Phnom Penh (Cambodia), Feb 07: Land encroachment in northwestern Cambodia is threatening the future of nature conservation efforts funded by actress Angelina Jolie, a beneficiary of her aid said today.
Mounh Sarath, director of Cambodian vision in development, said some 1,000 people have recently settled about 5 kilometres inside a protected site in Pailin, a former war zone in Cambodia's northwest.
The new settlers, who moved in from other provinces about four months ago, have cut down the forest to grow crops, he said.
Jolie is giving his group USD 1.5 million for its work to protect about 148,200 acres of forest in Samlaut and Pailin, former strongholds of the murderous Khmer Rouge regime that ruled Cambodia in the 1970s.
Jolie won a reprieve in Samlaut when Prime Minister Hun Sen told her July last year that he had decided to scrap a plan to build a hydropower plant in the area.
But Mounh Sarath said the Pailin part of the project could fail unless the government takes action to stop land encroachment.
"The new settlers will attract more people to the area. Any expansion of new settlement will affect our conservation work. Our project might even fail," he said.
Ieng Vuth, Deputy Governor of the Pailin Municipality, acknowledged that there has recently been encroachment in the conservation area. He said most of the 1,000 villagers were new settlers, who were drawn there by false rumors about land distribution. He said authorities are now working on a plan to evict them.
Bureau Report
