Secret titanium mine threatens Cambodia's most untouched forest

Cardamom Mountain Range waterfall popular with ecotourists. Photo courtesy of the Wildlife Alliance.
Map of the mining area. Click image to enlarge.
American tourists on birdwatching tour led from Chi Phat
Spoonbills in flight photographed from helicopter. Photos courtesy of the Wildlife Alliance.
Forest Cover Statistics
Khmer burial jars (300-500 years old) in one of 12 known archaeological sites in the Cardamoms. Photo courtesy of the Wildlife Alliance.
Map of the mining area. Click image to enlarge.

September 01, 2010
Jeremy Hance
mongabay.com

Although the mining consortium, United Khmer Group, has been drawing up plans to build a massive titanium mine in a Cambodian protected forest for three years, the development did not become public knowledge until rural villagers came face-to-face with bulldozers and trucks building access roads. Reaction against the secret mine was swift as environmentalists feared for the impacts on wildlife and the rivers, local villagers saw a looming threat to their burgeoning eco-tourism trade, and Cambodian newspapers began to question statements by the mining corporation. While the government has suspended the roadwork to look more closely at the mining plans, Cambodians wait in uncertainty over the fate of one of most isolated and intact ecosystems in Southeast Asia: the Cardamom Mountains.

Spreading over some 2 million hectares (5 million acres) the Cardamom Mountains contain a startling biodiversity, including some 250 bird species, half of those recorded in Cambodia. Rare species such as Malayan sun bears, Indochinese tigers, pileated gibbons, and Siamese crocodiles inhabit the region. The largest population of Asian elephants in Cambodia, numbering about a hundred individuals, also roams this region.
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