang is a place of spiritual importance and ancient heritage. The forest is full of sacred, hidden temples that cannot be seen with the eyes. I want people to come and learn about this.

Pok Hong (second from the left) with EarthAction Executive Director Lois Barber (center)
at the UNPFII in New York last week.

Success!! Prime Minister Hun Sen institutes land concession moratorium in Cambodia

Cambodia suspends new land concessions to companies

Protest at Phnom Penh, picture by the Prey Lang Network

By Prak Chan Thul

PHNOM PENH | Mon May 7, 2012 7:08am EDT

May 7 (Reuters) - Cambodia's government, facing growing protests by villagers and warnings about disappearing wilderness, suspended the granting of land to domestic and foreign companies on Monday in a move to curb forced evictions and illegal logging.

Rights groups in the impoverished but resource-rich Southeast Asian country said the temporary measure did not go far enough and a permanent ban was needed.

The government said in the order, signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen, it would confiscate any concessions that involved the grabbing of villagers' land and illegal logging.

Environmental activists say national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in Cambodia could soon vanish as foreign companies, including Chinese investors, accelerate work in protected areas.

The government said in the order the suspension was due to the "necessary and urgent need to guarantee equity and to strengthen the effectiveness of granting economic land concessions".

The area granted rose six-fold between 2010 and 2011 as the government encouraged mining and growing of rubber. Protected wilderness was not supposed to be on the list but changes to the law have carved out some of these areas for companies to use.

Companies from Cambodia, Vietnam and other countries have exploited the land grants but Chinese firms dominate the most lucrative projects - mining for gold and other minerals.

In some cases, they come in, violently evict people and cut down trees rather than do the projects they promised.

"This is too late," said Chan Soveth, an investigator at the Cambodia Human Rights and Development Organization (Adhoc). "There are still disputes with even stronger protests to come."

Last year, the government granted concessions to scores of companies to develop 7,631 sq km (2,946 sq miles) of land, most of it in national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, Adhoc says.

Chut Wutty, a prominent anti-logging activist who helped expose the secretive concessions process, was shot dead last month near a Chinese-built hydroelectric dam.

A government investigation, disputed by rights groups, said the activist was shot by a military police officer after a heated argument. The officer was also killed - by accident, investigators said - and one person has been charged over that death.

"It is too soon to judge the effectiveness of this order," said Chhit Sam Ath, executive director of the NGO Forum on Cambodia. "Civil society groups will continue to monitor how the situation develops." (Editing by John O'Callaghan and Robert Birsel)

UPDATE - Statement by Lois Barber, Executive Director of EarthAction:

"As announced, a moratorium on new land concessions and a review of all existing concessions is a step in the right direction. The next important step would be to begin a process that will engage fully with all the villagers who live on and depend on the lands where the concessions have been granted, or where concessions are being considered. In full consultation with local people, sustainable development plans can be formulated that will provide for the short-term and long-term well being for all of Cambodia's resources and people. Such a process will demonstrate real leadership."

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Read More:

PM institutes land concessions moratorium - The Phnom Penh Post

Take Action:

The fight's not over! Help make this moratorium permanent by donating to EarthAction. Find out more Prey Lang and actions you can take over at our campaign page, EarthAction.org/OurForest

You're Invited!

Join us this Thursday for a special event at the United Nation's Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) in New York City:   The Impact of Doctrines of Domination on Indigenous Peoples in Cambodia   What Neoliberal Development is Doing to Indigenous Peoples in Cambodia, with Regards to their Basic Rights of Self-Determination and  Rights to their Traditional Lands, Territories and Resources.     A Special Side-Event Presentation by the Prey Lang Community Network, Indigenous Active Rights Members, Organization to Promote Kuy Culture, and NGO Forum Cambodia.   Dedicated to the memory of Chut Vutty, a founder of the Prey Lang Community Network and the Director of the Natural Resource Protection Group, who was killed by Cambodian military police on 26 April 2012.  THURSDAY, MAY 10th, from 1:15pm - 2:30pm.  UNITED NATIONS NORTH LAWN BUILDING. CONFERENCE ROOM B    In the last two decades, much of Asia has embraced the neoliberal paradigms of the West. In Cambodia, this has led to the new discovery of indigenous territories—including forests, lands, and waters—as vast resources that are targeted by the state and transnational corporations for rapid extraction through logging, mining, dams and industrial agriculture; that then converts into wealth for the few, and the dislocation of the many. In this discovery, Indigenous perspectives are regularly disregarded as backwards, unsustainable, and irrelevant. A greater irony is hard to imagine. The speed at which these “resources” are being sold off is a matter of grave international concern. This event will focus on how these processes are playing out in the upland regions in Cambodia such as Prey Lang, and will offer Indigenous critiques and constructive recommendations for a different kind of future.  Co-organized by EarthAction, Amnesty International, Cultural Survival, and the Southeast Asian Development Program.

Death of Chut Wutty - Coverage on NY Times Blog

Mr. Chut Wutty. Photo by Mathieu Young.

Forest Activist Killed by Military Police in Cambodia

This past weekend, the killing of activist Chut Wutty and his tireless efforts to protect the Prey Lang forest and the environment of Cambodia received some high profile coverage on a New York Times Blog. Hopefully this story will gain traction, and with international pressure, our demands for an investigation into Chut Wutty's shooting will be heard.

From the blog:

"A little more than a week ago, the Cambodian forest activist Chut Wutty died under circumstances for which officials have already provided three different accounts.

He was with two journalists in the Cardamom Mountains in Cambodia, taking photos and collecting evidence of illegal logging when he was stopped by the military police. There was an altercation, and somebody opened fire. Mr. Chut Wutty, who carried a pistol with him because of frequent harassment and death threats, was shot, and a military police officer was killed as well. The two journalists with Mr. Chut Wutty, according to reports, dived for cover and were unable to witness the actual shooting."

The death of Mr. Chut Wutty has led to a rally around the cause that the man had lived and died for. Help us continue the work of Chut Wutty by taking action to save the Prey Lang Forest of Cambodia.

Click here to read more at the New York Times Blog.

UN Calls for Investigation of Murder of Cambodian Activist Chut Wutty

Click here to read the full story from the UN News Centre.

The UN is expressing concern over the recent killing of Cambodian activist Chut Wutty. According to a spokesman for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), “Despite the current lack of clarity about what exactly happened, we are very concerned that the killing of Mr. Wutty marks the latest and most lethal in a series of gun attacks on human rights defenders in Cambodia.”

Chut Wutty, the intrepid activist who had been working to protect the forests of Cambodia from illegal logging and to expose government corruption, was shot and killed by Cambodian military police on April 26. He had been out surveying illegal logging sites with two journalists, looking for evidence to bring a lawsuit against the government for aiding the activity, when he was stopped by military police.

The details of what happened next are unclear. A gunfight ensued which left Chut and one officer dead. The two journalists were able to escape to safety, but did not see what transpired, including who had actually fired the first shot.

Mr. Chut Wutty had received threats from the military on at least two previous occasions. In 2001 a military commander had threatened to kill him for documenting illegal logging in the Cardamom Mountains (the same things that would eventually cause him to be killed). Also in 2011, police with automatic weapons broke up two training sessions Chut had been conducting to help local peoples affected by the destruction of their forests.

Several investigations have been launched by local authorities, including a military investigation, backed by the OHCHR.

Read More:

UN News Centre
Tireless activist Chut Wutty shot dead in Koh Kong Province