'Even though I know my life is at risk, I still try to save the forest’

After 20 years defending Cambodia's rainforest, human rights lawyer Ouch Leng has won the world's leading environmental award for his work

You could not see the logging camp from the narrow track on the edge of the once vast Prey Lang forest in central Cambodia. But human rights lawyer and forest defender Ouch Leng had recced the location on motorbike, identified its owners, studied aerial pictures from a drone and within minutes of arriving was crawling through the dense undergrowth and tree stumps towards it.

Twenty minutes later Leng was inside the secret timber yard which stretched over several acres and was stacked with hundreds of logs and planks waiting to be taken to China or Vietnam. Some were precious species worth tens of thousands of dollars each. Others were unidentifiable. All, he said, came from protected forest.