Sand exports to Singapore harm Cambodia: watchdog

Yahoo News 10 May 10;

PHNOM PENH (AFP) – Cambodia is engaged in destructive sand exports to fuel Singapore's rapid expansion despite a supposed government ban on the practice, an environmental watchdog said Tuesday.

London-based Global Witness said Cambodia was making a "mockery of the government's supposed May 2009 ban on sand-dredging", risking devastation to its coasts, endangered species, fish stocks and local livelihoods.

"There is no evidence that basic environmental safeguards have been applied, with boats reportedly turning up and dredging sand, often in protected areas, with no local consultation," said its new report, entitled "Shifting Sands".

The group, which has made many allegations of Cambodian cronyism in recent years, said Mong Reththy and Ly Yong Phat -- senators known to have close ties to premier Hun Sen -- have been covertly awarded licences to dredge sand.

"This situation highlights the continued failure of Cambodia's international donors to use their leverage to hold the small elite surrounding the prime minister to account," said George Boden, campaigner at Global Witness.

The report said investigators tracked sand-filled boats from Cambodia to Singapore, estimating concessions from southwestern Koh Kong province alone netted 20 million dollars per month for some 796,000 tonnes of sand.

Global Witness added that figures from other concessions along Cambodia's coast were not known, and there was no way to track whether revenues from sand exports reached the national treasury.

"In addition, Global Witness has seen Cambodian sand dredging and export licences which bear the stamp and signature of a representative of the Singapore Embassy in Cambodia," the report said.

Singapore has expanded its surface area by 22 percent since the 1960s, said the report, requiring vast quantities of imported sand from neighbours in Southeast Asia.

Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam have halted sand exports to the city-state over concerns the practice depleted fish stocks and caused erosion.

The Cambodian government has banned past reports by Global Witness, which also accused donors of ignoring graft among elites who have allegedly been involved in illegal logging as well as shady oil and mining deals.

Cambodia ignoring 'devastating sand exports'
oneworld.net 11 May 10;

Environment at risk as Cambodia exports millions of tonnes of sand to Singapore, new Global Witness report reveals

Singapore’s rapid expansion is driving an ecologically and socially devastating sand-dredging industry in Cambodia, according to a new report released today by Global Witness. This booming trade is being monopolised by two prominent Cambodian Senators with close ties to Prime Minster Hun Sen – despite a supposed government ban on sand exports.

The Global Witness report Shifting Sand: how Singapore’s demand for Cambodian sand threatens ecosystems and undermines good governance reveals that:

· Cambodian Senators Mong Reththy and Ly Yong Phat have been awarded sand extraction licences behind closed doors, gaining control of an industry worth millions of dollars – but there is no evidence of any revenues reaching Cambodia’s state coffers. Both have been implicated in dubious land deals and forced evictions, and have recently been criticised for sponsoring units of Cambodia’s armed forces. This points to the increasing stranglehold of Cambodia’s kleptocratic elite on its natural resources, replicating a pattern of corruption, cronyism, and rights abuses previously found in the forestry sector and extractive industries.

· Cambodia’s sand-dredging industry poses a huge risk to its coastal environment, threatening endangered species, fish stocks and local livelihoods. There is no evidence that basic environmental safeguards have been applied, with boats reportedly turning up and dredging sand, often in protected areas, with no local consultation. All this makes a mockery of the government’s supposed May 2009 ban on sand-dredging.

· This trade is driven by Singapore. The city state was the world’s largest importer of sand in 2008. It has used sand imports to increase its landmass by 22% since the 1960s. This project has wreaked havoc on the region’s coastlines, with Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia having all now announced bans on sand dredging for export due to environmental concerns.

“This situation highlights the continued failure of Cambodia’s international donors to use their leverage to hold the small elite surrounding the Prime Minister to account,” said George Boden, campaigner at Global Witness. “Cambodia’s natural resource wealth should be lifting its population out of poverty. Instead, international aid has propped up basic services in Cambodia for over 15 years, providing the equivalent of 50% of the government budget. Meanwhile, money from natural resources disappears into private bank accounts, and nearly 70% of the population subsists on less than $2 a day.”

Global Witness’ investigation tracked boats being loaded with sand in Cambodia to their destinations in Singapore. It also uncovered contracts linking Singaporean companies to Cambodia’s sand industry. In June this year, Singapore will host the World Cities Summit, which promotes ‘sustainable and liveable cities’.

“Singapore says that the import of sand is a purely commercial activity but it also presents itself as a regional leader on environmental issues,” said Boden. “The country’s failure to mitigate the social and ecological cost of sand dredging represents hypocrisy on a grand scale. If Singapore wants its environmental stance to be taken seriously, monitoring where the sand is sourced and what is being done to obtain it would be an obvious place to start.”

Global Witness investigates and campaigns to end natural resource-related conflict and corruption and associated environmental and human rights abuses

Report: Sand for Singapore devastating ecology
Denis D. Gray (AP) Google News 11 May 10;

BANGKOK — Cambodia is devastating its coast by dredging vast quantities of sand to sell to tiny Singapore for expansion projects, with multimillion-dollar profits going to tycoons close to the Cambodian prime minister, a watchdog group said Tuesday.

Impoverished Cambodia has become the new prime source of the masses of sand used for projects to artificially enlarge Singapore's island territory now that several other Southeast Asian nations — including Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam — have banned sand exports because of environmental concerns.

Singapore has increased its surface area by 20 percent in recent decades by filling in coastal seabeds to create new, valuable waterfront ground, a process known as "land reclamation."

London-based environmental watchdog Global Witness criticized Singapore for the practice, pointing out that the wealthy island city-state at the same time "presents itself as a regional leader on environmental issues."

"The country's failure to mitigate the social and ecological cost of sand dredging represents hypocrisy on a grand scale," Global Witness said in a report released Tuesday.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen last year announced a blanket ban on sand exports following local protests, but the Global Witness investigation said the country continues to supply Singapore with tens of thousands of tons of sand dredged up from rivers and estuaries along the fragile coastline.

Operations from just one Cambodian province were estimated to be worth $248 million annually in retail value in Singapore, the group said.

Cambodia's law on sand actually banned only river sand from export, but Global Witness said its investigators found that both river and sea sand have been exported since the law was passed.

Global Witness said the government has been "failing to ensure compliance with Cambodia's other environmental and socio-economic legal framework," though a Cambodian government spokesman said that dredging is confined to areas where the environment would not be degraded.

Singapore's National Development Ministry said sand import is carried out by private enterprises, which must by law "not breach any of the source countries' environment rules and other relevant laws."

The Cambodian sand trade, Global Witness said, is monopolized by two senators with close ties to Hun Sen "with no evidence of any revenues (from the exports) reaching Cambodia's state coffers."

One of the senators, Mong Rethy, refused to comment when reached by telephone, while the other, Ly Yong Phat, could not be reached despite several attempts.

Global Witness has over the past decade published several reports chronicling the stranglehold of what it calls Cambodia's "kleptocratic elite" on the country's forests, minerals and other natural resources through corruption and cronyism, often accompanied by abuses of human rights.

The government has denied such charges, but Cambodia's international donors, including the United States and the European Union, have leveled similar criticism.

Global Witness' latest report said Cambodia's sand-dredging industry "poses a huge risk to its coastal environment, threatening endangered species, fish stocks and local livelihoods. There is no evidence that basic environmental safeguards have been applied."

It said that concessions had been allocated inside protected areas and that on one day alone, nine dredging vessels were spotted inside such a zone. Extraction has actually increased since last year, it said.

The report quotes a government website as estimating that up to 60,000 tons of sand are mined each month from the water of Koh Kong province in the country's southwest.

Cambodian government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said a total ban was in place on sand dredging near islands and eco-tourism areas, deep water regions and in zones with large number of fish stocks.

However, he said some dredging is permitted to serve local demand and allow passage of ships in silted-over areas. Surplus sand could be exported, he said.

Singapore's government denied any wrongdoing and disputed the Global Witness report's allegations.

"The report suggests that the Singapore government seeks to import sand without due regard to the law or environmental impact of the source country. This is not true," a statement from National Development Ministry said.

Associated Press writer Sopheng Cheang in Phnom Penh and Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.

Sand exports go on unabated
Sebastian Strangio and Vong Sokheng Phnom Penh Post 11 May 10;

Watchdog group says exports have only increased despite last year’s ban.

A RECENT boom in sand exports from Cambodia to Singapore, fuelled by a “complete lack” of transparency and government regulation, could severely damage the country’s riverine and coastal ecosystems, according to a report released on Monday by international anticorruption watchdog Global Witness.

The 40-page report, titled Shifting Sands, argues that exports to Singapore, where the sand is used for land reclamation projects, are enriching Cambodia’s elite while causing long-term damage to the environment and local livelihoods.

It contends that, despite a sand export ban announced by Prime Minister Hun Sen in May 2009 in response to local concerns, sand mining has spiked in Koh Kong province, which lies at the centre of the local sand industry.

Up to 796,000 tonnes of sand is currently being removed from Koh Kong’s saltwater estuaries and marine areas each month, Global Witness says, compared with a “conservative” estimate of just 60,000 tonnes made by the group in February last year.

“This is clear evidence that the elite capture of very lucrative extractive resources is continuing,” Global Witness campaigner George Boden said.
“There’s a clear discrepancy between what the government is saying and what it is doing.”

The group estimates that the annual value of these shipments is US$28.7 million in Cambodia and $248 million once the sand reaches Singapore, and that the trade is conducted with little regard for international standards or local laws.

“Companies operating in the sand sector as well as Cambodia’s regulatory agencies are ignoring its national environmental and social safeguards, and international industry best practices. The environmental consequences are potentially devastating,” the report states. Because of the country’s opaque budgeting process, it adds, the net benefit to Cambodia of the trade is “impossible” to quantify.

Lucrative concessions

Global Witness says the Koh Kong sand business is dominated by Ly Yong Phat and Mong Reththy, both senators from the Cambodian People’s Party. One of Koh Kong’s larger operations is the joint partnership between Ly Yong Phat’s LYP Group and the Hong Kong-based Winton Enterprises, which was first reported by the Post in March 2009.

It also links LYP Group’s operations, concentrated in the Koh Pao, Tatai and Sre Ambel rivers, to Riverton Group, a company registered in Singapore, and others with ties to the city-state.

Global Witness researchers observed dredging boats operating within Koh Kong’s Peam Krasop Wildlife Sanctuary, a 25,897-hectare protected zone, confirming reports published by the Post last year that dredgers were operating in the area in violation of Cambodian law.

The Mong Reththy Group has also been linked to dredging export operations at Sre Ambel, in connection with a number of smaller local firms.

When contacted Monday, Mong Reththy acknowledged having a licence to export sand dredged as part of the construction of his company’s project at Keo Phos Port in Koh Kong, but denied that any shipments had been made.

“I have never sold any sand, not even one kilogramme. I don’t know where Global Witness got this information,” he said. “I have a licence to export sand to Singapore, but the sand there does not meet [its] standards; therefore I couldn’t sell it to Singapore.”

Pech Siyon, director of the Department of Industry, Energy and Mines in Koh Kong, also challenged the findings, saying sand-mining operations in the province had dropped off since Hun Sen’s ban.

Only Udom Seima Trading – a local company listed in the report – is operating in the province, and LYP has temporarily halted its operations, he said.

“LYP suspended its operation because its contract with Singapore was finished. LYP is now in the process for trying to resume its contract for export to Singapore,” he said, and added that he expected export operations to resume this month.

Another official dismissed the report as politically motivated. “The reports of Global Witness are always exaggerated and attacking the Cambodian government in order to bring a political benefit for a small group such as an opposition party,” said Tith Sothea, a spokesman from the Press and Quick Reaction Unit at the Council of Ministers.

He added that before issuing sand export licences, government experts consider the potential effects on the environment. “Every sand dredging company causing an environmental impact was completely banned by the government,” he said.

Ly Yong Phat could not be reached for comment.

Far-reaching effects

But Thomas J Goreau, president of the Global Coral Reef Alliance, echoed the concerns expressed in Shifting Sands, arguing that dredging almost always has negative environmental effects. He said the chief issue is that mud and silt stirred up by dredging ships can smother marine organisms and block the light that is essential to the growth of coral reefs and seagrasses.

The decomposition of organic matter borne by sediment can also decompose, stripping the water of oxygen and causing other organisms to suffocate and die. Due to ocean currents, the affected areas can extend much further than the sites of dredging operations.

Although not familiar with the specifics of Cambodia’s coastal ecosystems, Goreau said that reefs in the Andaman Sea along the coast of Thailand and Malaysia were destroyed long ago by the impacts of dredging by tin-mining operations.

“There is probably no place in the world where dredging projects have not badly damaged nearby aquatic habitats,” he said.

Late last year, hundreds of fishermen in Koh Kong and Kampot provinces protested repeatedly against the dredging operations, saying fish catches had been destroyed by the trade.

Fisherman Matt Sen, 46, from Village 4 in Koh Kong’s Dong Tung commune, said that although there appeared to have been a temporary halt to dredging operations, fish catches had declined by around 40 percent since last year.

“Now there are less sand-dredging activities, but individual fish catches are still declining. I don’t know why,” he said.

A race to the bottom

In January 2007, Indonesia imposed a blanket ban on sand exports due to severe environmental degradation, and Vietnam – currently the leading supplier to Singapore – is set to institute a similar ban next month.

As sand sources are closed off to Singapore, Goreau said, companies will naturally seek out alternatives in countries with less stringent regulations.

“It is only natural that the market will seek the cheapest and closest sources, especially where regulation is weak.”

Boden from Global Witness said the Singaporean government should take action to ensure sand is sourced in a transparent manner in line with international treaties it has signed.

He added that the city-state’s highly publicised passage of a National Biodiversity Strategy last year stood in stark contrast with the local dealings of the Singaporean sand merchants.

“In Singapore’s own policies, they are trying to show that they have a commitment to biodiversity ... but the way in which Singaporean companies are operating in Cambodia is an indication this is not yet being done,” he said.

Officials at the Singaporean embassy in Phnom Penh could not be reached Monday.

DREDGING UP CONCERNS

Cambodia’s lucrative trade in ‘white gold’

* The importers: Since the 1960s, land-poor Singapore has expanded its land area by 22 percent, mostly through land reclamation projects using imported sand.
* The exporters: Global Witness says that the LYP Group and Mong Reththy Group, owned by CPP senators Ly Yong Phat and Mong Reththy, dominate the country’s sand trade, in connection with a number of Hong Kong- and Singapore-based firms.
* The source areas: Most export-grade sand is sourced from saltwater estuaries in Koh Kong province. Global Witness estimates that as much as 796,000 tonnes of sand is being removed from Koh Kong each month.

Putting the sand boom into perspective

* Assuming the sand weighs about 2 kilograms per litre: Every month, exporters could be shipping enough to fill 160 Olympic swimming pools.
* Those pools, stacked one on the other, would be almost three times as tall as the nation’s tallest building, Canadia Tower. After three decades, they would be taller than Mount Everest.
* 796,000 tonnes per month is enough to cover all of Phnom Penh a centimetre deep in just eight months, or Kep in nine.

Singapore sand imports threaten Cambodian ecosystem, report warns
Global Witness claims Singapore is expanding its coastline with irresponsibly dredged sand from Cambodia
Jonathan Watts guardian.co.uk 11 May 10;

Singapore, which prides itself on being one of the most environmentally friendly nations in Asia, is expanding its coastline with irresponsibly dredged sand from Cambodia, according to a report from an environmental NGO.

Global Witness says the lucrative sand trade devastates ecosystems, lacks regulatory oversight and enriches traders at the expense of local fishermen.

The report, Shifting Sand: how Singapore's demand for Cambodian sand threatens ecosystems and undermines good governance, reveals that much of the demand is from Singapore, a small island state with big ambitions to increase its territory. The city state of 4.9 million people has expanded its surface area from 582 sq km in the 1960s, to 710 sq km in 2008, an increase of 22%, and it has ambitious plans to reclaim further land from the sea.

This requires far more sand than the island is able to provide for itself, prompting suppliers and middlemen to dredge and buy overseas.

Cargo manifests and photographs in the report suggest Singapore imported 14.2m tonnes of sand worth $273m (£184m) in 2008 from Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia. Its sourcing has reportedly expanded recently to Burma, the Philippines and Bangladesh.

The lucrative trade has alarmed neighbouring nations, which have seen chunks of their land being shipped off. After local media reported the shrinkage of several islands in Indonesia, the government there banned sales of sand to Singapore in 2008. Malaysia and Vietnam have imposed similar controls.

After the trade moved to Cambodia, the prime minister, Hun Sen, announced last May that his country too would restrict exports of sand.

But Global Witness says coastal dredging operations have increased in the year since. The NGO estimates a single Cambodian province - Koh Kong - has an annual trade with Singapore worth $248m (£168m).

On a single day, the NGO says its investigators have seen nine dredgers inside a single protected area - the Peam Krasop wildlife sanctuary and Koh Kapik Ramsar site.

The dredging operations threaten mangrove swamps, coral reefs and the biggest seagrass bed in the South China Sea, which is home to several rare species including the Irrawaddy dolphin, dugong and seahorses, it said.

Local communities have reported a sharp fall in fish stocks and crab harvests. The Cambodian government has denied any link with dredging operations.

In Cambodia, at least 14 firms have been given dredging licenses. A tonne of sand, which costs $3 (£2) per tonne to extract, can be sold for $26 (£18) per tonne in Singapore. It is unclear how much of the revenues are returned to the people in the form of taxes.

"Cambodia's natural resource wealth should be lifting its population out of poverty. Instead, international aid has propped up basic services in Cambodia for over 15 years. Meanwhile, money from natural resources disappears into private bank accounts, and nearly 70% of the population subsists on less than $2 a day," said George Boden, campaigner at Global Witness.

The government of Singapore, which will this summer host the World Cities Summit - focusing on sustainability - denies any wrongdoing. It says the import of sand for reclamation is done on a commercial basis with safeguards for the environment.

"The policing and enforcement of sand extraction licences is ultimately the responsibility of the source country. However, Singapore will continue to play its part to ensure that sand is extracted in a legal and environmentally responsible manner," noted a statement by the Ministry of National Development. "We have not received any official notice on the ban of sand exports from Cambodia."

Singapore sand demand damages Cambodia environment-report
Neil Chatterjee Reuters 11 May 10;

SINGAPORE, May 11 (Reuters) - Singapore's thirst for sand to increase land reclamation and construction is driving an ecologically damaging sand-dredging industry in Cambodia, according to a report by a non-governmental organisation. London-based Global Witness said on Tuesday that Cambodia's sand-dredging industry threatened endangered species, fish stocks and local livelihoods, despite the government's May 2009 ban on sand-dredging.

"This situation highlights the continued failure of Cambodia's international donors to use their leverage to hold the small elite surrounding the Prime Minister to account," said George Boden, campaigner at Global Witness.

"Cambodia's natural resource wealth should be lifting its population out of poverty."

Koy Koung, the spokesman and undersecretary of state at Cambodia's Foreign Affairs Ministry, said he was unable to comment as the government had not seen the Global Witness report.

The report said Singapore was the world's largest importer of sand in 2008 and has used sand imports to increase its landmass by 22 percent since the 1960s.

It said this development has wreaked havoc on the region's coastlines, with Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia having all announced bans on sand dredging for export due to environmental concerns.

Global Witness said it had tracked boats being loaded with sand in Cambodia to their destinations in Singapore, a regional base for manufacturers and banks that is expanding its financial centre and leisure attractions onto reclaimed land.

The Singapore government said sand imports for reclamation were done on a commercial basis by a government entity, with sand concession holders determining the source locations.

"We are committed to the protection of the global environment, and we do not condone the illegal export or smuggling of sand, or any extraction of sand that is in breach of the source countries' laws and rules on environmental protection," Singapore's Ministry of national Development said.

"The policing and enforcement of sand extraction licenses is ultimately the responsibility of the source country," it added.

In June this year, Singapore will host the World Cities Summit, which promotes 'sustainable and liveable cities'. Singapore, which calls itself the "Garden City", attracts expatriates for its clean environment.

"Singapore says that the import of sand is a purely commercial activity but it also presents itself as a regional leader on environmental issues," said Global Witness' Boden.

"If Singapore wants its environmental stance to be taken seriously, monitoring where the sand is sourced and what is being done to obtain it would be an obvious place to start." (Additional reporting by Prak Chan Thul in Phnom Penh; Editing by Jerry Norton)

More links
Shifting Sand: how Singapore’s demand for Cambodian sand threatens ecosystems and undermines good governance from Global Witness
Singapore rejects claim of illegal sand imports It does not condone the illegal export or smuggling of sand: MND Jessica Cheam, Straits Times 11 May 10;