Illegal Chainsaw Decommission Ceremony

On June 16th, His Excellency Dr. Mok Mareth, Minister of the Environment, and His Excellency Yim Chhayly, Deputy Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, joined Cambodian conservationists in Koh Kong Province for the Illegal Chainsaw Decommission Ceremony.

As H.E. Dr. Mok addressed the crowd, he talked about Cambodia's rich endowment of natural resources and emphasized the need to protect these resources.

"We know the forest is one of the most important natural resources for national socio-economy, for agriculture, water supply, tourism, and the local community," said H.E. Dr. Mok. "In this sense, we need to start to change our attitude toward our forests by looking beyond the tangible benefits obtained from the sale of timber in the market."

H.E. Dr. Mok also talked about global climate change, and the need for Cambodia to play into the global picture by protecting its important natural resources.

"The world is now concerned about climate change: global warming, the change in precipitation and sea level rise, which threaten all national in the whole world, particularly the least developed countries such as Cambodia, where there is little in place to respond to this challenging issue."

H.E. Dr. Mok expressed his hopes that the countries involved in the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to be held in Denmark at the end of 2009 will reach a practical resolution on the role of the forest in addressing climate change.