SIEM REAP, Cambodia — Chhoeung Chheng, a journalist covering environmental issues for local online news outlet Kampuchea Aphiwat News, has died of his injuries after being shot in Siem Reap province on Dec. 4 by a suspected illegal logger. Chheng was rushed to a commune health clinic with a gunshot wound to the abdomen before being transferred to Siem Reap Provincial Hospital where, in the early hours of Dec. 7, he died of his wounds. The attack took place at around 6 p.m. near Trapeang Phluoh village, Pongro Leu commune, Chi Kraeng district, Siem Reap province, close to Beng Per Wildlife Sanctuary, where Chheng and a colleague, Moeun Ny, had been traveling at the time. “We’d traveled from toward Trapeang Raing, which is a conservation area under the Ministry of Environment, to take photos of illegal [forest] activities for producing news,” Ny told Mongabay. The pair had been traveling toward Beng Per Wildlife Sanctuary, a protected forest that lost 72% of its primary forest cover between 2002 and 2023, according to Global Forest Watch data. Based on testimony from witnesses, this map shows the rough location of the shooting, which happened on the border of Beng Per Wildlife Sanctuary as Chhoeung Chheng and Moeun Ny returned from the forest. Image by Gerald Flynn / Mongabay. Much of that deforestation was due to economic land concessions that saw some 70,000 hectares of the sanctuary cleared to make way for rubber plantations. What remains of the forest has been further decimated by new…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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