Conservation Colonel
Flying over the Cardamom Mountains with Conservation International we spot an illegal logging truck, probably run by the military.
'Boy, look at the timber there. They're running away!' says Vietnam vet, David Mead, who has set up and policed huge reserves. After 8 hours ride into the jungle by motorbike, David's team find ox carts laden with timber. They can't confiscate the wood, so they burn the carts. It's guerrilla war between the armed rangers and the loggers. 'It's still an enemy. Protection involves hard enforcement - guns,' says Mead. Sometimes the Cambodian army itself is forced to pretend to crack down on logging. Troops on the Thai border raid a mill almost certainly run by another arm of the military. The army in the conservation area denies it allows logging, as the laden trucks roll past. Global Witness says the army is complicit: 'A lot of them own their own chainsaws. They also provide protection from tree stump to main road for others who've are logging'. We find loggers who agree, but speaking out means death.
FULL SYNOPSIS