Illegal Logging in Cambodia

The remote borderlands are generally isolated from the central state provinces and are generally regarded as marginalized sites of lawlessness. The Cambodian- Lao borderlands is an isolated locale rich in natural resources but poor in basic infrastructure. With geopolitical insignificance and inaccessibility of national capital flows, it has become a hotspot for illegal cross-border logging of luxury timbers. This area was marked as a site of conflicts and political turmoil when Cambodia and Vietnam were at war and illegal logging was used to support the war and the purchase of weapons. Sekong village in Stung Treng Province, about 40km south of Attapeu and Champassak Provinces in Laos, is close to Cambodia’s largest national park - Virachey National Park. Stung Treng Province has 900 villagers and many have been involved in the illegal cross-border logging of luxury rosewood timber such as Siamese rosewood. Compared to traditional income-earning activities such as resin-collection, fishing and hunting, much higher returns (US$300-3,000 per trip) from logging rosewood are paid to villagers by Cambodian timber traders and soldiers. In addition, transporting these illegally logged luxury timbers offers much higher taxes by traditional communities to the Cambodian border checkpoints, and offer opportunities for corruption to the soldiers and officers at the border whose salary is only US$25 per month.

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Published by UBC.