Environment and Social Plan - Song Saa Reserve, Eco-Tourism Park, Banteay Srei - Prepared for Arcadia Land Holding Co., Ltd. Table of Contents Executive Summary 4 Introduction 6 Part 1: The Environment and Social Profile of the Banteay Srei Site 7 1.1 Background 7 1.2 Biodiversity 9 1.3 Trapaing Chamboak 10 1.4 Landscape Change 15 1.4.1 Deforestation 15 a. Patterns 15 1.4.2 Drivers of Deforestation 16 1.4.3 Implications & Opportunities 17 1.4.4 Water Management 18 1.4.5 Fire 18 1.4.6 Water Quality 19 1.4.7 Observations and Discussions 19 1.5 Socio-economic 19 1.5.1 Banteay Srei Village 19 1.5.2 Toul Kralanh 20 1.5.3 O’Monous 21 1.5.4 Ko Koh Chum 21 1.5.5 Observations and Discussion – Socio-economic 22 1.6 Cultural Heritage & Landscape 23 1.6.1 Banteay Srei – Temple 23 1.6.2 Birth Place of Angkor Empire – Phnom Kulen 24 1.6.3 Cultural Heritage Conservation and the Banteay Srei Site 25 Part II: Environment and Social Proposals – Banteay Srei Site 26 2.1 Introduction 26 2.2 A Framework for Guiding Development and Management 26 2.3 Issues and Opportunities 27 2.4 Strategic Opportunities and Considerations 29 2.4.1 Introduction 29 2.4.2 Climate Change 29 a. Background 29 b. Cambodia Climate Change Strategic Plan 30 c. Intended Nationally Determined Contributions 30 d. Opportunities 30 e. Moving Forward 31 2.4.3 Biodiversity – Strategies and Plans 31 a. Background 31 b. Opportunities 31 c. Moving Forward 31 2.4.4 Sustainable Development Goals 32 a. Background 32 b. Opportunities 33 c. Moving Forward 33 2.4.5 Social Enterprises 33 a. Background 33 b. Opportunities 33 c. Moving Forward 34 2.5 Projects for the Banteay Srei Site 34 2.5.1 Introduction 34 Implementation – The Song Saa Foundation 35 Project 1 — The Heritage Forest Garden Initiative 36 Project II — The Trapaing Chamboak Heritage Management Plan 42 Project III — The Wildways and Flyways Heritage Project 46 Project IV — The Banteay Srei Heritage Hub 51 2.5.2 Other Environmental and Social Planning Considerations for the Site 55 a. Smaller Scale Activities 55 b. Monitoring and Reporting 55 2 c. Synthesis Between the Environment and Social Planning and Other Site Activities 55 d. Corporate Alignment 57 e. Environment Impact Assessment 57 Part Ill: A Community for Banteay Srei – A Concept Note 58 4.1 Background 58 4.2 Why is this Important? 58 4.3 What Could a Banteay Srei Community Comprise 58 4.4 Concepts to Practice 60 4.5 Design Principles for ‘Project Community’ 60 4.6 Opportunity 60 References 62 Appendices Species identified at the Banteay Srei Site from Surveys Completed Between November 2016 and January 2017 63 3 — Executive Summary — VISION “A plan that promotes the regeneration and restoration of environment and social resilience, in harmony with commercial development, on a site in the Siem Reap Province of Cambodia.” Opportunity Through adopting a vision based on the 3 rs—Restoration, Regeneration and Resilience—Arcadia Land Holdings Co., Ltd proposes a programme for its BS site that will restore the connections between water, people, land and heritage, both on the site and across the district of Banteay Srei. The promise is an initiative that both inspires and provides leadership for stewardship in the lower Mekong plain of Southeast Asia and beyond. Goal The goal of the Song Saa Reserve, Eco-tourism Park, Banteay Srei environment and social plan is as innovative as it is ambitious. And building on the lessons and successes of Song Saa’s work in the Koh Rong archipelago, and the knowledge and skill of its staff, its aspiration is to create a regional exemplar for restoration and stewardship that reflects the present and future needs of the environment and people of the Banteay Srei area and beyond. ------------ The Song Saa Reserve, Eco-tourism Park, Banteay Srei environment and social plan is divided into four parts. Part 1 sets out the environment and social context of the Song Saa Reserve, Eco-tourism Park, Banteay Srei site, with points of note including: • The loss of the site’s rainforest cover as the predominant landscape change, which has had a significant impact on biodiversity and land use patterns. • A lake and wetland, Trapaing Chamboak, bordering the site is a predominant landscape feature, and provides a range of ecosystem services to the development site. • There are four villages in proximity to the site, with home-based agriculture being the primary economic activity. • There are high levels of poverty in the surrounding villages, which is reflected in high primary school dropout rates, outward migration in search of jobs and indebtedness to credit agencies. • Water quality and quantity and fire management are matters that need to be catered for in the development and management of the site. • The site is in a significant cultural area for the Khmer people, including proximity to the scared mountains of Kulen and the Banteay Srei temple of the Angkor Archaeological Park. Part II provides the project focus portion of the plan and includes: • A framework for approaching environment and social project work on the site, based on the principles of: (a) permaculture, (b) integrated catchment management, (c) the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and (d) ecological restoration. • An outline of a group of strategic opening that could yield support for projects undertaken on the site, including opportunities provided in the arenas of climate change, biodiversity, the sustainable development goals and social enterprise development. • A set of four large-scale projects for the site, which focus on the opportunities identified through the profile work undertaken in Part I, and which seek to bring about the regeneration and restoration of the ecological and social resilience of the site. The projects are: - The Heritage Forest Garden Initiative – which focuses on opportunities for the reforestation of areas of the development site. - The Trapaing Chamboak Heritage Management Plan – this entails a collaborative planning process for the establishment of a long-term management plan for the restoration of the Trapaing Chamboak Lake and its wetland margins. 4 - The Wildways and Flyways Heritage Project – An initiative that establishes a strategy and process for regenerating and restoring the biodiversity of the Banteay Srei site in harmony with other development imperatives. - The Banteay Srei Heritage Hub – A project that endeavours to create a learning and education hub that focuses on archaeological and biodiversity/climate change. • A set of other planning considerations, including monitoring and reporting, corporate alignment and the legal requirements for an environment impact process. Part Ill provides a concept note on the characteristics of the human community that could evolve at the Banteay Srei site and Part IV, the steps to follow in the implementation of the environment and social plan. An appendix summarizing the birds, amphibians, fish, insects and plants observed on the site during surveys completed between November 2016 and January 2017 is included. The species lists highlight the low level of biodiversity on the site, which has accompanied the removal of its original forest cover. 5 1. Introduction This document sets out a plan to promote the regeneration, restoration and resilience of the physical and social environment of a property project site in the Banteay Srei district of Cambodia (henceforth, ‘the site’). The plan draws on the extensive experience of Song Saa staff, professional contributions from the nationally renowned eco-tourism and birding enterprise, the Sam Vesna Centre and the global conservation organisation Wildlife Conservation Society. The result is a plan that is visionary and unique for property development in Cambodia, where care and consideration for the environment and people lies at the centre of the project’s concept. The plan is divided into three parts: Part 1: The environment and social context of the site. Part ll: Project framework and descriptions for undertaking on the site. Part Ill: A Community for Banteay Srei – A Concept Note 6 PART 1 The Environment and Social Profile of the Banteay Srei Site 1.1 Background The Banteay Srei site is located approximately 38 kilometres north of the city of Siem Reap, in the Angkor basin, an area of 2986 km2 in the central Cambodia province of Siem Reap (see Maps 1.1, 1.2 & 1.3). The basin is bordered by the great lake of Tonle Sap1 in the south and the low-slung range of the Phnom Kulen Mountains in the north, the basin rising from 6 amsl—around the shores of the Tonle Sap—to 469 m at the tallest point in the Kulen range. Three small size rivers dissect the basin—the Puok, the Siem Reap and the Rolous—all of which fed into the Tonle Sap. The Banteay Srei (BS) site is located in the catchment of the Siem Reap River. Map 1.1: The Angkor Basin and the Song Saa Reserve, Eco-tourism Park, Banteay Srei Site and Other Significant Features Banteay Srei site The basin landscape is a mosaic of flooded and upland forests, rice fields, scrub land, sites of shifting cultivation, areas of deforestation and urban development, and designated protected areas. The emergence of intensify-style agriculture, including cassava and plantation development, has occurred over the last seven years. Forests within the basin are dominated by deciduous and evergreen species, the latter heavily populated by species of the Dipterocarpus genus2. Rice growing is a dominant agricultural activity, with irrigated and rain fed rice grown beyond the margins of the Tonle Sap Lake. 1 The Tonle Sap is the largest fresh water lake in Southeast Asia and a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.