More than half of Cambodia and Laos’ tree cover loss in 2024 was recorded inside protected areas, Mongabay’s Gerald Flynn reports.

The findings were a result of Mongabay’s analysis of satellite data published by the Global Land Analysis and Discovery laboratory at the University of Maryland, in partnership with Global Forest Watch.

In Cambodia, 56% of the nation’s tree cover loss was recorded within its protected area network last year. In Laos, the figure was 64%.

Across the Mekong region, which includes Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, tree cover loss reached 991,801 hectares (about 2.5 million acres) in 2024, including nearly 220,000 hectares (544,000 acres) of primary forest.

Estimated tree cover loss in the five Mekong nations. Image by Andrés Alegría/Mongabay.

Cambodia

Many of Cambodia’s forests are newly protected. In mid-2023, the Cambodian government added about 1.1 million hectares (2.6 million acres) of forest land to the country’s protected areas network.

At the time, civil society groups raised concerns over the authorities’ ability to enforce protections over the expanded area, and the latest data seem to back them up.

Forest loss in Cambodia was lower in 2024 than 2023 by 22.6%, but the nation lost an area around the size of urban São Paulo or New Delhi: 93,000 hectares (230,000 acres). Around 56% of this loss was inside protected areas. In some cases, government-supported projects are responsible for the losses.

In Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary, for instance, where an estimated 9,346 hectares (23,094 acres) were lost, a new high-voltage transmission line has recently cut the lowland rainforest in half.

Another 7,268 hectares (17,960 acres) were cleared in the Beng Per Wildlife Sanctuary, with some of that loss likely coming from expanding rubber and cashew tree plantations.

“Large-scale forest destruction continues in Cambodia unabated,” said Marcus Hardtke, a forest activist who has worked in Cambodia for three decades. “We are now seeing regime cronies targeting high value conservation forests in remote areas, with the blessing and protection of the higher echelons in the government.”

Laos

Forest loss in Laos was even starker; the nation has among the highest deforestation rates in the Mekong region, with total tree cover loss almost three times higher than that of Cambodia.

The country lost more than 351,000 hectares (867,000 acres) of tree cover in 2024, of which 223,493 hectares (552,236 acres), or 64%, was recorded within the nation’s 1.2 million hectares (3 million acres) of protected areas.

Laos has reportedly authorized about 110,000 hectares (272,000 acres) of protected land for foreign investors, while banana and durian plantations seem to have encroached on biodiversity protection forests like Dong Hua Sao and Xe Pian, located in southern Laos, Flynn reports.

Luang Prabang province in northern Laos, which hosts a UNESCO World Heritage site, lost nearly 40,000 hectares (99,000 acres), some of it attributable to the construction of a 1,460-megawatt hydroelectric dam.

Read the full story by Gerald Flynn here.

Banner image: Logging in western Cambodia. Image anonymously provided to Mongabay.