Jolie conservation group denies cutting project funds

The director of a conservation project in Cambodia funded by US actress Angelina Jolie today rejected a claim by a Cambodian non-profit group that she had stopped funding the programme, explaining that she had only changed its structure and management.

The Cambodian government in 2003 approved a forest conservation and poverty alleviation programme for remote areas of north-western Cambodia, for which Jolie has promised $1.3m (€2m) over five years.

The group Cambodian Vision in Development, or CVD, had co-managed the project with the US conservation group WildAid, but Jolie terminated the contract with both in December last year to set up an independent Cambodian organisation to administer it, said Stephen Bognar, the new group’s executive director.

The new group has taken the ongoing programme’s name, the Maddox Jolie Project, named after Jolie’s adopted Cambodian son.

Bognar said he was dismayed to hear that CVD director Mounh Sarath had earlier accused the Hollywood actress of cheating Cambodia when she stopped providing money to his organisation.

“I am accusing her of violating the agreement under which she agreed to provide funds to CVD,” Mounh Sarath said.