Page 1 of 23 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction 1. Background 2. Rationale of the Study 3. Objective of the Study 4. Scope and Limitation of the Study 5. Research Method II. Coastal and Marine Cambodia 2.1 Coastal and Marine Cambodia 2.2 Population of Coastal Provinces 2.3 Koh Province 2.3.1 General Status of Koh Kong 2.3.2 Socio-economic Status III. Mangrove Status in Cambodia 3.1 Ecological Characteristics 3.2 Mangrove Distribution in Cambodia 3.2 Mangrove Distribution in Koh Kong Province IV. Unsustainable Mangrove Exploitation 4.1 Driving Mechanisms of Mangrove Forest Exploitation 4.2 The Levels of Mangrove Exploitation 4.3 Fuel Wood and Charcoal Production 4.4 Shrimp Farming and Salt Farm V. Impacts of Mangrove Degradation on Environment and Coastal Communities 5.1 Impacts on Fisheries Resources 5.1.1 Impacts on Marine Fisheries 5.1.2 Management Problems in Marine Fisheries 5.1.3 Fisheries Taxes 5.2. Impacts on Coastal Communities VI. Agencies Involved in Management of Marine Resources VII. Conclusion and Recommendations REFERENCES I. INTRODUCTION 1. Background Cambodia is situated in Southeast Asia on the East Coast of the Gulf of Siam in the China Sea. The country cover a land area of 181,035 km 2 and has an estimated population of about 11 million persons in 1998. Cambodia shares a land border with Thailand on the northwest, Lao PDR on the northeast and Viet Nam on Page 2 of 23 the east and south. Cambodia is an agrarian nation, largely dependent upon productive natural resources for food and income. More than 40% of the national GDP is derived from the primary sector, consisting of agriculture, fisheries, and forestry. The marine fisheries and marine resources contribute a significant proportion to the GDP and people’s livelihood in the coastal provinces. As a developing country, Cambodia still has a high level of poverty, particularly in the rural areas, low levels of education, health, and associated services. The coastal provinces also face similar issues. Cambodia is moving gradually and steadily from a commended economy to a free market competition. The open up of the border, especially with Thailand, has attracted the Thai investors to look into the untapped mangrove resources along the coastlal provinces, mainly in Koh Kong. The introduction of a new market mechanism has led to the increase of a charcoal production and the shrimp culture investment in the mangrove forest areas which were the causes of rapid degradation of mangrove resources, especially in Koh Kong. While the mangrove resources has declined, only few made much money but many trapped in debt. The charcoal production and shrimp farming have been viewed as a major cause of mangrove destruction by many different authors. The government has banned the mangrove cutting in 1994s and put it as illegal against cutters. As cutting of mangrove is illegal, the mangrove resources become scarce, and lacks of livelihood alternatives for most of the coastal households, the coastal communities are in the difficult position to make a living. 2. Rationale of the Study Although large truck of mangrove forest areas have been cleared for charcoal production and shrimp farms, it is still not known to what extent it has been declined. Most of the blames for mangrove destruction go to local coastal communities. However, most of the coastal households are still poor and trapped in debts. In addition, this study identifies who has been also involved in the destruction of these resources. Furthermore, the driving mechanisms of unsustainable exploitation is still not known which is explored in this study. Cutting the mangrove is illegal. To stop this illegal activities, the government has taken measures to crackdown the charcoal kilns, mainly in Koh Kong. Without identifying the alternatives for the mangrove dependent communities while develop and implement these policies, the crackdowns put additional pressures on small- scale charcoal producers and place the coastal poor in the venerable situation. It is important to view the outcomes and the consequences of the implementation of these policies. This study reviews the existing information and additionally explores the linkages between the destruction of mangrove, the government policies and the impacts of these factors on the mangrove dependent communities and especially the response from coastal communities to such challenging situation. 3. Objective of the Study The objectives of the study are: to assess the current status of the mangrove forest, to review the levels and driving mechanisms of unsustainable mangrove exploitation, to analyze the causes and effects of mangrove deforestation on both environment and coastal communities, and to develop a set of recommendations to address improve the conservation status of mangroves in the area. 4. Scope and Limitation of the Study The study is conducted in a short period of time (25 days) which covers mangrove topics in relation to government policies on mangrove forest preservation, people’s livelihood in the mangrove areas and the causes of mangrove destruction. The study is more on the desk research with reviewing the secondary information. Because of time constraints and the issues are complex, it is hard to make it in more details. The documents of mangrove forests and related topics for Koh Kong province in particular and Cambodia in general are not many, some of the data are collected from the old sources and these result in widening the gap of data collection. Page 3 of 23 5. Research Method Two types of information are collected, primary and secondary. The secondary information is collected from libraries of different agencies. The study mainly relies on secondary information. However, the primary information is also collected. This involves interviewing different government and non-government agencies that are working on the marine and coastal issues at Phnom Penh basis, using unstructured questionnaires following the documentary research. The information generating from the interview includes the information of the previous project of each agency, the current activities and the future activities of these agencies. More than that the interview also explores the areas that has not been addressed by these organizations but needs intervention. The secondary information gathered has included the status of mangrove forest in Cambodia and in Koh Kong, illegal mangrove cutting activities in the area, the charcoal production and shrimp farming, the impacts on environment and coastal communities. II. COASTAL AND MARINE CAMBODIA 2.1 Coastal and Marine Cambodia Over the total boundary of 2,600 km, the coastline of Cambodia extends some 435 km along the northeastern shore of the shallow Gulf of Thailand between the Vietnamese and Thai borders. Two provinces, Kampot and Koh Kong and two municipalities, Kep and Sihanoukville, are bordering to the coast. The coastal zone encompasses estuaries and bays and some 64 islands of various dimensions. In Southeast Asia, Cambodia is still one of the countries endowed with natural resources, both inland and offshore. The marine resources comprise mangrove forest, coral reefs, sea grass beds, salt marshes and estuaries. Of these, mangroves cover one of the ecosystems, covering an area of 55, 150 ha including of coral reef and seas grass area of 475 ha and 175 has respectively. The coastal zone includes some of the least populated areas in southeast Asia with an array of ecosystems including beach forests, strand vegetation, mangroves, Melaleuca swamp forest, lagoons and estuaries, mud and tidal flats, and the little studied coral reefs and seagrass beds of the marine environment. The coastal climate of Cambodia is tropical monsoon, which is typically hot and humid. The average annual temperature is around 27 oC with a maximum average of 35 oC in April and a minimum average of 19 oC in December. Average annual precipitation varies from 2,000 to 4,000 mm. The rainy season is from about June to October. Unlike its most of its southeastern Asian neighbors, Cambodia is still relatively low population and abundant productive natural resources as more than twenty years, the Cambodian coastline has been less developed. At present, the open up of free market mechanism has put the marine resources under threat. The destruction of mangrove resources has been sever and the degradation has had sever impacts on both the environment and the livelihoods of coastal communities. The unregulated exploitation of mangrove resources has occurred over large coastal areas. The charcoal production for domestic and foreign markets has been viewed as a major cause of mangrove destruction. Charcoal production is mainly carried out by large scale operation. The economic incentive of the operations and lack of regulation in addition have fuelled illegal cutting of mangrove forest as well. Despite a ban in 1994, the illegal cutting has continue to increase. The crackdown on charcoal production often impacts on people with subsistence livelihoods, i.e. the small producers. A little attention has been paid to address the impacts on small-scale producers and their livelihoods. Despite the lack of quantitative information, there are signs that the health and integrity of productive natural resources – forests; wetlands; and fisheries - in coastal and marine Cambodia are beginning to become adversely affected by human activities. 2.2 Population of Coastal Provinces The result of the population census in 1998 shows that the population of the four’s coastline provinces constitute 7.38% of the total population with a growth rate at 2.8% per annum. Kampot has the largest proportion of population, which is constituted 4.62% of total population, followed by Sihanoukville with 1.36%, and Koh Kong and Kep, 1.16% and 0.25% respectively. Page 4 of 23 Table 2.1 The Percentage of Population by Sectors Province Primary Secondary Tertiary Kampot 87.6% 1.7% 10.7% Koh Kong 53.2 7.4 39.4 Sihanoukville 50.2 11.3 37.9 Source: Population Census of 1998, Cambodia In Kampot province, more people involve in agriculture than industrial and service sectors.