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Forestry

      (i)          Introduction

While Cambodia’s forest resource base is estimated to cover over half of Cambodia’s land area, much of it has been significantly degraded over the last ten to fifteen years.  As is widely known, substantial areas were allocated to forest concessions, other areas were logged by non-concessionaires, and both a growing population and increasing consumption of forest resources for timber, fuel wood, and a range of non-timber forest products is placing the remaining resources under significant pressure.  More than ever before, forest cover is being lost permanently as it is converted to agricultural land, often in the form of large plantations owned by a few wealthy businessmen. 

An additional threat are the road building programs of forest concessionaires, together with those financed through bilateral and multilateral aid, which have made forest areas in many parts of Cambodia easily accessible.  This is facilitating a significant in-migration of settlers into forest areas, many of whom subsequently seek to clear forestland and gain title to newly cleared areas. There are a number of implications of these developments for Cambodia’s forests, their future commercial potential, and for those groups that have traditionally resided in and around forest areas. 

While the forest resource base is under pressure, significant potential exists for the prevention of poverty through the development of social forestry, and joint forest management systems that build upon the traditional integration of forests and fisheries within the agricultural systems of Khmers and minority groups.  In addition, efforts by local communities to stop illegal logging are currently receiving significant support from local government officials in many areas. 

      (ii)         Key Issues

Illegal logging and independent monitoring: High levels of logging are occurring throughout Cambodia.  Logging, although often represented as the work of villagers, is usually organized by the military or police with the collusion of other government officials.  Timber is harvested, processed, transported and sold through a well-established network of intermediaries, with only sporadic interdiction by responsible authorities.  Large-scale logging is also occurring under the guise of land concessions and rubber plantations.  Plantation developments have often targeted the most valuable forest areas rather than non-forest areas or scrublands that would be more appropriate for conversion to agriculture. 

Compounding the problems of illegal logging, the practice of independent monitoring in Cambodia has been discontinued since the removal of Global Witness earlier in the year.  Donors have also sought to de-link their foreign assistance from requiring that the Cambodian government manage Cambodia’s forest resources for maximum public benefit.  This was the original reason for independent monitoring as the Forest Crime Monitoring Project document noted in 1999.[1]

Large or small-scale forestry, agriculture, and plantation development: A key focus of the government’s poverty reduction strategy is the promotion of agro-industry through the development of plantations and links to the processing of cash crops (such as cashews, oil palm, rubber, soy beans) subsequently produced.  Current government practice indicates that a decision has been taken to promote large-scale plantation development.  This decision is having a significant impact on rural communities as it has involved the reallocation of substantial forest areas for agricultural development.  If these decisions are implemented conversion of forest areas will accelerate, a few families and companies will become the de facto owners of the bulk of Cambodia’s converted forestland, and inequality in the distribution of income is likely to continue to worsen. 

The cutting of resin trees:  Cutting of resin trees continues despite provisions in the forest law prohibiting their cutting[2], and increased knowledge of the high levels of income villagers generate through the tapping of resin trees.[3]  Much of the current cutting is occurring under the guise of land concession and plantation developments, and indications are that approved forest concessions intend to cut the resin trees of villagers in concession areas.  Inventory data used to justify the approval of forest concession management plans does not acknowledge that much of the proposed annual allowable cut is made up of resin trees.  Consultants working on the World Bank’s Learning and Innovation Loan on Forest Concession Management have indicated that the issue of resin trees has not been factored into consideration as to whether forest concessions are commercially viable and that companies can negotiate with villagers over the selling of resin trees to enable them to be cut. 

Rubber or resin:  Both the Cambodian government and some members of the donor community have been trumpeting the potential of rural Cambodia for agro-industry, and in particular, for the production of rubber.[4]  This bullish appraisal of Cambodia’s potential for rubber production seems to have ignored the long-term downward trend in the international market price for rubber, and natural rubber’s substitutability with synthetic rubber.[5]  In contrast the international price for dipterocarp oleoresin has risen considerably since the 1970s due to the large scale deforestation that has occurred over the past few decades in Insular Southeast Asia.[6]  In addition, resin tapping implies the preservation of Cambodia’s dipterocarp forests and would as such have a number of significant environmental benefits. 

Poverty reduction or poverty creation:  The constant refrain of both government and donors is that the policy reforms planned and implemented are aimed at the reduction of poverty.  Almost every government statement and donor plan of action is now justified with reference to its impact in reducing poverty. However government practice, often financed and legitimated by the donor community is placing Cambodia on the trajectory of increasing inequality and possibly pushing a significant portion of rural dwellers towards deeper poverty.  This applies particularly to forest dependent communities who have had their access to forest resources curtailed, the products on which they most depend for their income usurped by others or taxed at almost their full market value[7], and now their forest taken away from them through the promotion of poorly conceived development schemes such as the Tum Ring rubber plantation.  For many in rural areas, the future remains bleak. 

      (iii)          Recommendations

Cambodia is at a crossroads.  Cambodia faces the significant risk of becoming the Haiti of the Asia-Pacific, with continued impoverishment of the majority, the loss of almost all forest cover, and ongoing threats of social instability.  Basing forest management on forest concessions, annual coupes, and large-scale land concessions will likely lead Cambodia toward this scenario. 

Alternatively, Cambodian policy makers could choose to replicate the more equitable development model of countries that have managed to preserve forest resources in a manner that provides for the livelihood needs of rural communities, and ensures the maintenance of key ecological and hydrological systems.  This will entail implementing an alternative forest management strategy that recognizes that Cambodia will only retain its forests if communities become central to their management, and are granted rights to protect, manage, and benefit from forest areas. 

To move towards the sustainable and equitable management of Cambodia’s forests, the following urgent steps are recommended.  It is imperative that all these steps be undertaken prior to the government’s approval of new commercial ventures, or renegotiation of existing concession contracts (such as forest concessions, land concessions, and plantation developments).  These steps are:

·         Commission an independent and comprehensive forest cover assessment as the basis for the delineation of a permanent forest estate. 

·         Delineate a permanent forest estate. 

·         Prepare and pass a law on state property (which includes the permanent forest estate) that would ensure transparency in relation to its demarcation, utilization, and management. 

·         Make an unambiguous commitment, in unison with the World Bank Learning and Innovation Loan on Forest Concession Management, that the legal provisions prohibiting the cutting of all resin trees will be upheld and this ban will be factored into the assessment of whether concessions are viable. 

·         Remove responsibility for forest crime monitoring from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries and assign this responsibility to an institution not linked to the approval and management of forest concessions. 

·         Establish an independent monitoring mechanism that will investigate both forest crimes, and the legality of government decision-making in relation to the use and management of forest resources. 

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[1] The Forest Crime Monitoring and Reporting project document stated: “To further encourage RGC in the pursuit of effective forest law enforcement, the IMF has specified establishment of an [sic] permanent forest monitoring system as a requirement for resumption of its macroeconomic support programme.”  & “As a third dimension, Government proposes to engage an independent advisory group that will make public its assessments of Government’s efforts in forestry.  This independent assessment is intended to provide assurance to the international donor community on both the meaningfulness of RGCs own reporting estimates and on Government’s basic commitment to sustainable forestry.”  Royal Government of Cambodia, Forest Crime Monitoring and Reporting, project document, July 1999.  P. 4. 

[2] Article 29A.3 Forest law states: “it shall be prohibited to harvest the following anywhere within the Permanent Forest Reserve....  Trees within a species that local communities have tapped to extract resin for customary use”.

[3] See Tom D. Evans, et al, A study of resin-tapping and livelihoods in Southern Mondulkiri, Cambodia, with implications for conservation and forest management, Wildlife Conservation Society, Phnom Penh, January 2003; Ian G. Baird, “Dipterocarpus Wood Resin Tenure, Management and Trade: Practices of the Brao in Northeast Cambodia”, Master of Arts Thesis, Department of Geography, University of Victoria, 2003; McAndrew, John P., Mam Sambath, Hong Kimly, and Ly Bunthai. "Indigenous Adaptation to a Decline in Natural Resources: The Experience of Two Phnong Communes in Northeast Cambodia." Phnom Penh: CIDSE, draft, 2003.

[4] For instance, the World Bank’s recent concept paper on the sources of growth noted: “Rubber is potentially Cambodia’s most valuable natural resource after timber.  Rubber was once Cambodia’s prime earner of foreign exchange but now the plantations are in decline; the trees are old, equipment is obsolete and in poor condition and the quality of the rubber is very low.”  See: World Bank, “Cambodia: Sources of Growth and Poverty Reduction Study”, World Bank, Phnom Penh, September 2003, pg. 5. 

[5] See “Rubber barons?”, The Economist, 29 May, 2003; “Snapped”, The Economist, 16 December, 1999. 

[6] See Renée Ankarfjärd & Miran Kegl, “Tapping oleoresin from Dipterocarpus alatus (Dipterocarpaceae) in a Lao Village”, Economic Botany, Vol. 52, No. 1, 1998, pp. 7-14; Rosemary Gianno, “The exploitation of resinous products in a lowland Malayan forest”, Wallaceana, Vol. 43, 1986, pp. 3-6. 

[7] See Prom Tola and Bruce McKenney, “Forest product trade in Cambodia: a case study in resin”, Cambodia Development Review, Vol. 7, No. 2, April-June 2003. 

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For more information and the issues raised in this paper, please contact: The NGO Forum Forestry Project, Phone: 023 986 269  Email: andrewcock@bigpond.com; sokhom@ngoforum.org.kh