Cambodian activist Ouch Leng has been awarded the 2016 Goldman Environmental Prize for his work in documenting the illegal felling and export of timber in the Kingdom’s dwindling forests.
The global prize is awarded to honour
grassroots activists for their sustained and significant efforts to
protect the natural environment, often at great personal risk.
Leng has been working for more than 20
years documenting the illegal logging of Cambodia’s valuable trees,
often going undercover posing as a tourist, timber dealer, labourer and
even a cook. Much of the unlawful activity goes on in collusion with
government officials, often those who are supposedly in charge of
protecting the forests.
“I think the government still cooperates
or is involved with illegal logging and doesn’t care about the forest
and the land of the people,” Leng told Southeast Asia Globe.
Since the beginning of this century, the
Cambodian government has been leasing land to private companies as
Economic Land Concessions (ELCs), often for large-scale agricultural
plantations of rubber trees and sugarcane. Under the cloak of operating
as an ELC, the companies strip the concession and surrounding land of
valuable trees, such as rosewood, to sell at profit. Much of the prized
wood is exported to Vietnam and China, where it is highly sought after
for furniture making.
Concessions are even granted inside so-called protected areas such as national parks.
“So, inside the protected areas, now
local people have to buy water from the private company because they’ve
blocked the waterway in order to keep the water to supply the rubber
concessions,” Leng explained.
Born to a poor family just before the
Khmer Rouge era, Leng grew up in a country still ravaged by civil war.
He struggled to gain an education and eventually won a scholarship to
study law. He then worked for various human rights organisations before
founding the Cambodia Human Rights Task Forces, dedicating himself to
land rights and protecting the forests that had sustained him and his
family during difficult times.
“I’m very excited and very proud,” Leng
said of winning the coveted award. “My family is very poor, so they’re
very proud for me. It’s more like a dream. It is unbelievable.
Cambodia is a dangerous country for those
exposing environmental crimes. Fellow activist Chut Wutty was gunned
down in 2012, while a park ranger and police officer were killed while
on patrol last November.
Leng vows to keep up his work, despite
the dangers. “I think that I have only lived until now because I’m
lucky,” he said. “If I’m unlucky, I will end up like my brother Chutt
Wutty.”
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