Cambodia licenses Panin Group to fell logs over large area

Cambodia licenses Panin Group to fell logs over large area

PHNOM PENH (AFP): The Cambodian government has approved a
massive logging deal with an Indonesian timber company that gives
the firm access to a large part of the remote, northeastern
province of Ratanakkiri, government officials said yesterday.

The 50-year contract signed in mid-September will allow
Indonesia's Panin Group to fell logs over 1.4 million hectares
(3.5 million acres) -- roughly 15 percent of Cambodia's remaining
forest.

But Chhea Song, secretary of state for the ministry of
agriculture and forestry, said the contract requires Panin to
submit a management plan for its logging activities that will
make the operation ecologically sustainable.

"The concession process requires the company to make a clear
inventory which is mentioned in the contract and agreed to by
both sides and before they cut or fell any trees they need
approval from the ministry," he said.

He said the concession area would be divided into 50 plots and
logging would move from plot to plot each year.

The management and sustainability plan has not yet been
submitted, Chhea Song said, but he added "If they don't follow
the contract, they will be stopped."

An official with the Cambodian Investment Board (CIB) told the
Cambodia Daily newspaper that the land covered in the concession
covers "virtually the entire province" of Ratanakkiri and said he
was "concerned" that such a large area would be given to one
company.

"A concession of this size... is for me too big to be going to
any individual company," the paper quoted CIB advisor Meng Srun
Sin as saying.

The contract is the biggest logging contract awarded by the
Cambodian government, which at the moment has a ban on new
logging and the export of felled timber in place.

Under the terms of the new concession, none of the logs will
be allowed to be exported in an unprocessed form, Chhea Song
said.

"The government has told them they must make their furniture
here so they can only export furniture and not logs," he said.

He said officials from the ministry had already looked at the
plans for other Panin Group logging sites and found them to be
satisfactory.

"We believe that this will be beneficial for the development
of our country," Chhea Song said. "If we don't stop the anarchic
cutting of trees, our forests will be destroyed."