Koh Chbar Village Kratie Province

A livelihoods study of farmers and fishers in Koh Chbar Village Kratie Province Item Type monograph Publisher Support to Regional Aquatic Resources Management (STREAM) Download date 03/10/2021 08:31:11 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/1834/20132 A livelihoods study of farmers and fishers in Koh Chbar Village Kratie Province Supported by STREAM Initiative In cooperation with CFDO and SCALE August 2002 A livelihoods study of farmers and fishers in Koh Chbar Village Kratie Province Supported by STREAM Initiative In cooperation with CFDO and SCALE August 2002 Contents Tables and Figures ii Acronyms iii Acknowledgements iv EXECUTIVE SUMMARY v 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Location 1 1.2 History of Koh Chbar Village 2 2. RESULTS 5 2.1 Wealth ranking 5 2.2 Resources 10 2.2.1 Human resources 10 2.2.2 Physical resources 10 2.2.3 Natural resources 11 2.2.4 Social resources 14 2.2.5 Financial resources 15 2.2.6 Summary of village resources 18 2.3 Vulnerabilities 20 2.3.1 Farming and seasonality 20 2.3.2 Trend lines 24 2.4 Institutions and processes 29 2.4.1 Institutions 29 2.4.2 Processes 31 2.5 Livelihoods strategies 31 2.5.1 Current livelihoods strategies 31 2.5.2 Problem ranking 32 2.5.3 Problem tree analysis 34 2.5.4 Action plan to form an animal bank 35 2.6 Livelihoods framework analysis 35 3. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 37 3.1 Conclusions 37 3.2 Recommendations 37 i Tables and Figures Figure 1 Map of Kratie (Kracheh) Province 3 Table 1 Historical record of events in Koh Chbar Village 4 Table 2 Wealth ranking criteria of Koh Chbar villagers 8 Figure 2 Social map of Koh Chbar Village according to house type 9 Figure 3 Topographical transect of Koh Chbar Village 12 Figure 4 Land use map of Koh Chbar Village 13 Figure 5 Venn diagram for the men’s group 16 Figure 6 Venn diagram for the women’s group 16 Table 3 Main resources available in Koh Chbar Village 18 Figure 7 Summary of the five types of resources in Koh Chbar 18 Village Figure 8 Seasonal calendar of men’s activities in Koh Chbar 21 Village Figure 9 Seasonal calendar of women’s activities in Koh Chbar 23 Village Figure 10 Trend lines in Koh Chbar villager livelihoods 27 Table 4 Institutions related to Koh Chbar villager livelihoods 29 Table 5 Institutional analysis 30 Table 6 Pair ranking of problems 32 Figure 11 Problem analysis tree 34 Table 7 Action plan to form an animal bank 35 Figure 12 Livelihoods framework analysis 36 ii Acronyms CFDO Community Fisheries Development Office DoF Department of Fisheries FLD Farmer Livelihood Development NGO Non-governmental Organization OCAA Oxfam Community Aid Abroad SCALE Cambodian NGO (now FLD) STREAM Support to Regional Aquatic Resources Management UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund VDC Village Development Committee iii Acknowledgements We would like to acknowledge: ▪ The STREAM initiative, for providing financial support for the study ▪ The CFDO (Department of Fisheries), for coordinating and supporting the team in the completion of the study ▪ SCALE, for providing training and facilitation in the study process ▪ The local authority, for allowing the team to conduct the study in their areas and for spending time helping the team ▪ The people of Koh Chbar Village, for their active participation in providing clear information and problems related to their livelihoods. Villagers bravely expressed the real problems in the village, which enabled the study team to gain a clear understanding of their livelihoods. The livelihoods study team included: ▪ Mr Sien Kin ▪ Ms Chive Kimchheng ▪ Ms He Sopharnna ▪ Mr Tan Someth Bunwat ▪ Mr Vin Bunna ▪ Mr Meas Niren Note: Inconsistencies in English spellings of place names may be attributed to transliteration from Khmer. iv EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This is the report of a livelihoods study team working together with villagers from Koh Chbar Village in Kratie Province, Cambodia, to find out about the livelihoods of farmers and fishers. It is based on information provided by the villagers who shared their knowledge and raised real issues related to their livelihoods. The issues and problems discovered during the period of study in Koh Chbar Village enabled the team to reach some conclusions on the current situation and recommendations for the future. The villagers worked well together, and their leaders were accessible and cooperative. This study was undertaken from 13-18 August 2002. The team worked with 30 villagers who volunteered to participate in the discussions. This number of participants represented 142 households in the village. Due to the differences in material ownership, means of production and standards of living, villagers divided themselves into four wealth ranking groups: rich, medium, poor and very poor. The main resources in the village were divided into five groups: human, physical, natural, social and financial. Some recent changes have impacted seriously on the livelihoods of the villagers, especially in terms of natural resources. The population is constantly growing which has led to an increase in natural resource utilization and consequently to the degradation of the resources that sustain their livelihoods. The infrastructure of the village is poor so the price of produce is low, and the poor households suffer from diseases and shortfalls of food. Three main groups of people and institutions have relationships with the villagers of Koh Chbar: government, business and civil society. These groups have different roles and have had different impacts on the villagers. Problems faced by the villagers include poor transportation, inadequate access to markets to sell produce, flooding, lack of draft animals and deficiency of knowledge in agronomy. Furthermore, both people and animals face diseases. The villagers generally suffer from diseases such as malaria, fever and dengue fever. Additionally, the members of the poorer groups lack suitable tools, especially draft animals. In general, the price of produce is 50% lower than the market price in the town. The team facilitated discussions with villagers to rank problems and analyze root causes and effects. The resulting action plan is designed to prevent and treat animal and human diseases and form an animal bank. It was suggested that villagers should receive advice related to health issues, investigate agricultural possibilities, manage the community fishery in a sustainable manner and provide credit in the form of cows or buffaloes to help the poor households. v 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Location Kratie Province (Figure 1) is in an upland area in the northeast of the Kingdom of Cambodia. This province can be reached by boat and road. It is about 217 km from Phnom Penh if travelling by boat along the Mekong River. Alternatively, the province may be reached by National Road 6A crossing the Kigona Bridge and continuing to Road 7, but this, at 341 km, is longer than by river. As the road is not developed, most people prefer travelling to Kratie by speedboat, which takes about six hours from Phnom Penh. The province has a total area of about 11,094 km² and the total population is 279,140, equivalent to 52,340 households (National Census 1998). There are eight minority groups living in this province: Cham, Phnong, Kouy, Samre, Steang, Mil, Kraol and Kaonh. This upland province has plenty of forest and wildlife with water supplied by the Mekong River. Along the river there are many channels and lakes, with plenty of different kinds of aquatic resources. The deepest part of the river is a dolphin refuge. Dolphins, the symbol of the province, are rare animals and attract tourists to Kratie. The province has a small area for agriculture, which stretches along the Mekong River. Near the river are the channels and lakes that used to be fishing lots. The previous system of managing fishing lots has been abolished, and management and development has now been handed over to communities. Kratie Province comprises five districts: Sambour, Preaek Prasab, Chhlong, Kratie and Snoul. The province is bordered by Steung Treng and Ratanakiri Provinces to the north, Kampong Thom Province to the west, Kampong Cham Province to the south and Vietnam to the east. The team elected to conduct the livelihoods study in Koh Chbar Village, which is a village in Koh Khgne Commune, Sambour District. Koh Chbar Village is located in an upland area, which has plenty of forest, and has borders with Prey Teal Village to the east, the Mekong River to the west, Otaneung channel to the south and Osvan channel to the north. The village is an ex-fishing lot that was abolished and handed over to the villagers to manage. The village stretches for about 4 km along the river and has a total area of about 4,800 ha. The population of the village is 672 people living in 142 households. The population is made up of three ethnic groups: about 4.2% of the population are Phnong, 1.4% are Kouy and the rest are Khmer. Most of the villagers rely on planting monsoon rice and developing natural resources such as timber, bamboo, vines and hunting. 1 1.2 History of Koh Chbar Village A long time ago Koh Chbar Village was located on a small island. On this island, where only five households were living, they planted secondary crops, which in Khmer language are called Chbar Damnam. So the villagers usually refer to this island as Koh Chbar, which means "island with plants". During French colonization there was a movement against the French. Prisoners in Steung Treng Province joined with the Phnong people and fought against the French soldiers. The villages were in turmoil; villagers moved from one place to another to escape the fighting.

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