Chinese Firm Could Be Ruining Cambodian National Park With "Tourist City"

The Dara Sakor project in Cambodia, initiated in early 2008 by the Chinese construction firm UDG, has come under scrutiny for its alleged environmental and legal violations, as reported by Lulu Luo and Jonathan Head for BBC News.

GEI, which conducted a detailed study of Dara Sakor in 2016, stated that there is no evidence that UDG conducted any required environmental impact assessments according to Cambodian law. I Photo: Dara Sakor Facebook

UDG secured a 99-year lease with a mere $1 million deposit for the right to develop 36,000 hectares initially, later expanded to 45,000 hectares - a generous arrangement given that the land was situated within the Botum Sakor National Park and exceeded the legal limit of 10,000 hectares for any single project.

The project aimed to build a self-contained tourist city, often described as a Chinese colony, featuring an international airport, deep-sea port, power stations, hospitals, casinos, and luxury villas.

However, none of these plans were ever fully realized.

Due to the lack of information about the deal when it was made, there was no public discussion in the Cambodian media. Since 2008, the national park has lost nearly 20% of its primary forests, according to the NGO Global Forest Watch.

More than 1,000 families have been displaced and forced to abandon their villages.

The Chinese environmental organization GEI, which conducted a detailed study of Dara Sakor in 2016, stated that there is no evidence that the company conducted any required environmental impact assessments according to Cambodian law.

GEI also found no information on how the forests, which were supposed to be protected, were reclassified as suitable for development.

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