PREAH VIHEAR, Cambodia — “I would like to announce to the public and the journalists that on November 2, the Ministry of Mines and Energy requested [Prime Minister Hun Manet] not to expand mining operations nor seek further mining business in Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary,” Keo Rattanak, Cambodia’s minister of mines and energy, said at a press conference on Nov. 21, 2023. According to Rattanak, Manet accepted the request the same day it was made, “demonstrating [Manet’s] will to preserve Prey Lang” by essentially freezing the issuance of new mining licenses inside the hotly contested sanctuary. The ban will also reassess existing mining concessions in Prey Lang, returning land not used for mining purposes to the state, Rattanak added. It will also prevent companies currently mining the roughly 490,000-hectare (1.2-million-acre) protected forest from expanding their concessions. The announcement represented a rare victory for Prey Lang, the largest lowland rainforest in mainland Southeast Asia. The vast protected forest sustains roughly 250,000 Indigenous people and serves as a sprawling carbon sink. It’s also a watershed that regulates water flows to both Tonle Sap Lake and the Mekong River, as well home to hundreds of tree species, at least 20 of which are threatened or near threatened. Hunting and habitat loss have greatly reduced the wildlife populations of Prey Lang, but a 2023 report detailed 19 mammal, 34 bird and one reptile species being observed in the wildlife sanctuary via camera traps. This resource-rich jungle that spans across the Cambodian provinces of Kampong…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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