They arrive on foot wearing tall rubber boots and faded army fatigues. Others appear on motorbikes, baseball hats pulled low against northern Cambodia’s steamy afternoon haze. They trickle in until 11 men and three women stand around a heavy wooden table or sit on rough-cut stump stools.
They’re the community forest patrol of Kunpheap, a 734-person village in Cambodia’s vast Preah Vihear province, and it’s their 395-hectare forest they’ve gathered to protect.
The night before, commune council member Kuch Sour heard the telltale buzz of a chainsaw in the nearby community forest — parcels of land recognized by the Cambodian government as usable by local residents for resin and other natural resource collection. It’s a sure sign of foul play, he said, as only those sourcing wood for new home construction are permitted to use one.