Nature Ramble

Cambodia is not a country we hear much of, unless it is about land grabs and deforestation, so to have a nature story is rare.

Cambodian tailorbird: A new species seen in Phnom Penh

Studies to differentiate the new species from other tailorbirds included analyses of their songs

A species of bird that is completely new to science has been discovered – hiding in plain sight in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh.

The Cambodian tailorbird (Orthotomus chaktomuk), as it has been named, was first spotted in 2009 during routine checks for avian flu.

More specimens have since been found in regions around the city and discerned from similar tailorbird species.

The discovery is outlined in the Oriental Bird Club journal, Forktail.

Tailorbirds are in the warbler family, and get their name from the meticulous preparation of their nests, weaving leaves together.

A detailed set of tests – from the birds’ plumage to their songs and their genes – has now shown that O. chaktomuk is in fact a separate, new species.

It is exceptionally uncommon for undiscovered bird species to be found in urban contexts, but Oriental Bird Club council member Richard Thomas said that earlier in the year, he “went and saw this remarkable new tailorbird myself – in the middle of a road construction site”.

The authors of the paper suggest that O. chaktomuk inhabits a small area, made up largely of dense scrubland in the floodplain of the Mekong river – at the edge of which Phnom Penh lies.

Birdwatchers do not tend to target this kind of ecosystem because most of the species it supports are abundant and widespread elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

“The modern discovery of an un-described bird species within the limits of a large populous city – not to mention 30 minutes from my home – is extraordinary,” said study co-author Simon Mahood of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

“The discovery indicates that new species of birds may still be found in familiar and unexpected locations.”

Because of the small and shrinking nature of the birds’ habitat, the team has recommended that the bird be listed as “Near Threatened” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List.

 

Why do we do this?

How indigenous people are turned off their lands

Hundreds of thousands in Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand are said to have been displaced

A protester faces riot police in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in a demonstration against the eviction of lakeside dwellers. Photograph: Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP/Getty Images

 

Cambodia

More than 400,000 people have been forcibly evicted from their lands since 2003, often without compensation, as the nation sells off its territory to sugar and rubber barons and property developers. Villagers who protest have been beaten, imprisoned and murdered – such as the environmental campaigner Chut Wutty, who was killed last year – as more than one-tenth of land has been transferred in the past few years from small-scale farmers to agribusiness, rights groups claim. A recent Global Witness report – and investigation by the Guardian – found that Deutsche Bank and the International Finance Corporation were bankrolling massive government-sponsored land grabs in both Cambodia and Laos through two Vietnamese companies, HAGL and VRG, which had been granted recent economic land concessions. Villagers claimed they had little food to eat and no chance of jobs, as hardly any positions were offered by the companies.

Vietnam

The state can take land away from citizens for economic development, national security or defence reasons, or in the public interest. But in recent years the government has grabbed land to make way for eco-parks, resorts and golf courses, much to the anger of the public. Last year, around 3,000 security forces were deployed in the northern Hung Yen province after villagers protested against a 70-hectare land grab to make way for an “eco-urban township”. Around the same time, a family of four fish farmers protested against a state eviction squad armed with homemade shotguns and land mines – a bold move in this one-party nation. While the prime minister declared the fish farmers’ eviction illegal, a court recently handed down a five-year jail sentence to those involved in the protest for making a “bad impact on the social order … [of] the country as a whole”.

Thailand

The sea gypsies in the southern resort island of Phuket are facing eviction after living on and around the beaches of Rawai for the past 200 years. Thai landowners claim they want the land back to build houses and a “sea gypsy village” in which tourists can buy fish and see how this once nomadic seafaring tribe now lives on land. The sea gypsy communities have so far refused to move, but could be forcibly evicted if no resolution is reached. Sea gypsies in neighbouring areas, such as Khao Lak, have also been forced off their land by resorts and hotels over past decades, while Burmese sea gypsies around the Mergui islands are reportedly being moved out by authorities keen to develop the area for tourism.

More cases of greedy corporations and governments.

You can’t make money from a native village, but build a resort or a golf course for the billionaires and you can make a lot of money!

It matters not that you are destroying lives.

 

Are we fighting a loosing battle?

Cambodian environmental campaigner shot dead by police

Chut Wutty is said to have angered many influential people while campaigning for Cambodia's forests

A leading Cambodian environmentalist who investigated illegal logging has been killed in a confrontation with police, officials say.

Chut Wutty was shot dead while travelling in a threatened forest region in the south-west.

Details of the incident are unclear, but police say an officer was also killed in the exchange.

Mr Wutty had been helping indigenous people organise protests against the exploitation of protected forests.

Chut Wutty was driving through a remote area of Koh Kong province with two journalists from the Cambodia Daily newspaper at the time of the incident.

The BBC’s Guy De Launey in Phnom Penh says there have been suggestions that military police ordered the reporters to delete images from their cameras and that Mr Wutty objected.

Precisely what happened next is unclear, but shots were fired, and the environmental activist was fatally wounded.

A military police commander said one of his officers was also killed, while “doing his duty”.

Outspoken

Mr Wutty was one of the most outspoken activists in Cambodia. One of his colleagues told the BBC that he had angered many influential people.

He had received death threats in the past and sometimes carried an AK-47 rifle in his car.

The campaign group Global Witness says he had been one of the “few remaining Cambodian activists willing to speak out against the rapid escalation of illegal logging and land grabbing”.

It says that corruption and violence around Cambodia’s forests have been “well documented”, and that the killing of Mr Wutty’s demonstrates that “those who take on these vested interests face intimidation and even death”.

Source: BBC News Read more

Opinion:

There are so many incidents like this, many that don’t make international headlines. Here in Brazil it happens with an alarming frequency.

There are so few who are prepared to stand up and fight.

Just another example of money talks. It must be obvious to all, that the police were doing the bidding of the criminals. Why else would they stop and question a journalist who was doing THEIR job?