NGOs cooperate to influence the conservation, protection and rehabilitation of natural re-sources and the environment to the benefit of the livelihoods of men and women.

The Environmental Issues Project was previously known as the Environment Working Group, which was first initiated in 1995 and then followed by Environmental Awareness and Protection Project. This project coordinates and mobilizes NGO members who are working for environmental protection and natural resource management in Cambodia. It brings together local and international NGOs, government agencies, researchers, environmentalists, educators and students to discuss current environmental issues in Cambodia. The Project’s network is the Environmental Forum Network, which was established to be a forum for all members and interested groups or individuals to share and discuss topics and information related to environmental issues arising from development, which may affect the environment and natural resources, the livelihood and the right of the people within the country.

In order to draw the attention of the public and policy makers to environmental issues, the Environment Forum Network members organise each year various public awareness events, including World Environment Day parades and ceremonies concerning the climate change issues either in Phnom Penh or the provinces, attracting crowds and television crews to the events. Beginning in 2005, NGO Forum and members assisted with improving Cambodia’s EIA process by promoting good public consultation, along with other environmental laws and Prakas. The Environmental Issues Project has supported and collaborated with different agencies, while promoting good practices for environmental protection and natural resource management in Cambodia.

Gender mainstreaming is an area of focus of the NGO Forum and a NGO Forum gender pol-icy also has been implemented. Sensitization to gender roles, especially of women’s, is a pri-ority and is promoted not only within the NGO Forum but also in the project activities with NGO members. The Environmental Issues Project considers gender mainstreaming to be very important.

Climate change is also a challenge for developing and eradicating the poverty in Cambodia. Most recent research has shown that Cambodia is one of the most vulnerable countries due to its ability and capacity to adapt to the impacts of climate change. Climate change is a cross cutting issues which need the involvement from all stakeholders to adapt and mitigate the climate change. Starting from 2010, the Environment Issues Project will help mainstream is-sues of climate change into its projects implementation, while also working to raise greater awareness to the issue within NGO Forum. By raising awareness and advocating effective climate change responses within each of the project’s issues, the Environment Issues Project will help ensure Cambodia’s mitigation and adaptation work will help the country develop in a sustainable manner in order to reduce the impacts of climate change, while helping reduce poverty by ensuring the country’s poor are able to address climate change.

The Cambodian Government is trying to encourage the investors to invest in Cambodia in order to eradicate poverty. The open sky strategy is one of the strategies that RGC is imple-menting to encourage investment. Besides the open sky strategy, the RGC have developed the National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP) to reduce poverty in Cambodia.

According to the National Strategic Development Plan, in order to meet the demand for elec-tricity across the whole country as well as to encourage the investors and for the development of Cambodia’s economy, the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Energy (MIME) will promote the use of local energy source such as hydro-power, natural gas and coal. Cheaper electricity will in turn attract further investment in Cambodia.

The development of coal fired power plants is one of the options that the Cambodian gov-ernment has recently considered as a source of cheap electricity, which will help to fill elec-tricity needs during the dry season, when hydropower is unable to meet energy demands. Two coal-fired plants have recently been approved by the government, an additional five are in the planning stages.

Since mid- 2009, the Environmental Issues Project has been working on issues related to coal fired power plants given their significant environmental, social, and health impacts . The pro-ject is trying to advocate the Cambodian Government to develop its energy needs through the prioritization of clean and renewable energies, which will not harm people’s health and do not contribute to the increasing green-house gases, which are the main factor of global warming and climate change. As the issue is also very new to Cambodia, the project is focusing on increasing awareness of the public and government to the risks involved in the development of these projects and the need for effective mitigation measures for approved projects.

In addition to the coal-fired plant issue, the Environment Forum Network has also been work-ing on inadequate solid/liquid wastes management, concerns over excessive/inappropriate land use for agro industry for development of bio fuels, climate change and improving envi-ronment policy and the enforcement of environmental laws in Cambodia. Special attention has been given to improving the standards of Environmental Impact Assessments reports car-ried out for development projects by working with the Ministry of Environment, monitoring the EIA process and ensuring reports are transparent and open to public scrutiny and review.

By improving awareness and advocacy actions to deal with the negative environmental im-pacts of development, NGO Forum has been working since the 1990s to bring issues of Cam-bodia’s environmental problems and its consequences to the attention of decision-makers, government institutions and development agencies. Through the Environment Forum Net-work Members, NGO Forum is facilitating the mobilization of the public and affected com-munities in order to influence the policy-makers to be more accountable for their policies. By giving the communities a voice through the network members, NGO Forum aims to help promote better protection of the environment to the benefit of local communities reliant on natural resource for their livelihoods in order to work towards sustainable and equitable de-velopment in Cambodia.