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.

Chut Wutty, the Founder and Director of the Natural Resource Protection Group (NRPG), has been shot dead in an incident in Koh Kong province in which military police officer In Rattana is also said to have died today, 26 April 2012. The details of the incident in which the two men died remain unclear but their deaths have been confirmed by military police spokesman Kheng Tito. Wutty’s death has also been confirmed by his nephew, Chuon Phearum, as well as Koh Kong provincial military police chief, Thong Naron.

Prey Lang (“Our Forest”) is the largest evergreen lowland forest remaining in South East Asia, and it is under threat.It is home to an indigenous population of 200,000 native Kuy who have lived in peaceful harmony with the forest for hundreds of years. The majority of families sustain themselves by harvesting resin, rottan, spiders, palm hearts, and medicinal plants.A recent report from USAID estimates that without urgent action, the forest will be effectively gone in 2-3 years.

EarthAction, a global network of over 2,000 organizations in 160 countries, and Cultural Survival, an advocacy organization for Indigenous Peoples’ rights, have begun a worldwide campaign to protect the Prey Lang forest in Cambodia—its people, its trees, its life. The international campaign supports and complements the local efforts of the Prey Lang Community Network, a group of mostly Indigenous people whose villages surround the Prey Lang forest and whose livelihoods depend on the forest’s resources. Prey Lang, about the size of Rhode Island, is the last large primary forest of its kind on the Indochina peninsula.

Global Response, the action program of Cultural Survival, and EarthAction, a global network of over 2,000 organizations, are working together in support of the Prey Lang Community Network to protect and save their forest. On our websites below you can find links to communicate with Cambodian officials to urge them to cancel existing land concessions and create a sustainable management program with the permanent participation of the Prey Lang peoples. We ask your organization to please share this information widely, with other organizations, with your members, and in your newsletters.

In this International Year of the Forest, please help save Cambodia's Prey Lang (pronounced ‘Pray Long’) forest, the last large primary forest of its kind on the Indochinese peninsula. About 200,000 people, mostly indigenous Kuy, live in or around the forest and are dependent on it for their livelihoods and culture.