All language subtitles for Asias Underworld s02e04 Illegal Loggers.eng

The illegal timber trade
is worth up to 100 billion dollars a year,

double the annual revenue
of all of Macau's casinos put together.

It has funded warlords
and genocidal regimes,

and has powerful allies
in very high places.

Cambodia is one of the centres
of illegal timber production,

where unlawful timber barons
have created their own private kingdoms,

making millions in the process.

It's an absolutely massive amount
of money,

and who can turn it down,

especially in a poverty stricken country
like this.

A growing group of activists are fighting
against the illegal loggers.

But with millions of dollars at stake,

the logging cartels are willing to bribe,
bully and even kill!

Cut off from the world
during the 1970s and '80s...

...because of civil war,

Cambodia's rainforests lourished...

...while those of neigbouring countries
succumbed to the chainsaw.

But the '90s changed all that.

The government gave out
basically all the forest...

...to foreign companies...

...and it was all a gigantic mess.

Companies running all over the place,
no control, no law,

military involved,
government forced logging.

Cambodia was on a downward
environmental spiral,

and the government was forced
to step in and step up.

Cambodia has very good,
very strong laws on forestry.

Both under the constitution,

which there are laws
which protects resin trees...

...and the forest products,

things that indigenous
in forest community rely on.

Unfortunately, this is not being followed,

if the law is being followed,
there wouldn't be any problem here.

Today, Cambodia,
once rich with lush tropical forest,

has only 3 percent
of its primary forest remaining.

Despite the strict laws,

Cambodia has a mighty battle on its hands.

Unfortunately since 2008,
we are going backwards,

we are going back
into the old ways rapidly.

We have high level organized
illegal logging...

...and I am not talking
about some villagers...

...cutting down some trees here and there.

It's a gigantic timber grab.

With the average wage of a Cambodian
being 20 dollars a day,

illegal logging is an easy way
to earn good money,

not just for the loggers,
but for everyone involved.

Illegal loggers often work in small teams,

with just two drivers and two lookouts
accompanying the tree fellers.

Such teams work
surprisingly efficiently...

...as long as they remember
to spread the wealth around.

With so many people taking a cut
from the lucrative logging pie,

protecting the business soars
to new levels.

And it is the bigger companies
that have more to lose.

On government-leased land,

clearing forest to develop agriculture
is actually legal.

The resulting timber can even be sold.

But when the legal timber runs out,

loggers turn
to Cambodia's protected forests...

...to make their money,

often under the guise of another project.

We have one example with the dam permit...

...that was given out
in the cardamom mountains.

But the company
was basically collecting rosewood...

...from all over the mountain,
which are protected area.

And conservative estimates saying
that action alone netted them...

...around 200 to 250
million dollars.

With more money to lose
if they get found out,

the larger illegal logging cartels go
that extra mile...

...to protect their assets.

In fighting this,
you are actually dealing with people...

...who's willing
to commit illegal activities.

When it become gangs
or a groups of gangs...

...willing to arm themselves,

willing to corrupt the judges,

willing to corrupt the police,
willing to corrupt the military.

You are actually dealing
with a dangerous group.

Those who get in their way
are harassed, intimidated,

threatened or worse.

In September 2012,
a journalist who had often reported...

...on illegal logging activity was killed.

Hang Serei Oudum had written
a string of exposes about forest crimes...

...involving the social elite
and powerful officials.

His last story accused
a military police commander's son...

...of smuggling logs
in military plated vehicles...

...and extorting money from others
who were illegally transporting wood.

Hang Serais body was found
in the trunk of his own car...

...with two axe wounds to the head.

Well, here is the problem
with deforestation.

It's actually an illegal activity...

...and because
it is an illegal lucrative activity,

many of these people responsible...

...for clearing the forest
and selling timbers,

are actually behaving like drug cartels.

Others who have taken
on the illegal logging industry...

...have also died
under mysterious circumstances.

Uncovering the truth behind their deaths
involves going deep...

...into the country's shadowy network
of corrupt officials,

powerful timber barons
and dangerous criminals.

Koh Kong Province, Cambodia.

April 2012.

48-year-old conservation environmentalist
Chut Wutty...

...is found dead in his car.

A few feet away,
a military police officer...

...by the name of In Rattana
lies in a pool of blood.

It is clearly not the scene
of an accident.

With no witnesses, investigators turn
to the dead man for clues.

Chut Wutty was a well-known activist.

He had fearlessly taken on...

...some of Cambodia's
biggest logging warlords.

Over the course of 15 years,

this young Khmer environmentalist
had made some powerful enemies.

He was the only person that was prepared
to stand up and speak his mind...

...and speak the truth,

educating villagers who knew nothing
about their rights under the law.

Chut Wutty had been investigating...

...the 100 billion dollar-illegal
timber industry...

...for 15 years...

...and he didn't like what he found.

Powerless to take on the logging warlords
directly,

Wutty encouraged local villagers
to stand up for what was theirs,

the forests.

The forests were a lifeline for thousands
of villagers across Cambodia,

giving them products
like honey, resin and rattan.

With the forests disappearing
in front of their eyes,

so was their livelihood.

The villagers at that time,
they are getting no compensation,

absolutely zero.

They get a tiny poor land
that some of them have, for growing rice,

and they don't know what to do.

These people don't have any education.

This was something that I heard
from villager after villager.

I just don't know what to do.

I'm terrified.

We have lost everything.

Chut Wutty helped
such desperate villagers fight back.

He would lead them
in patrolling their local forests...

...in search of illegal timber dumps.

When they came across one,

it would be set ablaze
in front of a ravenous media...

...looking for news.

Not only did this
hit the loggers' profits,

it put the offending companies right
in the spot light,

and publicity
was the last thing they wanted.

Chut Wutty knew he was playing with fire.

He was fearless for sure,
because he knew the rest,

he knew the people get killed
over these things here,

enormous amount of money involved
in illegal logging...

...and very well-connected,
people involved in it.

Chut Wutty had already clashed
with the timber barons several times,

but he didn't back down.

On April 12th 2013,

he was investigating
suspected illegal logging...

...in a forest in western Cambodia
when he was ambushed.

Police investigating the crime said

that Wutty had taken photos
that could prove illegal logging.

They say that the police officer
on the ground at the time, In Rattana,

had demanded Wutty hand over
his camera's memory stick.

When Wutty refused, Rattana shot him.

Police went on to say
that plagued with guilt,

Rattana then fatally shot himself...

...twice.

Friend and activist Chhim Savuth,

baffled by this inexplicable suicide
of Chut Wutty's killer,

decided to carry out
his own investigation.

Chhim Savuth's theory
was that Chut Wutty had been shot,

not by Rattana, as the police claimed,
but by a third man.

Rattana was simply a witness
who needed to be silenced.

Well, the official explanation
certainly doesn't hold water.

It's a joke.

Government came up
with four different explanations,

one after another,

including one guy shot Wutty,

and then immediately out of remorse,
he shot himself.

It's just nonsense.

When police reopened the investigation,

they maintained
that Rattana had killed Chut Wutty.

But they arrested a man
for the killing of In Rattana.

Two weeks after his conviction,
Rattana's supposed killer walked free.

Chun Wutty's son
is still waiting for justice...

...for his father.

Chut Wutty's murder
made international headlines,

and was a heavy blow...

...to those fighting
the ubiquitous illegal logging cartels.

Wutty achieved a lot.

How are you gonna replace this guy?

I mean, it takes three or four people
to do what he can do on his own.

Following the death of Chut Wutty,
villagers continue to fight back .

But when the enemy
is a multi-million dollar industry,

it's not always clear what they can do.

Cambodia's illegal timber
mostly goes to Vietnam...

...and, increasingly, China.

From source to destination,

the value of timber can multiply
by over 10 times.

The grand prize of illegal logging
is rosewood,

a commodity more valuable than oil.

A cabinet made from rosewoood
can sell for over 20,000 dollars.

With Cambodia's supplies of rosewood
drying up,

poor Cambodian villagers cross the border,

and hunt for it in Thailand's forests.

Illegal timber dealers will pay them
a hundred dollars...

...for just the stump
of a rosewood tree,

nearly half of what they earn
as farmers in a year.

But to collect that money,
they have to make it back alive.

Thailand is determined
to protect its forests.

In the first half of 2012 alone,

nearly 40 Cambodian loggers were killed
by Thai border patrols.

I mean, there are real wars going on
at the Thai side,

at the Thai side of the border,

where Cambodian loggers,
organized Cambodian loggers...

...crossed into Thailand
and logged the last rose wood trees...

...in the national parks.

And there are regular shootouts
with the Thai border patrols...

...and the Thai rangers.

Sometimes like 20 against 30.

It's really large scale stuff right now.

Because the rosewood is just the...

Like rhino horns, ivory,
it's really high value stuff.

While illegal loggers risk their lives
trying to smuggle logs...

...from across the border,

innocent villagers
are risking their own lives...

...to protect the forests
in their own back yards.

About a third of rural income comes
from forest products,

income that is lost to illegal loggers
clearing wide swathes of forest.

Fed up with the situation,
villagers are taking a stand.

Action by villagers is having some effect.

But it's nowhere near enough
to stop the illegal loggers.

Meanwhile, local
and international pressure...

has resulted in the making
of new laws and regulations,

designed to preserve Cambodia's forests.

As with all crime, the stakes are high.

Increasingly aware of the consequences
of getting caught,

illegal logger Chheang Vuthy
decided to get out before it was too late.

Chheang Vuthy
has now turned his life around...

...and is working
to destroy the very industry...

...that he invested most of his life in.

But with such deep pockets
and contacts in high places,

captured illegal loggers
are often able to play...

...their get out of jail free card.

That the money involved...

...is so large and large enough
that probably you can buy,

just about anybody in Cambodia.

With that amount of money
you can buy judges,

you can buy the protection
of the military police,

you can buy quite significant amount...

Quite significant amount of influence.

Seeing the logging world
stuck in a vicious circle...

...of money, power and corruption,

it is the hope of many campaigners...

...that people will simply come
to their senses.

Can we return to the good old days?

The answer is probably not.

Can we protect what's remaining there?

I'm, I'm hopeful, I'm optimistic.

I think...

I think that as long as we continue
to, to support them,

as long as the community themselves
continue to fight,

I believe eventually, they can protect
what remains a Prey Lang.

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