The Areng Valley in the Cardamom Mountains of south-west Cambodia is a Khmer national treasure in need of urgent protection. Home to rare and endangered wildlife and traditional Khmer Daeum villages, the valley is threatened with flooding by an uneconomic Chinese hydropower dam.

The development of the Areng dam must be stopped because;

• It will wipe out the world’s largest remaining wild population of Siamese crocodile.
• It will destroy 10.000ha of the Central Cardamom Protected Forest (CCPF), which is critical habitat for 31 endangered animal species including the Asian Elephant and the Arowana or Dragon Fish.
• Access roads and electricity transmission lines for the dam will cut through the CCPF, increasing access for illegal loggers and poachers.
• The dam will flood nine Khmer Daeum villages and their ancestral farmlands and sacred spirit forests.
• There has been inadequate consultation with local people who will be forcibly relocated to a known elephant migration route, without adequate compensation.
• The dam is uneconomic and a poor return on investment. It will produce limited dry-season electricity (only 60 megawatts) at very high cost.