INTRODUCTION
Forests are extremely important for the livelihood and
well-being of Cambodians. Forests provide a wide variety of
essential goods, including cooking fuel, building and household
materials, food, traditional medicine, livestock feed,
transportation, and important cultural and environmental
services.
Few of these needs can be met by alternative non-forest
resources of comparable cost, availability, and quality. Loss of
forest resources and restricted access to these resources - due
primarily to privatization to commercial and individual
interests, to commercial logging and to government efforts to
control illegal logging- has exacerbated rural poverty,
disrupted rural communities, and damaged the environment.
Through working with rural populations in Cambodia, NGOs
recognize the close relationship between the people of Cambodia
and their environment. Knowledge of rural dependency on forest
resources has led NGOs to become actively involved in the forest
sector. NGOs pioneered support to local communities and to
government institutions for mobilizing community forestry,
monitoring activities affecting the nation's forests, and
building capacity for participatory forest management.
The NGO community commends the RGC's efforts to reform the
forestry sector in 1999. The donor stance at the 1999
Consultative Group meeting and international support have led to
a number of improvements in the forest sector. The RGC drafted a
forest law, a community forestry sub-decree, a concession
management sub-decree and a national forest policy. The
government-initiated campaign to curtail illegal logging has
demonstrated an ability to take action against illegal forestry
activities and has been effective in slowing some activities.
Actions taken by the RGC in Mondulkiri in early 2000 indicate a
willingness to pursue perpetrators of illegal logging.
Establishment of the Forest Crime Monitoring Unit also indicates
positive efforts in forestry reform. The RGC has also increased
transparency and sharing of information related to the forest
sector.
KEY ISSUES
While positive efforts to reform the forest sector have been
made, significant concerns remain. Most issues highlighted in
the "NGO Statement to the 1999 Consultative Group Meeting
on Cambodia" remain important and relevant today and should
be emphasized again as critical.
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Policy and Law
The draft law and policy initiatives mentioned above are
critical to the forest sector but seem to be stalled with no
information regarding their status and expected adoption.
Although the RGC initially involved NGOs in a participatory
process, there has been limited access to subsequent revised
drafts.
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Community Forestry
Community forestry provides a strategy for engaging rural
communities in sustainable forest management by making the
objectives of rural people central and ensuring that rural
people benefit from forest management. Community forestry
should be applied wherever communities have a cultural or
livelihood dependency on local forests. Obstacles to the
spread of community forestry include the need to finalise
essential legal and administrative measures and the need for
increased development support.
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Crackdown on Illegal Logging
The government campaign to halt illegal logging has had some
success, but illegal activities are increasing, with
evidence of political, military and elite business
involvement. In addition, the campaign disproportionately
targeted small operators, negatively impacted on rural
poor, and led to increased land speculation, land grabbing,
and - due to lack of alternatives available for rural people
-wildlife poaching and depletion of fish stocks and
non-timber forest products.
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Privatization of the Nation's Forest
Resources
NGOs remain concerned about continuing privatization of
forest resources at the expense of local communities, which
has diminished supplies of forest resources and eroded
traditional access to forests causing conflict, internal
displacement, and increased poverty.
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Sustainable Forest Management and Revenue
Generation
As stated in the 1999 NGO Statement, Cambodia's forest
resources should be better managed and revenues should be
directed to meeting public needs. There has been little
progress toward sustainable forest management in the past
year. The crackdown on illegal logging has focused on law
enforcement not on capacity building for sustainable forest
management. Regarding sustainable forest management in
concession areas, the Draft Cambodian Forestry Concession
Review Report inadequately researched and addressed social
or environ- mental issues.
While NGOs continue to support the objective of directing
revenues to meet public needs, a narrow emphasis on
increasing revenue to the national budget may encourage
unsustainable levels of logging.
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Concession Management and Concession
Review
Concessionaires control a majority of the nation's forest
resources outside of protected area-over 4 million hectares.
Most concession companies have been largely unaffected by
the campaign to end illegal logging. In spite of evidence of
illegal activity and abuses of people's rights, many
concessionaires remain untouched by the law and continue to
pose a major threat to local communities and forest
resources. In addition, where concessions violate the rights
of indigenous communities, they contravene international
conventions on indigenous people's rights signed by the RGC.
There is little evidence of a positive correlation between
industrial utilization of Cambodia's forest resources and
the achievement of equitable social and economic
development. To the contrary, concessions operating with
impunity can increase social conflict and lead to
inequitable distribution of forest benefits, sub-optimal
economic performance, and environmental degradation.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Non-humanitarian assistance to Cambodia should continue to be
linked to forestry sector reform, which should include the
following measures:
Policy and Law
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Enact appropriate forest and land laws and
sub-decrees for community forestry and concession
management, drafted through a process that is
participatory and transparent and will ensure community
participation in the management of forest resources.
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The forest policy formulation process
should be public, broadly participatory and involve a
range of stakeholders that generates and informs a
national constituency. There should be greater
consideration of local communities in the development of
policies and laws that impact upon their lives. Without
this public participation and transparency, these legal
and policy initiatives may have little value to people
in Cambodia.
Community Forestry
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Complete essential legal and
administrative measures (the forest law, community
forestry sub-decree and community forestry guidelines) in
order to apply community forestry wherever communities
have a cultural or livelihood dependency on local forests.
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Accord community forestry a higher priority and provide
increased development support.
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Facilitate community groups to obtain
inter- nationally recognized certification of community
forests. This may increase financial returns to rural
populations for sustainable forest management.
Crackdown on illegal logging
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End illegal activities that negatively
impact on rural people, including land grabbing and
intimidation by political, military and elite business.
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Rather than targeting the poor as
criminals, the crackdown on illegal forest activities
should focus on large-scale activities with a view to
ending the culture of impunity of the elite in Cambodia.
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Illegal logging can also be reduced
through strategies to secure forest-based livelihoods,
such as community forestry.
Sustainable Forest Management and Revenue
Generation
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Establish appropriate forest policy and
forest management capacities as a priori conditions for
resuming commercial logging.
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Allocate a greater portion of the revenues
generated from forest management to local communities for
rural development.
Concession Management and Concession Review.
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Suspend concession activities until the
suit- ability of concession management is proven and
appropriate forest policy and forest management capacities
are established.
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Terminate concessions with a record of
illegal activity, concessions on indigenous land, and
concessions that fail to ensure rural people's access to
forest resources or that do not consult rural people in
management planning and implementation. NGOs request
that the ADB-funded Sustainable Forest Management Project
identify and recommend termination of concessions that
threaten local people or limit traditional access to
forest resources.
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Take stronger action to hold forest concessions accountable to social, environmental, financial and
cultural standards. Communities within concession areas
should be consulted prior to the allocation of forest
concessions and in developing, monitoring, and evaluating
forest management plans.
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Conduct a study on the effects of forest
concessions on communities, including: information on the
number of communities affected; the social, cultural and
economic effects; conflicts between processes and
mechanisms for zoning and community use; conflict
resolution mechanisms and the establishment of priority
rights.
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Conduct an evaluation of industrial concession management in Cambodia, assessing whether the
industrial utilization of Cambodia's forest resources is
compatible with the goals of equitable social and economic
development.
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