Costello linked to environmental controversy

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Reporter: Zoe Daniel

A company associated with Peter Costello has been accused of threatening endangered wildlife in Cambodia.


Transcript

ALI MOORE: A $600 million agribusiness proposal by a company associated with former treasurer Peter Costello is facing opposition from environmental activists in Cambodia who claim it will disrupt a significant wildlife corridor and put endangered animals at risk.

The company behind the banana plantation and reforestation project in Cambodia's Cardamom Mountains says it will be sustainable while providing jobs and generating much needed export income.

But there's concern about the location of the project, on one of the last unbroken forest corridors in the region.

South East Asia correspondent Zoe Daniel reports.

ZOE DANIEL: It's about an hour by chopper from the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh to the Cardamom Mountains.

Factories and then rice paddies stretch from the city to the foothills. But the mountains are barely accessible by road and apart from illegal timber cutting, these forests have been regenerating since they were last logged more than a decade ago.

Why is this area so important?

SUWANNA GAUNTLETT, CEO, WILDLIFE ALLIANCE: It's very important. It's the last left between these two bodies of the forest.

ZOE DANIEL: With its own rangers and government backing, NGO Wildlife Alliance has been protecting the area from poachers, illegal settling and logging. Now the NGO’s founder, Suwanna Guantlett, is opposing the Australian proposal for a 5,000-hectare banana plantation and 20,000-hectare reforestation project.

The issue is the location.

SUWANNA GAUNTLETT: This is the continuous forest cover.

ZOE DANIEL: The company planning the developments says there's no forest of value on the site. But the unbroken tree link between the two mountain ridges is clearly visible from the air.

The southern Cardamom Mountains have been selectively logged in the past, but this area is said to be one of only seven unbroken elephant corridors in Asia and the planned plantation is right on it.

According to environmental groups, the increasing number of land concessions granted for farming nearby mean Asian elephants, unique turtles and crocodiles are all struggling for habitat. Despite obvious signs of prior clearing, activists see this as a sensitive area that's slowly recovering.

SUWANNA GAUNTLETT: As you can see, it is a forest with grass land and bushland. It was indeed a former logging concession.

ZOE DANIEL: Plans for a high-tech drip-irrigated plantation to export bananas as well as a replanting project to give migrating elephants a new pathway have so far failed to win support from critics.

SUWANNA GAUNTLETT: That reforestation they're talking about doing alongside the banana plantation is also where the company says the elephant corridor will be moved to. My first answer is no because that is a populated area and elephants will not migrate and move through a populated area. They won't.

ZOE DANIEL: Would it be fair to say that it is the location that you have a problem with, so no matter what safeguards the company put in place, you still won't be happy with the location that they've picked?

SUWANNA GAUNTLETT: I think you've summarised it exactly.

ZOE DANIEL: Elephants are already increasingly in conflict with humans in Cambodia. A few like this female, Lucky, are in the care of rescuer Nick Marx. She was being attacked by village people for roaming through their small scale banana plots.

NICK MARX, WILDLIFE ALLIANCE: She had serious battery acid burns on her head because they were trying to get rid of her, throwing car battery acid on her.

ZOE DANIEL: He says plans to divert elephants away from the planned plantation by reforesting land near local villages which villages will not work.

NICK MARX: More and more elephants are going to come into conflict with humans. This is inevitable.

ZOE DANIEL: Australian company BKK partners is a corporate and financial advisory service with expertise in areas such as foreign investment and governance. Former treasurer Peter Costello is listed as managing director and partner. The company has an office in Phnom Penh which is advising Indo-China Gateway Capital on developing the $600 million agribusiness fund planning the plantation.

Our requests for an interview were declined. The company also denied that Mr Costello is involved in the project, although he was in Cambodia promoting it last year.

PETER COSTELLO, FORMER TREASURER: One of the things that BKK does is it is managing an investment by Indo-China gateway which is raising funds for a very major agricultural investment here in Cambodia.

ZOE DANIEL: He gave this interview to the Phnom Penh Post which is still on the newspaper's website.

PETER COSTELLO: BKK has established a presence here in Phnom Penh. We have a full time resident director.

ZOE DANIEL: Cambodia desperately needs economic development to increase the standard of living. The company says the banana project will generate up to 7,500 jobs. But when we visited these local villages they were still unsure whether the impact will be positive. They hunt and forage in the forest to survive.

CHAN SAO, VILLAGE CHIEF (translated): Also, we can't raise animals in the forest like cows and Buffalo. If we lose our land this is our big concern.

ZOE DANIEL: This man told us other developers have promised jobs at their sugar cane plantations on the forest edge, but initial wages were soon cut.

VILLAGER (translated): The company provides people with jobs, but they don't last long. At the beginning wages are good, but sooner or later the amount paid goes down.

ZOE DANIEL: Potential Chinese and Korean investors have visited this village, but the people say no one from an Australian company has been to see them.

Departing the area, we fly over clear-felled land being prepared for sugar cane plantations just outside the boundary of the forest reserve.

Indo-China Gateway submitted a formal application to develop the banana plantation in December and is now awaiting a permit.

Zoe Daniel, Lateline.