Phnom Penh, February 23, 2016: The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the CAI Co, Ltd. was raised during the discussion. After having properly consulted with stakeholders including CSOs, local authority and the communities, one agreement between the stakeholders was proposed and submitted to the Ministry of Environment, advisory and investment companies.
The concerns of the working group, which mentioned in the meeting included:
1. The limitation of the Public participation, especially, the number of community representatives and women. Plus, Consultations should be conducted to fully consider the concerns and suggestions of the people who are directly affected by the project.
2. The benefits to the particular social and environmental funds should be increased while the community has lost many benefits because of this investment projects.
3. The environment management plan and compensation should be detail and be able to provide the acceptable solutions to the community.
4. Even the process is a bit behind the track, the relevant ministries and company shall avoid in granting or investing on the projects that could be harmful to the wildlife and/or wildlife habitat conservation. The investment caused the loss approximately 7.523 hectares of forest’s cover, which can contain about 98.5513 tons of Carbons.
5. Based on the sub-decree on EIA, this investment project should prepare a proper EIA report, Social preliminary or complete before the implementation.
6. The compensation amount shall be discussed with the affected community in order to provide the transparency and acceptable compensation.