Cambodian-German Forestry Project Phnom Penh DEPARTMENT OF Cambodia German Technical Cooperation FORESTRY AND WILDLIFE An Assessment of ongoing Community Forestry Initiatives in Cambodia - Implications for the Development of a Forestry Extension Strategy - Jürgen Fichtenau Ly Chou Beang Nup Sothea Dy Sophy Phnom Penh, November 2002 DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY AND WILDLIFE #40 Norodom Boulevard X Road 144, Phnom Penh, Cambodia Tel.: +(855) 23-213937 (Team Leader ) Tel/Fax.: +(855) 23- 210 340 ( Project Office ) E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected] or [email protected] - An assessment of ongoing Community Forestry Initiatives in Cambodia – - Fichtenau, Beang, Nup, Dy - November 2002 Table of Contents Page Executive summary 4 List of abbreviations 7 Acknowledgements 9 1 Introduction 10 2 Methodology of survey 12 2.1 General considerations 12 2.2 Selection of field sites to be visited 15 2.3 GIS generated Information 16 2.3.1 Determination of Extension Categories and Locations of CF Initiatives 16 2.3.2 Determination of 10 km buffer zones 18 2.4 Strengths and weaknesses of the study 19 3 Overview of Community Forestry Initiatives 21 3.1 General figures for 57 Community Forestry Initiatives 23 3.2 Summary data for 57 Community Forestry Initiatives and their 24 significance in the context of Cambodia's forest situation 4 Findings on selected details 25 4.1 CF Initiatives and their environment 25 4.1.1 Forest abundance and population 25 4.1.2 Forest condition and development goals 27 4.1.3 Summary of findings on environmental conditions 29 4.2 Forestry Extension Demands 30 4.3 Areas of conflicts 35 4.3.1 Conflict resolution measures 39 4.4 Jurisdiction 40 4.5 Co-operating partners 42 5 Outlook & future steps 45 5.1 Development of a Forestry Extension Strategy 5.2 Potential areas for Community Forestry 43 5.3 Networking – the roles of CF Working Group and CF Networks 47 5.4 Community Forestry database 53 5.5 Scope for further research 54 5.5.1 Research on socio-economic topics 56 5.5.2 Research on technical topics 56 57 6 Conclusions 59 References 2 - An assessment of ongoing Community Forestry Initiatives in Cambodia – - Fichtenau, Beang, Nup, Dy - November 2002 Annexes 64 1. Details of 27 CF Initiatives in Cambodia 2. Details of 30 non-visited CF Initiatives in Cambodia 65 3. Questionnaire sample form 71 4. Population and Density by Province 73 5. Forest – and Land Cover Types 84 6. Forest Area by type and change 85 7. Data for 10 Km buffers in different landuse- and extension categories 86 8. Responses of CF Initiatives regarding Forest abundance and population density in 87 their CF sites 88 9. a) CF Initiatives and their Forest Development Goals 9. b) CF Initiatives and their Forest Development Goals by Province 89 10. Frequency of mentioned Extension Demands and Topics in 27 CF Initiatives 90 11. List of Extension topics and demands in 27 CF Initiatives 91 12. Clustering of Extension topics and demands in 27 CF Initiatives 92 13. Summary of Initiatives by Province 93 14. Community Forestry Initiative contacts 95 15. Information on other CF data surveys 116 16. List of Interviewees 120 121 List of Tables, Maps and Charts Table 1: Possible Extension Categories for Cambodia Table 2: Community Forestry Extension Categories (based on forest and vegetation 14 cover types 1997) 17 Table 3: Hectares of 4 Forest Extension Categories Table 4: General overview for 57 CF Initiatives in Cambodia 18 Table 5: Percentages of CF general data in relation to Cambodia country figures 23 Table 6: Responses of 27 Initiatives regarding forest abundance, population density 24 and their goals for forest development 29 Table 7 Extension topics by Province Table 8: Figures for 10 Km buffers around settlements in Cambodia in 3 Extension 32 Categories feasible for Community Forestry 50 Chart 1: Forest abundance and population density in 27 CF Initiatives in percentages 25 Chart 2: Forest development goals in 27 CF Initiatives in percentages 27 Chart 3: Extension topics in 27 CF Initiatives and Frequency of mentioning 30 Chart 4: Percentages of Extension Demands according to main categories 33 Chart 5: Percentages of major conflict categories reported in 20 CF Initiatives 36 Chart 6: Nature of conflicts and their frequencies in visited CF Initiatives 37 Chart 7: Land Tenure/Jurisdiction in 27 visited CF Initiatives 41 Map 1: Location of CF Initiatives 2002 and CF Extension Categories 22 Map 2: CF Extension Categories within 10 Km village buffer zone 51 3 - An assessment of ongoing Community Forestry Initiatives in Cambodia – - Fichtenau, Beang, Nup, Dy - November 2002 I. Executive Summary Cambodia, with a total land area of 18.15 Million hectares and a population of 11.4 Million people (as per census in March 1998), is a primarily agricultural society. 58% of Cambodia's land area , or 10.6 Mio hectares are covered by forests. The vast majority of Cambodia's rural population lives in absolute poverty and heavily depends on natural resources (mainly forestry and fishery) for their livelihood. Increasing pressure on land,-water,- and forest resources, in the form of extensive logging and fishing operations, jeopardize rural subsistence in many areas. Deforestation rates were estimated to be 700.000 hectares between 1993 and 1997. Community Forestry (CF) in Cambodia has received considerable attention as a potential alternative (or complement) to forest concession management and is regarded amongst donors as one viable concept to improve livelihoods of the rural population in order to prevent further environmental problems and to reduce poverty. The GTZ-Cambodian German Forestry Project, together and in co-operation with it's partner , the Department of Forestry & Wildlife, decided in August 2001 to develop a Forestry Extension Strategy for Cambodia, which will play a vital role in the promotion of Community Forestry in the country. The future Forestry Extension Strategy should build upon existing experiences made in various Community Forestry Projects in Cambodia and draw conclusions from knowledge already available in these field projects. Therefore, in a first attempt, these presently ongoing CF activities in Cambodia should be assessed and analyzed in order to draw conclusions for the future Forestry Extension Strategy. A four-member field team from DFW's Forestry Extension Unit conducted the survey between February 1st and April 12th 2002. In the course of the survey 57 Initiatives were identified, which support CF activities in most Provinces of Cambodia. 27 of these Initiatives were visited at their respective field sites, and interviews took place with field representatives of the respective Initiatives. The interviews were conducted in a semi-structured manner with the help of questionnaires which had been specially developed for the purpose of this survey. The report presents findings and conclusions/recommendations based on the analysis of acquired field data. In addition, the authors introduce new ideas (models) in order to classify the Cambodia forest situation for the purpose of a future Forestry Extension Strategy and develop new ideas how to determine potential future areas feasible for Community Forestry. Findings indicate that CF Initiatives are active in 18 Provinces in Cambodia, but with differing concentration. Most CF sites are to be found in Siem Reap, Pursat, Kampong Chhnang, Kampong Speu, Battambang, Kampong Speu, Koh Kong, Takeo and Ratanakiri. 4 - An assessment of ongoing Community Forestry Initiatives in Cambodia – - Fichtenau, Beang, Nup, Dy - November 2002 Presently approximately 83.000 hectares in Cambodia are under CF management (including mangroves).This area represents 0.7 % of Cambodia's total forest area suitable for Community Forestry. 404 villages are presently involved in CF activities, and 3.6% (415.000 people) of Cambodia's population presently benefits from CF activities. Findings also show that CF Initiatives have a very high demand for a variety of extension topics. More than 50% of these demands are of technical nature and roughly 25% of the demands express a lack of legal knowledge. As major areas of conflicts in CF Initiatives land grabbing and boundary conflicts have been identified. Other topics assessed during this survey are questions of jurisdiction, co-operating partners and conflict resolution measures. New ideas have been developed in the course of the survey, which include so-called Forestry Extension Categories and Forest Development Goals ( management regimes for these Extension Categories). Accordingly four major Forestry Extension Categories have been identified, which represent areas of similar features regarding the forest condition. The model proved to be useful during the assessment, but requires future adjustments in order to better fit the diversity of existing field situations. Another new approach tries to identify potential future areas for CF in Cambodia, by using a 10 km walking distance between settlements and forests as a major criterion. Accordingly 8.4 Mio hectares of Cambodia's forest land would be suitable for CF. In addition 3.9 Mio hectares of agricultural land could be managed under Farm Forestry aspects, which the authors regard as integral part of Community Forestry. Conclusions and major recommendations include: To react as soon as possible to prevailing demands in CF Initiatives for legal knowledge. Training material on implications of Land Law, Forestry Law and CF Sub-decree have to be urgently developed As future areas of concern for CF activities border belts between agricultural areas and neighbouring forest resources have been named due to high population pressure in agricultural regions and a rising demand for forest products. It is proposed to address the NRM Donor Working Group in the nearest future in order to seek financial assistance in funding CF activities. The importance of the roles of CF Working Group and CF (provincial) Networks has been stressed.