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NGO Statement, 2000 Consultative Group Meeting On Cambodia


 FORESTRY REFORM

TABLE OF CONTENTS


NGO Statement to the 2000 Consultative Group Meeting on Cambodia

- Home.................................
- About us.............................
- Message.............................

- Introduction........................
- Progress.............................
- Good Governance................
- Human Resource 
- Development
......................
- Reaching the Poor...............
- Conclusion..........................

Sectoral Papers..................

- Agriculture..........................
- Child’s Rights....................
- Commune Administration 
- and Decentralization
............
- Commune Elections..........
- Disability and Rehabilitation..
- Education............................
- Fisheries.............................
- Forestry Reform...............
- Gender and Development.....
- Good Governance................
- Health................................
- HIV/AIDS...........................
- Human Rights......................
- Landmines..........................
- Land Reform.......................
- Microfinance........................
- Weapons Reduction.............

General NGO Information...

References.........................

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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.

  • 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. 

  • 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.

  • 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. 

  • 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.

  • 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. 

  • 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

  • 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. 

  • 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

  • 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. 

  • Accord community forestry a higher priority and provide increased development support.

  • 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

  • End illegal activities that negatively impact on rural people, including land grabbing and intimidation by political, military and elite business. 

  • 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. 

  • Illegal logging can also be reduced through strategies to secure forest-based livelihoods, such as community forestry.

Sustainable Forest Management and Revenue Generation

  • Establish appropriate forest policy and forest management capacities as a priori conditions for resuming commercial logging.

  • Allocate a greater portion of the revenues generated from forest management to local communities for rural development.
    Concession Management and Concession Review.

  • Suspend concession activities until the suit- ability of concession management is proven and appropriate forest policy and forest management capacities are established. 

  • 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. 

  • 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. 

  • 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.

  • 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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