Page 1 of 11 ETHNICITY AND FOREST RESOURCE USE AND MANAGEMENT IN CAMBODIA BACKGROUND The Community Forestry Working Group established a typological framework to examine the inter-related issues of ecology, tenure, and ethnicity in relation to forest resource perspectives, use and management by rural communities in Cambodia. The typology will serve as a base of knowledge and documentation and as a conceptual framework for understanding community resource use. This will be useful for defining appropriate objectives, strategies, and methodologies to support community forestry development interventions. Specifically, understanding and describing the three underlying typological topics (tenure, ethnicity, ecology) will be helpful for: Establishing a framework for better identification and understanding of existing community forestry activities in Cambodia; A possible identification of appropriate places or regions where community forestry would be relevant and useful for sustainable forest management and for improvement of people's livelihoods; A useful instrument to design programs in a given region with community involvement. INTRODUCTION The population of Cambodia was estimated to be 11,437,656 in 1998. This population consists of different ethnic groups, including Khmer, Cham, Vietnamese, Chinese and hill tribes. Ethnic groups in Cambodian society possess a number of economic and demographic commonalties. For example, minority ethnic villages are more common among the poorest than among the richest quintile of villages (5.3 percent versus 3.2 percent) ( Ministry of Planning, 1999) . While commonalties exist, ethnic groups in Cambodia also preserve differences in their social and cultural institutions. The major differences among the various ethnic groups lie in historical, social organization, language, custom, habitant, belief and religion. (Ministry of Commerce, 1998) . With an annual growth rate of 2.49 percent, Cambodia's population is increasing rapidly. A large majority of the population lives in rural areas and depends on natural resources, especially forest resources, for daily livelihood subsistence needs (Census 1998) . This paper explores information available regarding the relationship between the different ethnic groups in Cambodia and their forest resource dependency, use and management. 1. DEFINITIONS 1.1 Ethnicity Ethnicity refers to a shared culture that has a range of distinctive behavioral and possibly linguistic features, which are passed on through socialization from one generation to another (David Crystal, 1993). 1.2 Ethnic Groups An ethnic group is a group of people with characteristics in common that distinguish them from most other people of the same society. Members of one ethnic group may have ties of ancestry, culture, language, nationalities, or religion, combination of these characteristics. Most ethnic groups are minority groups with at least some values or institutions that differ from those of the larger society. Since ancient time, ethnic groups have resulted from migration, war, slavery, changed political boundaries, and other major movements of people. In some countries, the ethnic identification of a person may affect both social standing and access to power. Ethnic groups provide their members with a sense of belonging. They can bring variety and richness to a society by introducing their own ideas and ways of life. Some members of ethnic groups prefer to live with Page 2 of 11 members of the same group. But ethnic groups that cling to their old value and customs can also threaten national unity. In many parts of the world, neighboring ethnic groups dislike and distrust one another (Thomas F. Pettigrew, 1993). 2. ETHNIC GROUPS IN CAMBODIA 2.1 Khmer The Khmer are the largest ethnic group in Cambodia, constituting more then 90 percent of the population (Ministry of Commerce, 1998) . The Khmer live throughout Cambodia, settled in fairly permanent villages near the major bodies of water in the Tonle Sap Basin-Mekong lowlands region (see Appendix A: Population and Distribution of Ethnic Groups in Cambodia ). Khmer villages, especially in central and southeastern Cambodia, usually include other ethnic groups or representatives of ethnic groups, typically including sizable Chinese communities (Ministry of Commerce, 1998). The Khmer have several common ties of ancestry, culture, language, and religion. For example, most Cambodians are Theravada Buddhists and have long experience in wet-rice cultivation, animal rising, handicraft and fishing (Hanoi, 1993) . Ethnic Khmer speak several dialects of Khmer. Native Khmer words may be composed of one or two syllables. Khmer is uninflected, but it has a rich system of affixes, including infixes, for derivation. Generally speaking, Khmer has nouns, verbs, adverbs, and various kinds of words called particles. The normal word order is subject-verb-object. Khmer uses Sanskrit and Pali roots much as English and other West European languages use Latin and Greek roots to derive new, especially scientific, words. Khmer has also borrowed terms - especially financial, commercial, and cooking terms - from Chinese, French, and English as well. These latter borrowings have been in the realm of material culture, especially the names for items of modem Western technology. The language has symbols for thirty-three consonants, twenty-four dependent vowels, twelve independent vowels, and several diacritics (Ministry of Commerce, 1998) . The all-pervasive guiding principle for Khmer social life is the notion of hierarchy. All social relations are hierarchically ordered. The hierarchy is primarily expressed in term of age. An "elder" is a person who authority through his/ she higher social status. The principles of status hierarchy and the social order are particularly manifest in the cultural ideas about gender relation. In general, men are regarded as superior to women. Even though both men and women are expected to show the degree of reserve and modesty which their status position entails, the behavioral demands are generally much stricter for women than men, and in particular fore younger women. Women demonstrate their high statue through proper behavior. This includes both proper comportment and correct action (Jan Ovesen, 1996). 2.2 Hill Tribe or Khmer Loeu The Khmer Loeu is the "highlander" or "hill tribe" in Cambodia. The Khmer Loeu is found mainly in the northeastern provinces of Ratanakiri, Stung Treng, Mondulkiri and Kratie (see Appendix A: Population and Distribution of Ethnic Groups in Cambodia ). Most Khmer Loeu live in scattered temporary villages that have only a few hundred inhabitants. These villages usually are governed by a council of local elders or by a village headman. The Khmer Loeu cultivates a wide variety of plants, but the main crop is dry or upland rice grown by the slash-and-burn method and abandoned when the cultivated land in the vicinity is exhausted. Hunting, fishing, and gathering supplement the cultivated vegetable foods in the Khmer Loeu diet. Houses vary from huge multi-family longhouses to small single-family structures. They may be built close to the ground or on stilts. The major Khmer Loeu groups in Cambodia are the Kuy, Phnong, Stieng, Brao, Por, Jarai, and Rade (Ministry of Commerce, 1998). All but the last two speak Mon-Khmer languages. The Jarai and the Rade speak a Malayo-Polynesian language (Jefferson Fox,1997) . In the late 1980s, about 160,000 Kuy lived in the northern Cambodian provinces of Kampong Thurn, Preah Vihear, and Stung Treng as well as in adjacent Thailand (Ministry of Commerce, 1998). 2.3 Cham The Cham people in Cambodia descended from refugees of the kingdom of Champa, which once ruled much of Vietnam between Gao Ha in the north and Bien Hoa in the south. Ethnically and linguistically the Cham are Malayo-Polynesian (The City Magazine, 1999) . Over the centuries, the Cham have intermarried with Malaysian Muslims who had migrated to Cambodia, and generally speaking the Malay and the Cham have now merged in to single group. They have managed to retain their ancestral language, mainly as an oral tradition, but Bahasa Malay is spoken between them. The Arabic alphabet, learned in Koran schools, is used in writing and for religious occasions (The City Magazine, 1999) . See Appendix A: Population and Distribution of Ethnic Groups Page 3 of 11 in Cambodia for information regarding population size and distribution in Cambodia. Since Islam is so widespread among Cham, local tradition and lore are used alongside Koran (The City Magazine, 1999) . The Cambodian Chams are divided into two groups, the orthodox and the traditional, based on their religious practices. The orthodox group, which makes up about one-third of the total number of Chams in the country, were located mainly in the Phnom Penh - Oudong area and in the provinces of Takeo and Kampot. The traditional Chams were scattered throughout the midsection of the country in the provinces of Battambang, Kompong Thom, Kornpong Cham, Kompong Chhnang and Pursat (see Appendix A: Population and Distribution of Ethnic Groups in Cambodia ). The Chams of both groups typically live in villages inhabited only by other Chams; the villages may be along the shores of watercourses, or they may be inland. The inhabitants of the river villages engage in fishing and in growing vegetables. They trade fish to local Khmer for rice. The women in these villages earn money by weaving. The Chams who live inland support themselves by various means, depending on the villages. Some villages