Taking a Cut

Six years after the Cambodian government pledged to reform the country’s forest sector, the main obstacle to real change – corruption – has not been addressed.

Cambodian functionaries and soldiers charged with suppressing forest crime use their office as a basis for extortion, rather than law enforcement. They are encouraged, even compelled to do so by senior officials in Phnom Penh who control the opaque patronage networks that substitute for a system of governance in Cambodia.

Global Witness and others have highlighted the extent of corruption in Cambodia’s forest sector over almost a decade. The government and international donors have refused to confront the issue, however, with the result that Cambodia’s forest sector reform process has not realised its objectives.

Cambodia remains completely dependent on foreign aid. Meanwhile, the costs of weak forest sector governance, in terms of lost revenues, destruction of rural livelihoods and environmental damage, continue to mount.

This report presents the findings of a series of Global Witness investigations into illegal logging in Aural Wildlife Sanctuary in southwestern Cambodia in 2004. Conditions in Aural precisely illustrate the institutionalised corruption prevalent across the country and the government’s conspicuous failure to address it.