BackThe
World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa, in
2002 marks the 10th anniversary of the earth summit ten years after
Rio. The United Nations General Assembly has scheduled a comprehensive review of
the progress achieved in the implementation of Agenda 21 during the same year.
The outcome of the Summit is not limited to a review but leads to new visions,
commitments, partnership and plans for practical implementation to make the
sustainable development real at all levels (Johannesburg Summit, 2001).
As
a unique and major feature of the preparations for the 2002 Summit, it was
agreed that the main issues for the Summit would arise from participatory
national and regional assessments and discussions drawing from all segments of
society and regions of the world.
As
a signatory to the Rio declaration, the Cambodian government prepares a national
assessment report, which highlights the achievements of sustainable development
over the last ten years. At the same time, the non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) which represent the civil society also prepare a parallel report. This
report documents the views of the people regarding the sustainable development
and how civil society sees the development in the past and in the future.
This
report is prepared by NGOs, bringing the voices of people, especially NGO
workers throughout the country regarding the implementation of sustainable
development in Cambodia. The main focus of the report is on the review of the
implementation of national commitments proceeding Rio 1992 and gathering the
critical issues raised by civil society in different part of the country. Part
II of the report presents the achievements of the country and the lesson learned
in the process. Part III presents the priority issues in the country, and the
strategies and mechanism for addressing these issues.
BackCambodia
has signed and ratified the relevant international conventions and treaties
after the Rio 1992 for sustainable development[1].
While there has been notable progress in implementing these conventions, the
achievements were constrained by lack of funding, weak institutional capacities
and human resources.
After
more than tow decades of civil war, the United Nation-sponsored elections in
Cambodia in 1993 ushered in a new era of peace. To revive the country’s
war-torn economy and alleviate poverty, the government is focusing on the
sustainable use of the country’s rich and diverse natural resources to develop
its economy.
While
Cambodia is seeking sustainable uses of its natural resources, the country faces
international requirements for sustainable development. For long period of
international isolation, Cambodia has not been participated in the international
debate about the sustainable development. Due to mis-opportunities in the
international arena, the meaning of the sustainable use of natural resources in
Cambodia differs from many countries in the world. However, Cambodian government
forces themselves to follow the so-called sustainable development defined by the
international communities, most of them from the developed countries.
It
is the first time that Cambodian government is asked to involve civil society in
the discussion of what is sustainable development meant for Cambodia. In fact,
the sustainable development is a new issue for both Cambodia and its civil
society. The process recommended by the United Nation Development Program to
some extent is limited for civil society to be consulted in relation to
sustainable development. Many Cambodians do not know what sustainable
development program, Rio de Janeiro, agenda 21 and the Rio +10 are. For these
reasons, it is really hard for civil society groups to be involved in the debate
about the development future of Cambodia regarding sustainability.
However,
non-governmental organizations (NGO) in Cambodia are playing important roles in
promoting civil society involvement in debating sustainable development. While
viewing the process of consulting civil society on sustainable development is
limited, civil society groups need to organize themselves with support from NGOs
to express their concerns about the development achievements and perspectives
for the future.
It
is a new issue for the Cambodian government and just about two years from the
Rio de Janeiro and one year for country to settle the internal conflicts. From
1993 to 1997, although the government was elected by so-called free and fair
election the civil war in the western part of the country continued to some
extend, which contributed negatively to the development of the country. The
international community supports to fighting factions were stopped and the war
was continued at the expenses of the natural resources, particularly forestry
resources. The government and the Khmer Rouge guerrilla sold the forest
resources to buy the weapons in order to continue the war. At that time, the
natural resources of Cambodia had been seriously degraded by illegal logging,
uncontrolled activities and development that occurred without due consideration
to the environment.
The
Khmer Rouge and the long civil war have destroyed the country’s economy to
nearly zero level. The government sees the needs to develop its economic sector,
which was completely ruined. While endeavors to lift up its economic activities,
the infrastructures, market mechanism and resources were completely inadequate.
The economic development faces constrains both at domestic and international
levels. While lack of means of promoting its economy, the natural resources
remains the best option to be exploited to maintain Cambodia’s economic
development. Forestry sector plays a critical role in generating national
revenues and is a source of employment for many rural Cambodians. In 1998, more
than 6 million hectares of forests, including over three million hectares that
are well stocked were granted to 20 forest concession companies. The other
resources such as fisheries also contribute a significant proportion to the
national economy and the development of the country[2].
After
the Rio Conference in 1992, unlike other countries in region such as the
Philippines and Thailand, Cambodia did not develop an Agenda 21. However,
similar to Agenda 21, the Cambodian government has developed the National
Environmental Action Plan, which addresses environmental problems over the
period of 1998-2002. In addition, the RGC produces the First Socio-economic
Development (SEDPI) from 1996-2000 that covered broadly the issue of sustainable
development.
BackThe
government concerns about how to ensure sustainable use of the country’s
natural resources. Efforts were made to strongly link the government’s goal to
develop economy and alleviate poverty. In 1993 a Constitution was enacted, which
states in relation to the protection of environment. The same year, the Royal
Decree on the protection of the environment was issued, aiming at protecting
natural resources. In 1994, the government took an important step in this
direction by creating the Ministry of Environment (MoE), to provide
institutional leadership to conserve and manage the environment. In 1996, the
National Assembly of Kingdom of Cambodia adopted the law on the Environmental
Protection and Natural Resource Management. With financial support from UNDP,
the first State of the environment report was prepared in 1994, which was
published in 1995. Several environmental sub-decrees were passed including the
Sub-decree on Water Pollution, Sub-decree on Solid Waste Management, Sub-decree
on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and the Sub-decree on Air Pollution.
The
first Cambodia National Environment Action Plan (NEAP) is another MoE initiative
to produce guideline for policy makers, private sector interests and the general
public, to help these groups integrate environmental concerns into national and
local development policies, economic decision making and investment planning.
The NEAP is a strategic planning document and as such does not provide details,
including economic analysis, on operational zing specific programs. The NEAP
focus on six priority areas; forestry policy, fisheries and floodplain
agriculture in the Tonle Sap region, coastal fisheries, biodiversity and
protected areas, energy development and the environment, and urban waste
management. This NEAP summarizes key issues and presents a programmatic
five-year program to improve environmental management. The first phase (year
1-2) focuses on strengthening the policy and regulatory framework while the
second phase (year 3-5) focuses on implementing investment needed to improve
environmental management.
In
relation to energy development, majority of Cambodian population relies on wood
for cooking. However, there is no clear plan to develop this sector to serve the
majority of local people. In addition, there are no clear institutional responsibilities
over the management of this type of energy. The Ministry of Industry, Mines and
Energy is mainly focusing on the electricity development, serving the urban
sector. As for Department of Forestry and Wildlife (DoFW), the fuels they manage
are the fuel wood and charcoal production. So far, the government has banned the
charcoal production. However, about 85 rural population use charcoal and fuel
wood. With no other alternatives available to them, the growing rural population
uses an enormous amount of wood, particularly to meet their fuel needs. Rural
communities use 5 million tons of wood and 8,000 tons of charcoal every year.
The demand for fuel wood is predicted to grow. If forest destruction is to be
halted, alternative sources of energy need to be made available to rural
communities.
The
Ministry of Environment was created and given a broad mandate to protect the
natural resources of the country and to prevent environmental degradation and it
is the key agency implementing the NEAP. NEAP was developed based on the
execution of both sole and joint responsibilities, in conjunction with other
Ministries concerned with specific aspects of natural resources and
infrastructure management. A number of departments within the MoE were set up to
integrate sustainable uses of natural resources in NEAP. However, MoE faces
number of constraints in carrying out these strategies. The MoE lack a clear
institutional strategy to guide its activities with respect to these problems in
enforcing the NEAP. As it is a new ministry, which mainly looks at preserving
the natural resources rather than exploiting it to generate national budgets as
it is done by MAFF, the MoE has been seen as the opposition to development. In
this case, the MoE faces difficulties in ensuring that this plan is implemented.
At the same time, most of the issues listed in NEAP are confined to paper. The
efforts supposed to be mobilized by MoE as the key agency to put the NEAP into
full implementation have been limited due to poor coordination among the
government ministries. The MoE and MAFF seem to have unclear roles and
responsibilities on the protected areas, national parks, and biosphere reserves.
Because of these conflicts, it has influenced negatively the implementation of
NEAP, especially in the forestry and fishery sectors.
BackThe
first socio-economic development (SEDP I) which covered the period 1996-2000 set
very ambitious targets for investment, economic growth, poverty reduction,
natural resource management and the delivery of public services. This plan aimed
at achieving a fair, just and peaceful society through acceleration in the rate
of economic growth to raise the living standard of people. In this regard,
economic growth is the central point in this plan. The RGC considers the
environmental protection is important in Cambodia as the country is seeking
economic development, deriving it from exploiting natural resources. In
promoting economic growth, the plan indicates that forests, fisheries and other
natural resources represent a sustainable economic resource. Yet there is still
lack of coherent management structure needed for the sustainable use of these
resources. However, the plan suggests the strategies to protect the natural
resources and empower the Ministry of Environment to carry out this plan but
mainly in supports of economic purposes. In this sense, the sustainable
development defined in this plan means a sustainable economic growth.
The
experiences of SEDP I reveal a weakness in the quality of economic growth in the
sense that it has failed to generate jobs and livelihoods, which are necessary
for reducing poverty. Although there was an economic growth, it has been heavily
dependent on the international assistance. The investment was mainly taken place
in the urban areas rather than where the majority. Rapid economic growth has
failed to take into account eco-system vulnerabilities. Hence, it is essential
to integrate economic, social and environmental concerns in policies targeted to
poverty eradication, reduction or prevention.
BackThe NEAP was developed through participatory process, involved NGOs concerned about environmental issues while the SEDPI and other legislations purely involved the government only. Similar to SEDPI, the participation of NGOs in the development of NEAP was in the form of orientation rather than a consultation. The government invited NGOs to participate in the discussion of NEAP only to complete the process rather than consider the active civil society’s partners. At that time, government strongly controlled the process and the civil society was not active and well organized. So far, the civil society has to some extent not acted according the NEAP as it has little thing to do with the interests of the civil society. Most of the things mentioned in NEAP concerns the broad issues, which result in poor involvement of the civil society in the implementation.
Neither
of the plans did specifically address the participation of civil society in the
implementation of them. The plans describe mainly the roles of line ministries,
ignoring the civil society.
The
SEDPI did mention the civil society involvement. This plan leaves the heavy
workload with the government. The plan sees the needs to open for broad public
participation in the decision-making in order to ensure the effectiveness of the
development, but it failed to discuss the how to do this and especially, the
practice left wider gaps of public participation.
Although
the SEDPI identified strategies to address the problems related to deforestation
and over-fishing, the unsustainable logging and fishing practices remain an
issue for the government to be considered. Despite the recent reform in
fishery's sector, it occurs not in accordance with the SEDPI but it is a
response to a crisis situation. In forestry sector, the reform has taken place
since the mid-95s but so far it has not been very slow and it was a subject to
the factor driven by donors. In addition, the practice in relation to protected
areas, core zone, national parks and biosphere reserve was overlapped and
subjected to a long debate among government line ministries. In spite of Royal
Decree of protected areas and the Law on Environment Protection and Natural
Resource Management given the mandate of the MoE to oversee the natural
resources, others legislations were developed ignoring and overlapping the MoE
roles and responsibilities over the protected areas, National Park and Biosphere
Reserve.
The
Ministry of Planning is responsible for preparing the National Development Plan.
At the same time, each ministry is also preparing their owned plans. The
experiences of the SEDPI and SEDPII show that these plans were developed with
support from foreign consultants. The coordination between ministries in
bringing the plans from each ministry to fit into the national plans was
inadequate. The government seems to have a poor monitoring system over the
implementation of the plans.
Financial
support has been a major constraint. As Cambodia has been dependent on external
assistance to formulate and implement the NEAP, mobilized local funding to
support the sustainable development was facing problems.
Despite
the well-crafted national strategies to implement NEAP and SEDPI in Cambodia,
there is lack of information on the progress. The slow progress of
implementation is being traced to limited resources, inadequate capacities,
policy gaps and unclear and overlapping roles among national government
agencies. Initiatives undertaken during the last decade lacked a holistic vision
and an integrated and systematic approach. Environment is still considered a
separate issue from social and economic development.
BackSustainable
development also needs to be based on a sound philosophy that would benefit from
being founded on local, spiritual, traditional, indigenous and tribal values and
lifestyles. In many countries, these values are under attack by increasing
commercialism and consumerism that emphasize personal and individual
gratification over community, cultural and environmental values.
It
is necessary to strengthen a sense of collective ownership and responsibility
for the implementation of sustainable development objectives and programs among
stakeholders at the national and local levels. As part of the country, the civil
society involvement in the debate about the sustainable development for their
country is important. To exercise the freedom of expression, the civil society
assessment of the sustainable development come up with numbers of issues that
needed attention. These were identified as hot issues for civil society.
BackCambodia
is endowed with a diverse natural resource base that has been severely affected
by human impacts. Wars and political convulsions have led to deterioration of
Cambodia’s environment as a result of conflict, neglect and uncontrolled
resource exploitation.
Along
with economic growth and the open up of the free market economy, human
aspiration and consumption patterns grew rapidly to a level that is presently
unsustainable. In order to reduce poverty, it will be necessary to raise the
consumption of the regions poorest people- those who are presently unable to
meet their basic food, shelter and other living requirements. Natural resources
in the country are being exploited at close to their maximum level or are
presently being over-exploited. The additional economic growth as well as the
increased flow of energy and materials will place additional demands on natural
resources.
The
government’s Second Socio-economic Development Plan admits that the past
policy has ignored environmental planning and the need for rehabilitation and
protection. This has led to both the depletion of natural resources and the
degradation of environmental quality manifested in atmosphere contamination,
pollution of surface water and wetland, soil erosion and loss of forest cover.
Agriculture and commercial forestry effect the country’s surface water system
and with upstream trans-boundary factors working through the regional surface
water network effect the primary resources of Tonle Sap.
BackIn
1969, three quarters of Cambodia’s surface was covered by forest. Coverage
fell slowly in the 70s and 80s but begun to drop very rapidly in the 90s. From
1991 to 1997, it fell with 2 million hectares or 10 per cent of total area.
Between 1973-1993, the annual loss of forest was about 0.5% a year[3].
The causes of deforestation included the large commercial timber concession,
forest land concession for plantation, clearing for agricultural use and the
needs for charcoal, fired wood and construction materials. It was encouraged by
vested economic interests and deficient and poorly administered regulatory
framework[4].
In
the forest sector, there were two connected agreements between the government
and forest industries. Under the investment agreements, a concessionaire agrees
to invest in a wood processing facilities and the government agrees to give its
inclusive harvesting rights to a specific area. The concessionaires were
required to operate under the principles of sustainable yields. However, the
implementation of wood processing investments is negligible to date. Although
forest timber licenses state that harvesting must be carried out in a
sustainable manner, the concessionaires exploited forest in an unsustainable
way. In some areas, the concessionaires denied local people access to forest
areas, and threatened the resource users from extracting the non-timber forest
products. The resin trees which people use has been cut by forest Concession
Company with poorly repay to users which is totally contradictory to the
forestry law. Mismanagement of the timber concession led not only to loss of
forest cover but also to loss of government royalties from the sale of these
concessions. This state of affairs caused strong reactions in the donor
community and led to a suspension of the IMF support in 1997.
Concessions
have been an established way to develop the forest in order to reduce the extent
of illegal logging, speed the growth of valued-added wood processing, and
increase its timber royalties while maintaining the current log export ban.
Before 1994, eleven concessions, totaling 2.2 million hectares were established.
In 1998, the government allocated forest areas of more than 6 million hectares,
which include over 3 million hectares that are well-stocked. These concessions
have been awarded to large commercial interests through a process, which is not
transparent[5].
The
roles and responsibilities of some key institutions were overlapped over the
forest areas. The Ministry of Environment (MoE) has mandates over the protected
areas but the practical works seem to be unclear.
BackFisheries
remain important for rural people. However, management of freshwater fisheries
is dominated by the concession of the fishing lot system[6].
Management of fisheries has been characterized by weak and selective enforcement
of the fisheries legislation, inability to control widespread illegal and
destructive fishing practices, loss of critical habitat, inability to prevent or
resolve fishing conflicts and inability to collect sufficient state revenue.
There is growing evidence of over-fishing and widespread use of stock damaging
fish practices by commercial fisheries.
Not
only have the commercial fisheries destroyed the fishery resources, but also
affected local people’s livelihoods. There is a widespread trend of violent
conflict between local communities and fishing lot operators characterized by
armed violence and an absence of formal mechanisms to address confrontation of
this nature. There also appears to be a trend of increasing denial of access for
local fishers to fishing areas through illegal expropriation of these areas for
sale to commercial interests. These have affected the rural poor throughout the
country.
The
widespread protest by local people against the commercial fishing operators have
led to reform being undertaken by RGC through removal
of fishing lots and a reorganization of the fisheries administration.
Following the reform, about 56% of the fishing grounds have been released for
local communities to establish community fisheries. Although the figure tells us
the vast track of fishing grounds allocated to local people for community
fisheries management, some were identified as unproductive areas, including
rice-fields and villages. The reform has slow impacts at local levels.
The
community fisheries establishment seems to be slowly progressed due to poor
recognition of the roles of local people in managing these resources. The
support of local authorities over the establishments of the community fisheries
throughout the country has been limited and resulted in ineffective management
of the community fisheries resources and the delay of community fisheries
establishment. This happens because local authority roles were inadequately
given in the laws although the community fisheries are organized in their
locations.
Although
the mandates of MoE are clearly given by the Royal Decree and Law of the
Protection and Management of Natural resources over the protected areas,
national park and biosphere reserves, there are overlapping roles of Ministry of
Environment (MoE) and Department of Fisheries (DoF) in the establishment of
community fisheries in the protected areas, national parks and biosphere
reserves.
The
Great Lake Tonle Sap, which is large freshwater lake in Southeast Asia has been
gradually polluted. In 2000 alone, around 1.3 million litres of pesticides were
used in the Tonle Sap catchment area, many being highly hazardous (including
DDT) illegally imported from neighbouring countries[7].
It was recently reported that 10 tons of DDT and Folidol (methyl paration) had
run-off 2000 hectares of mung bean crops into the Tonle Sap[8].
The pesticide “ Folidol” is so poisonous that 250 mg are sufficient to kill
8 tons of fish[9]. Fish samples taken from the Lower Mekong Basin
indicates that pesticides residues are ubiquitous with the highest concentration
in catch fish species, one of the most commercially valuable taxa[10].
The widespread use of fertilizers in the dry season could also affect the
ecology of the lake, causing localized temporary eutrophication and even kill
fish.
The
flooded forest around the Great Lake Tonle Sap are under localized threats from
conversion to agricultural lands, fuel-wood collection and fishing equipment.
Marine
fisheries:
Back
Marine
fisheries face similar threats. It is generally thought to be less productive
due to habitat destruction, increase in fisher numbers, and employment of modern
methods, prohibited gear and the gradation of the environment. The annual marine
fishery production in Cambodia is estimated to be 31,000 tons and in Koh Kong
province the catch has decreased from 56% in 1990 to 43% in 1996[11].
The catch per unit of effort has declined at such amount that it has threatened
the small-scale fishers who entirely depend on fishing activities.
Illegal
fishing activities in the sea is quite popular and increasing. The responsible
agencies are aware of the illegal fishing activities but are unable to stop
them. For instance, trawling in water depths less than 20 m is prohibited by the
Fisheries Law, but is very common. There are also problems with fishing with
explosives and electricity in some areas.
Subsistence
fishers are more vulnerable in this situation due to threats from the
large-scale fishermen, foreign boats’ fishermen, armed forces and illegal
fishers. The conflicts between small-scale fishers and large-scale fishers are
alarming in the coastal provinces. The foreign boat fishermen equipped with
high-tech fishing gears from neighbouring countries encroached Cambodia Sea
illegally with support from marine armed forces and fished with highly
destructive gears such as cyanide fishing and electricity etc, freely without
any license.
The government's responses to these problems have been inadequate. Yet, it is still widespread, illegally activities taking place every day but nobody can stop them. The Fisheries Law provides authorities only to the Department of Fisheries (DoF) to manage the fishing activities but in reality, sometimes militaries act instead of DoF personnel.
BackCambodia
is rich in biodiversity. It is home to an estimated 2,300 species of plants[12],
130 mammals[13], over 500 birds species and some 500 freshwater fish[14].
The development is taking place in the country and the rapid population growth
has now begun to increase substantially. These have added pressure on the
country’s biodiversity.
There
are many different threats directly causing the biodiversity loss. Habitat
destruction and encroachment caused by increased logging, inappropriate land
use, pollution and biological invasions constitute a major threat to most
wildlife species.
The
increase of logging both legal and illegal has a great impact on national
biodiversity[15].
In these areas, hunting wildlife for trade is widespread and is particularly
detrimental to several species including endangered, vulnerable and rare
species.
In
Bokor National Park, some 249 bird species, 29 mammal species, eleven species of
amphibian and nine species of reptile were found.[16]
However, hunting in this area is the greatest threat to most of the key species
of large mammals and some birds. Although the area is a National Park, hunting
is actively pursued by many locals, non-locals, and members of the army and the
police. Logging, non-timber forest product collection, forest burning, and
encroachment for land cause habitat lost and disturbance over a wide area and
effects populations of key species of mammals, birds and other wildlife
negatively [17].
Hunting
and egg collection seriously threaten the rare waterbirds of the Tonle Sap.
About 8500 snakes in the Great Lake Tonle Sap are harvested daily during the
peak of the wet season. Cambodian’s turtle populations have also become
exposed to extensive collection pressures, as they have become a source for the
Chinese food market[18].
Local subsistence use and domestic trade of turtles in Cambodia is also
widespread. However, a legal international trade run by a Government export
agency (KAMFIMEX) from a live retail shipment of 200 tons, an estimated 100 tons
of turtles were exported directly to China and Hong Kong in 1998-99[19].
The
improper application and handling of pesticides has a negative impact on aquatic
biodiversity as well as deleterious effects on non-target species of arthropods,
reptile and birth. This happens around the Great Lake Tonle Sap (see fisheries
section).
Other
threats include; lack of awareness, policy, training, inequity and lack of
participation, natural disaster, man made disasters, loss of habitat and
overexploitation of biological resources, wildlife trade, modern agriculture,
invasive agriculture and biotechnology (some of the issues will be discussed
below). In addition, a lack of planning and law enforcement in natural resource
management and uncertainties in land tenure further exacerbate biodiversity
threats[20].
The 23 protected areas established following the Royal Subdecree have been
poorly managed. Logging activities and wildlife poaching do still occur. Some
protected areas designed with inclusion of peoples’ lands such as Kirirom
National Park have led to a conflict with local people. Some other areas overlap
forest concessions such as Beung Per Wildlife Sanctuary and Me Lay Heng forest
concession which pose a threat on biodiversity in Kompong Thom Province.
The
government has taken important steps in mitigating threats to biodiversity,
through increased community based management and improved good governance.
However, these efforts have been carried out in small scale, emerging from the
interests of communities and NGOs while the levels of destruction are at the
large scale. The greatest concern is the time and resources it is taking to
implement these measures. At the same time, military still play roles in most
areas considered to be important for biodiversity conservation. The
institutional responsibilities to oversee the biodiversity seem to be
overlapped, which has resulted in the management conflict.
The
system of protected areas that emerged in 1993 was largely administrative; the
ability of the state to effectively manage these areas is emerging much more
slowly. The preparation of management plans and formal adoption of the national
park for management continues to be dependent on foreign funding.
BackThe
population census in 1998 indicates that 84 percent of Cambodian people living
in rural areas and most of them are involved in agriculture. The 1997
Socio-Economic Survey indicates that 36 percent of the population live below the
poverty line and nearly 90% of the poor are farmers living in rural areas. The
population density is 64 people per square kilometer[21].
This indicates that Cambodia has low population with large tack of land. Since
immemorial time, land is an important asset of rural households. It provides
opportunities for diverse agricultural activities and to a large extent
determines economic position.
Although
land is an important asset and is available throughout the country, the national
data shows that between 12-15 percent of rural households are without
agricultural land. The total homelessness constitutes 3 percent, almost all in
urban areas. This figure is still low but it demonstrates that if state
mechanism is inadequate, the numbers of landless people will increase. The
reasons include the increase of population, the grant of land concession to
private companies, land grabbing, and weak land legal system.
The
increased population of 25 per cent between 1990 and 1996 contributes to the
increased demand for lands. Additionally, the period of relative political
stability that Cambodia has enjoyed in 1999 enables to turn the attention to
issues such as land and the rising value of property in the areas being
developed. The return of 350, 000 people from the Thai bordered camps in 1992-93
has added more people to the total population and they of course, need lands to
settle their families and for agriculture.
The
country economic development after the war has been pursued under the free
market economy. As a riparian country, economic development is promoted at the
expense of the natural resources. The government has granted concessions
including forest, fisheries and lands to private companies to generate national
revenue for economic development. Given the implication of concession, local
people ‘s access to land has been limited. Most of these concessions cover
people’s rice field, villages and homelands. Many concession companies have
conflicts with local people living in the concession.
Apart
from land concession, land grabbing by high-ranking government officials,
military and police officers pose a major threat to local people. It has
increased following the increased demand of lands. Due to increased land
grabbing, the land dispute has occurred throughout the country, especially in
Bantey Meanchey, Kandal, and Kompong Cham with many local poor frequently
assembled in front of Parliaments to protest against the conviction from their
lands. Public protests over land disputes have become common since the open of
its economy.
Land
grabbing and the exclusion of local people from agricultural or forest lands or
from the fishing lots has aggravated the living conditions of rural poor. At the
same time, in the land conflicts, the losers from the land concentration are
most likely to be those rural poor households with the most fragile land rights
and asset base. As rural people need lands for agriculture to produce food for
their families, loss of lands contribute to the increase of food shortage of
rural poor in the country and many of them migrate to urban area, ending up in
slums, and an increase of women and children trafficking.
At
present, the land administration and the legal framework are inadequate[22].
The weak legal system and the impunity culture in this country have allowed the
powerful people to forcibly seize lands and other state properties without
getting punishments. At the same time, legal framework functions to protect
small groups of people in order for them to get more land. In contrary, the
legal system becomes the barrier for local people to acquire lands and in
return, due to lack of proper legal framework, they are blamed for encroaching
state lands.
Due
to increase of land grabbing and exclusion of the poor from their lands together
with other factors, as natural calamity, health issues and indebtedness, it is
widely accepted that rural poverty also ensues from landlessness (CDRI, 2001).
An Oxfam study found that incidences of landlessness and extreme poverty have a
high degree of correlation[23]. The majority of people filing land dispute complaints
are poor farmers[24].
BackOver
the last ten years, Cambodia has experienced serious floods, which rarely
happened in the past. The floods have caused deaths of people and animals,
destruction of thousand hectares of rice fields, damaging infrastructure and
thousand of people houses. At the same time, erosion has occurred resulting in
raising up the water level.
In
the 2000 monsoon season, the Mekong flooded more than 600,000 hectares of rice
fields, destroying 17 percent of the total rice growing land in Cambodia. These
were the worst floods in 70 years, killing hundreds of people and depriving many
poor families of their livelihood. The total agricultural production in Cambodia
fell, and the damages were estimated by the RGC to amount to some $70 million (SIDA,
2001).
Cambodia
had three years of flooding between 1992-94 and one year of drought in 1996 (CDRI,
1999). Drought and flood threatened Cambodian farmers for numbers of years.
While drought occurred in the south, sever floods threatened the provinces along
the Mekong and around the Tonle Sap Lake. Drought has caused the damage of
thousand hectares of paddy fields throughout the country. This drought has a
connection with the dam development in the upstream Mekong countries. This just
happens in recent years.
Different
factors contribute to the floods and droughts e.g. the deforestation in the
Mekong catchment and building of dams in the upstream countries. Since 1950s,
nearly 6,000 large and small dams have been built in the lower Mekong Basin[25].
Being the downstream country in the Mekong region, Cambodia faces tremendous
impacts resulting from the development of the dams in upstream countries. The
major impacts Cambodia have received include floods, drought, erosion and
siltation, and impacts on fisheries.
Due
to sever floods and drought, many Cambodians have faced food shortage. This
shortage places Cambodia in a difficult position to resolve its. This shortage
of food contributes to the increase of poor people. This of course, falls under
the burden of Cambodian government.
According
to the Mekong Agreement, Cambodia is only informed about the project development
in the upstream country in the Mekong and not subject to discussion. Due to lack
of discussion over the impacts that might affect Cambodia before projects start,
the Yali Falls incidence demonstrates the weakness of this agreement.
If
drought and flood continue to have an impact on Cambodia, it will affect
sustainable development in Cambodia and the development endeavoured by Cambodian
government will be destroyed.
3.2
Agriculture and Food Security
Back
Cambodia
is an agrarian country with rice as a dominant crop. Agriculture, fisheries or
forestry employ more than 80 percent of the total population and agriculture
production accounts for about half of GDP. Although the importance of
agriculture the government seems to pay little attention to agriculture
development.
Soil
and water resource degradation, conversion of agricultural lands due to
population and commercial pressures and increasingly liberalized international
trade in agricultural products threaten the food security. While overall food
supply is generally inadequate within the country, it is often allocated for
commercial purposes rather than being available to meet people’s basic needs.
The
National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP) published by the Ministry of
Environment (MoE) in 1998 identifies the main environmental issues associated
with agriculture with regard to the Tonle Sap as clearing of inundated forest to
open up agricultural land and the run-off effect of the use of chemical
fertilizer and pesticide. This analysis is applicable throughout Cambodia. The
NEAP does not see that the use of agro-chemical has reached dangerous levels,
since the majority of the rice farmers still use traditional varieties and
methods. At present, there is no regulatory framework for the import and use of
agro-chemicals. However, as the size of the land holding decrease, there will be
an increased need for agricultural intensification. This will most likely
involve improved irrigation, improved crop varieties and increased use of
agro-chemicals.
The
modern variety of rice crops have been used in Cambodia since 1970s aiming at
increasing food and promoting rice export, coping with the high population
growth. Local varieties have been gradually disappearing over time. Local people
have relied on the distributed varieties from markets and other government
institutions. The traditional knowledge of local people of rice variety
selection and preservation for future cultivation has gradually disappeared.
This clearly reveals the invasion of the western knowledge on the local
indigenous knowledge.
Khmer
Rouge killed many skilled people, especially old people, who was knowledgeable
about the Cambodian agriculture, local variety and sustainable seed selection
and preservation that rooted since Angkor time. Khmer Rouge also destroyed the
local knowledge related to agriculture. The young people in current regime
completely lack this knowledge and they totally rely on the outside knowledge to
do agriculture. This has created dependency among Cambodian farmers, especially
young people in relation to agriculture.
At
present, market plays unprecedented roles in the agriculture. Market has
provided numbers of agricultural inputs to local farmers, ranging from
pesticides, chemical fertilizer, seed and other inputs. The rapid increase of
rice yield with chemical agricultural inputs within a short period of time has
encouraged local people to use it more and more in response to the food crisis.
The increased uses of pesticides and fertilizers have negative environmental
effects and experiences told that the amounts of chemical uses have been
increased in order to maintain the same yield. In some areas, agricultural
companies are involved in providing rice varieties, vegetable seeds and chemical
fertilizer. At the same time, the company promises to buy the rice people
harvest. However, the company refuses to buy the rice from the others that did
not get the rice seeds from the company. The company is gradually building the
dependency for local farmers and local farmer in turn could not get out of the
trap set by the company. This means, the company is exploiting local farmers and
at the end, local people become slaves. It becomes a burden that local people
need to farm not only to improve food shortage but also to relief the debt. To
relief debts, local farmers eat less food, which finally resulted in
malnourishments. However, this effort has ended up with more debts and extreme
poverty.
Food
security in Cambodia is heavily reliant on natural resources. The vast majority
of the population lives in rural areas, dependent on farming, fisheries and
forestry for subsistence livelihoods. Since these resources have been granted to
private concessionaires, the local people's access to these resources to collect
food has been limited. In this case, the food security for local people has been
threatened. In addition, the agricultural productivity of Cambodia is among the
lowest in the region. The rice yield is 1.2 tons per hectare, which is the
lowest in Southeast Asia. Every year flood damage many hectares of rice fields,
which totally contribute to food shortage.
BackIn
ancient time, trade was carried out based on demands in order to exchange goods
that one needed. It was interacted between producers and consumers in a way of
satisfying both parties. Over time, trade has been developed and has become more
complicated. When coming to market, trade is money, favouring only economic
values, neglecting social, cultural and environmental issues whereas trade
agreement, conditions and terms of trade have been established to protect trade
parties.
It
is recognized that globalization and increasing liberalization through the WTO
are a “two-edged sword”. There are as many benefits as there are
“pains”, that have far reaching effects on sustainable development,
involving not only the economic and social aspects of human activity but also
cultural, moral, behavioural, technological and environmental consequences that
are not readily measurable quantitatively. Moreover, the more visible and
recognizable benefits are not equitably distributed among the nations in the
region. The consequential “pains” that have since emerged (and are still
emerging) have strong negative and pervasive impact on families, traditional
values and cultures, habits, and people’s way of living generally. Studies on
such impact in all its facets are few and far in between, especially on whether
the “twin” economic efficiency and competitiveness rationales behind
globalization are consistent or not. Especially with the growing demand in Asia
for a more caring and compassionate world, where decency, civil behaviour and
protection of the weak, the disadvantaged and those who can not compete have a
place under a more and more prosperous “sun”. There is an urgent need to
engage the surge in globalization with at least 5 strategic imperatives based on
the principles of rationality, readiness, representation, responsibility and
self-determination[26].
Cambodia
is a member of ASEAN. The ASEAN members are tied by an agreement of promoting
trade in the region. Each country opens its market for the products from other
ASEAN members. For the countries whose products are internationally qualified
and their better economic situation flow to the countries of weak economic
situation. In return, the poor members of ASEAN found it difficult to compete
for their products in other ASEAN markets. Therefore, the imbalance of trade
between its members occurs.
The
integration of Cambodia's economy into the regional economy has opened up the
border for the influx of the foreign investors with more consumer goods and
outflow of natural resources. At a new market, the foreign investors look at the
untapped resources and cheap labours as a mean to achieve their economic
benefits. While the country lacks an adequate law and legislation to protect the
local investors, the open up of the economy and the integration of the
country’s economy in the region have placed the many medium local investors’
bankruptcy. The mushrooming of textile factories resulting from the exported
quotas given by the US government has impacted Cambodia's rural economy where
many young female farmers gave up agricultural activities to become urban
factory workers. With low wage, the factory owners do not protect the workers'
rights, which resulted in more protests. Many of the workers have poor health
due to heavy workload and not enough food.
While
trade liberalization indicated an increase in production, it has had adverse
environmental implications. This includes expansion of erosion-root cause
farming, increase in logging, fishing and mining. Consumption requirement
experienced within the current free market economic has caused multiple
exploitation of natural resources. There is limited coverage of policies and
lack of incentives for trade promotion of eco-friendly goods.
BackThe
gender relationship in economic and social development seem in many ways to be
more unbalanced than they are in neighbouring countries like Thailand and
Vietnam. Very large gender gaps are noticeable in the levels of literacy,
educational attainment, employment skills and income. Gender disparities are
also found in decision-making power and leadership positions at central,
provincial, communal and village level showing a heavy under-representation of
women. Underlying these inequalities are cultural and traditional values and
norms regarding the role of men and women, which limit the development options
of girls and women. It is also conceivable that the war and social disruption
have negatively influenced the status of women, who now vastly outnumber men in
the age groups above 40 (SEDPII Ch.4).
Violence
against women is common in Cambodia. An NGO national statistical survey,
undertaken in collaboration with the Ministry of Women’s and Veterans’
Affairs, on domestic violence brought to light that one Cambodian women in six
is victim of domestic violence, and that half of all women reporting abuse
sustained injury. Almost three-quarters of those surveys were aware of at least
one family with domestic violence. Women who had finished primary education were
less prone to domestic violence. Women who did not live with their families, and
especially those women, who had no families or lived in another village or town
than their families, were most prone to abuse. This seems to indicate that
education and family can provide some protection against abuse. As mentioned
earlier, domestic violence is very much seen as an internal family affair, and
law enforcement officers don’t use the Criminal Code as a legal tool in cases
of domestic violence unless the women has been killed.
A
major challenge in the area of gender based violence lies in law enforcement,
which suffers from weak human and financial resources. According to the
Governance Action Plan (GAP), a law against the domestic violence will be
prepared and an advocacy campaign will be initiated during the next few years.
It
is estimates that there are 80,000-100,000 commercial sex workers (CSW) in
Cambodia of whom about 30 per cent are estimated to be under 18 years of age (MoP,
2000). Not all of Cambodia’s formal and informal sex workers were originally
trafficked and not all of them are kept captive in brothels against their will,
but the majority was. Prostitution and trafficking are so intertwined and so
much part of the web of organized crime, that it is impossible to separate the
two. Of those forced into prostitution, most were deceived by the promise of a
high-paying job, about a third were forced by their own or their family’s
poverty, and other were sold by parents, relatives or friends into conditions of
debt bondage. Less than one percent has been abducted.
More
than three-quarters of the female labour force are engaged in agriculture. When
it comes to urban employment, twice as many men (20 percent) as women have paid
employment. Women mostly work in the wholesale and retail trade. With the
establishment of export processing garment factories in the mid-90s, some
100,000 mostly younger women have become wage earners in Phnom Penh. Salaries
are around $40 per month and the work is exacting. For the moment, this gives a
good earning opportunities to young unskilled women, provided that working
condition are good and women are respected. Nevertheless, there is little
training in new skills and there are few promotion opportunities. Because there
are little capacity and career-building opportunities for low or uneducated
working women, there is not textile manufacturing industry decides to move
elsewhere.
Although
women take the brunt in unpaid agriculture family labour, they are
under-represented in professions that carry status, such as the civil service,
professional positions and decision-making and management positions. Only one
third of the professionals are women, and more than 90% of the legislators,
senior government officials and managers are men (CSES, 1999).
Within
the civil service, women are strongly under represented. At central level there
are 8,208 women among 31,130 civil servants. Gender imbalance is also apparent
in other sectors and professions. The number of female teachers are fewer than
30 percent, and in medicine, agronomy, science, architecture, engineering,
journalism and media the percentages are even lower.
The
role of women in decision-making shows the same imbalance. In 1998, women
constituted 51 percent of the electorate and 20 percent of the candidates.
Of those elected for the National Assembly, ten percent were women.
Although there is some increase of women noticeable since the 1998 legislature,
women are still heavily underrepresented at all levels of governance. They
represent only 7 percent of the decision-makers at the national level and at the
district and commune, the levels closer to the people, they comprise less than 2
percent.
At
the lower levels of the decision making structure, women are also not very much
represented. To assure that women are represented at the village level in the
Village Development Committees, a rule has been set that at least 40 percent of
the committee should be women. Many women say however, that they face
difficulties to be an active member as the work is time consuming and it often
interferes with their household and income earning responsibilities. Having the
support of husband and family members makes it more feasible for women to take
part in decision-making process (Meijer adnNooyens, 2001).
The
judicial system, crucial to enforce women’s rights and to provide legal
protection, shows the same gender imbalance. Ninety percent of the judges are
male and there are no female prosecutor among the current 55. A positive
development is that for the first time, a woman holds the position of Chief of
the Court of Appeal.
Both
the RGC and the NGO community have developed their strategies for dealing with
the gender imbalance, through mainstreaming gender aspects in sector plans and
spreading awareness among the public and policy-makers. The Ministry of Women
and Veterans Affairs has developed a National Five-Year Strategic Plan
1999-2003, called “ Neary Rattanak”, which was endorsed by the Royal
Government in 1999. The plan gives priority to four main areas of the Platform
for Action: Women’s Health, Education, Economic Empowerment and Legal
Protection. Special sections on gender equity reform are incorporated in the GAP
and in SEDPII.
BackThe
HIV/AIDS pandemic has spread more rapidly in Cambodia than in any other country
in the region. The estimated prevalence is 2.8 % of the adult population, which
is far above Thailand (2.3%) and Vietnam (0.2 %). The prevalence rate rose
particularly fast during the return of peace, but since widespread testing was
only available in the mid-90s, it is difficult to tell exactly when and how it
accelerated. Since 1994, it continued to grow faster than in any other country
of the region. Since more than half of the population is known to be already
infected with tuberculosis (TB), a huge health crisis is on its way. A crisis
which will be too heavy to bear for current public and private support system
and may affect the entire society and economy to an extent which is hard to
predict.
Major
reasons for the rapid spread of HIV is the wide spread practice of prostitution
in Cambodia. High-risk groups are female sex workers in the urban areas,
military personnel, police and other men who have mobile jobs. A worrying trend
is that a growing number of married women are now getting infected through their
husbands. The infection rate among pregnant women tested in antenatal care
clinic was 2.6 percent in 1998, 2.3% in 2000. Significant perinatal or mother to
child transmission are reported but not confirmed and higher levels of infection
are suspected. On the whole, infection rates are also much higher in urban than
in rural areas.
The
direct costs of the AIDS epidemic include the public and private costs of
treatment and care, the cost of caring for AIDS orphans, the cost of funerals,
the public and private costs of prevention, and the cost of preparing the health
care system to deal with growing epidemic. The most important indirect cost of
AIDS is the private losses to household and extended families and communities
due to the premature death of young adult of prime working age. According to the
most optimistic scenario the estimated cost per patient was $291, or
approximately ten times total per capita expenditure (public and private) on
health. According to the same scenario, indirect cost over the period 1999-2008
would be $429.9 million (SEDPII, Chapter 13). The traditional family support
systems are unable to cope with all cost increase and loss of family income,
which results in liquidation of family property and withdrawal of children from
school. The National AIDS Authority established in 1999 by Royal Decree in an
inter-ministerial body of 15 ministries tasked with expending and strengthening
the response to HIV/AIDS. It has drafted a National Strategic Plan for a
Comprehensive and Multi-sectoral Response to HIV/AIDS in collaboration with UN
agencies, and NGOs have worked out a health sector strategic plan for
HIV/AIDS/STD Prevention and Care 2001-2005. The Ministry of Women’s and
Veteran Affairs has also worked out a policy for women and girls to strengthen
prevention, and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport has set up an inti-department
group to promote awareness and knowledge.
BackA
healthy environment is essential to a healthy population and essential for
sustainable development. The link between health and environmental degradation
is becoming increasingly apparent in the regions of the world. In the East Asia
and Pacific region, major diseases such malaria, dengue fever and cholera and
infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and TB are increasing rapidly along with
health problems related to industrial growth and environmental pollution. Waste
management is an issue of growing concern throughout the region. Both fish and
livestock are threatened by the wide use of antibiotics and growth hormones. In
the East Asia and Pacific region, a large proportion of the poor population work
in the informal sector without the benefit of health insurance coverage
Work
place safety and environmental standards are also being compromised by the
concessions that governments are frequently required to make to attract national
and international private sector investments.
BackPoverty
is widespread in Cambodia and is primarily a rural phenomenon, partly because an
overwhelming part of the population live in rural areas, and also because the
incidence of poverty is higher in rural than in urban areas. Much of urban
poverty also has its roots in the rural areas, as many migrants from rural areas
have moved to cities and towns in search of better living. About 90 per cent of
below the poverty lines are found in the rural areas, while most of the rest
live in urban areas other than Phnom Penh[27].
The
overwhelming majority of the poor derive their living from agriculture. The
incidence of poverty is also considerably higher among farmers than among other
groups. Land ownership is critical for the rural population, but with the
growing population, the per capita availability of land is declining. Fisheries
and forestry, which are important for rural people, have been degraded. Most of
these resources have been granted to private companies and local peoples’
access to these resources has been limited[28].
There is a close relationship between environmental degradation and poverty in
Cambodia. The continuing environmental degradation will place the poor in a
vulnerable position and will cause further poverty and poverty will be more
complex.
The
agricultural intensification which produces higher yields that people applied in
order to increase food security to deal with food shortage often creates
environmental degradation such as soil degradation, loss of local varieties etc,
which in turn contributes to rural poverty and over-utilization of natural
resources. This phenomenon is part of the vicious cycle of poverty and
environmental degradation in other countries as well as in Cambodia.
Impoverished people are often forced to apply intensified agriculture, accepting
long-term environmental degradation to meet their immediate needs for food
security.
Poverty reduction in Cambodia is a key policy of the Royal Government of Cambodia. The economic growth does not ensure that all people in the society will benefit. In turn, it benefits only few people and place majority of people even in an absolute poverty. The gap between the rich and the poor, the city and rural areas is widening, the rich become richer and the poor become poorer.
BackCambodia
is a constitutional monarchy where the power is supposed to be shared between
the parliament, the government, and the judiciary. In practice, the Prime
Minister holds all power, supported by armed forces, while other institutions of
the state have not yet begun to test the possibilities formally given to them by
the constitution.
During
the transition towards liberal democracy and market economy over the past
decade, policy-makers, donor agencies, and civil society leaders have recognized
that the government system needs to be improved to match the changing role of
the state. Good governance is emerging as one of the key strategies to sustain
social and economic development in Cambodia. Civil service salaries are too low
for subsistence, but the competence of many civil servant is also very low. The
governance’s inability or reluctance to raise sufficient revenue for
maintaining State institutions has made it highly dependent on foreign aid even
for recurrent expenditure. Its systems for managing resources and for taking
policy decision are too centralized and cumbersome to allow effective
implementation of its development programs.
BackThe
low salary scale is the most fundamental structural problem in Cambodia’s
public sector. The current scale of salary for public officials is far below the
subsistence level. This creates wrong incentives for public officials either to
work in outside jobs, to work exclusively in aid-funded projects in return for
salary supplements, or to abuse their authority to generate unofficial income[29].