Forests In Cambodia Research Articles

Cambodia's forests and climate change: Mitigating drivers of deforestation

AbstractThe United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is exploring a mechanism to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) to address global warming. This represents a major expansion of earlier forest‐oriented initiatives under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) that focused on afforestation and reforestation activities. While the scope of REDD projects is still being defined, potential categories include conservation, stock enhancement, and sustainable management, creating a range of new opportunities for forest‐related climate projects. The core concept behind REDD is that deforestation trends can be slowed, halted, or even reversed conserving billions of tons of carbon that would otherwise be emitted. To succeed, REDD projects will need to control powerful drivers of deforestation and forest degradation operating at multiple levels and carried‐out by a variety of actors, from rural people to political and economic elites. This case study of a REDD pilot project in northwest Cambodia explores how drivers might be contained under a project scenario and how the future international articulation of project design parameters could enable or constrain a global REDD strategy. The paper concludes that to be successful REDD projects will require a hybrid approach in which local drivers are controlled by communities and national drivers are mitigated through policy actions necessitating strong partnerships between diverse institutions.

Cover Caption

Cover description: Household goods made of non‐timber forest products (bamboo, rattan and palm leaves) collected from forests in Cambodia is being transported to markets in Cambodia. Sustainable forest management will ensure the perpetual flow of such products.

Leaf-Shedding Phenology in Lowland Tropical Seasonal Forests of Cambodia as Estimated From NOAA Satellite Images

The seasonality of forest leaf area index and photosynthetic activity is an important element of ecosystem function. The ecohydrological models representing water and carbon fluxes in tropical forests need regional-scale spatial information on forest leaf phenology. We aimed to evaluate the utility of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/Advanced Very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) imagery for monitoring evergreen and deciduous forest phenology in lowland Cambodia. The temporal sequences of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data were constructed from ten-day composite imagery acquired from May 2001 to April 2002. A local maximum fitting (LMF) technique that combined time-series filtering and local curve-fitting techniques was used to extract cloud-free data. With this approach, different phenology between evergreen and deciduous forests was clearly observed during the dry season: Deciduous forests exhibited marked and spatially uniform loss and (later) gain in new leaf area, whereas evergreen forests showed lesser and spatially/temporally heterogeneous changes in leaf phenology. A significant finding was that about 30% of evergreen forests shed detectable quantities of leaves at two times during a dry season (i.e., in the early, and late, dry season). In summary, the capability of composite NOAA/AVHRR NDVI data sets processed with the LMF technique was established as a viable approach for monitoring heterogeneous forest phenology at regional scales during the tropical dry season, although it is apparent that further improvements in cloud clearing are required if the approach is to be useful also in the wet season.

Estimating actual and potential government revenues from timber harvesting in Cambodia

Abstract The aim of this report is to estimate forest revenues in Cambodia based on available information on harvested wood, operable logging areas, and forestry taxes. This study has two parts. First, we analyze wood product, sawn wood, and veneer wood in three major forests in Cambodia. Second, we estimate forest revenues based on royalty rates, taxes for reforestation or forest maintenance and protection, exports, and customs, and export license fees. For comparison, revenues are analyzed under three scenarios: business as usual (BAUSU), long-term economic gains (LEGA), and climate beneficial option (CLIBO). Under the BAUSU scenario wood production in Cambodia is estimated at about 1.6 million m 3 per year, of which 0.7 million m 3 , 0.2 million m 3 , and 0.6 million m 3 are from evergreen, mixed, and deciduous forests, respectively. Our estimates are within wood production previously estimated in Cambodia. Annual forest revenues from all forests are estimated to be US $3639, US $5095, and US $6550 per ha, and the country's total annual revenues are estimated at US $111.7 million, US $156.3 million, US $201.0 million under the BAUSU, LEGA, and CLIBO scenarios, respectively. These results are also within the range of previous forest revenue estimates by independent organizations in Cambodia. However, the actual highest forest revenue collected in 1995 was only US $24.5 million, about five to six times lower than our estimate under the BAUSU scenario, indicating the existence of irregularities in the tax collecting system in the Cambodian forest sector. According to this study, royalty charged on wood product is a major source of forest revenues. Because wood product is strongly affected by logging damage, better logging practices should be introduced. The conversion of wood to sawn wood and veneer also plays an important role in generating revenues. Thus, sound technology should be sought to increase the efficiencies of wood processing.

Deforestation in Cambodia: a stakeholder management approach

SUMMARY Although widely used in the development area, the stakeholder concept has its origins in the field of management. Stakeholder management consists of understanding the actions of stakeholders, and devising strategies to ethically and effectively deal with them. The paper presents a stakeholder management framework for conservation and illustrates it with a study of deforestation in Cambodia. The framework comprises three steps: stakeholder analysis, stakeholder mapping, and development of stakeholder management strategies. The exercise shows the existence of a strong coalition of stakeholders whose main goal is to exploit the forest resources of Cambodia without any regard for sustainability. The efforts of the international community to control deforestation have focused on a reform of forest concessions. Consequently, several primary stakeholders have been ignored. These include local communities, the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, the Ministry of Environment and Cambodia's neighbours. The paper concludes with strategic management guidance for donor intervention. Unless a comprehensive stakeholder management framework is adopted, the forests of Cambodia will rapidly succumb to destruction.

Stand Dynamics of Dipterocarp Trees in Cambodia's Evergreen Forest and Management Implications : A Case Study in Sandan District, Kampong Thom

The purpose of this study was to explore the stand dynamics of dipterocarp species in evergreen forest as a basis for devising suitable management systems for Cambodia's forests. The data for this study were obtained from a two-year UNDP-funded forest inventory project in Sandan district of Kampong Thom province. A sample of 18 clusters located in evergreen forest were analyzed. Based on the average stand volume per hectare, this evergreen forest was further divided into poor (less than 200m3), medium (200-300 m3) and rich (greater than 300 m3) forests. Dipterocarps contributed 50 m3 (36%), 109 m3 (43%) and 163 m3 (53%) in poor, medium and rich forests, respectively. The dominant dipterocarps species were CHBG (Dipterocarpus turbinatus), CRMS (Vatica astrotricha) and PHDK (Anisoptera glabra). To estimate the forest potential and allowable cut of dipterocarps stands, trees of DBH greater than 45cm were analyzed. Cambodia's silvicultural treatment prescribes that only 30% of stands are extracted on a selective felling cycle of 25-30 years. On the basis of this silvicultural treatment and management experience in Southeast Asia, the harvest potential of Cambodia's forest was estimated to vary from 20 m3/ha (6 trees) to 54 m3/ha (13 trees); approximately 65% of which was dipterocarps. These figures are more than double the current harvest rate of 10 m3/ha. However, applying such a new management system might cause forest degradation if there is no long-term political commitment to management and research from the government and parties involved. Permanent and regular research on stand dynamics and other influential factors are required to ensure the sustainability of forest resources. Forest management can no longer be concerned solely with timber production; thus, harvesting and research in non-timber forest products should also be included in the management plan. Keyword: Cambodia, dipterocarps, evergreen forest, forest management

Forest Management Problems in Cambodia : A Case Study of Forest Management of F Company

A fast growing population and the need for food and forest products coupled with the great demand for wood and rapid economic development in the developing world have brought sustainable forest management under continuous uncertainty. Deforestation in the developing world has been relatively high. But recently, it has been more widely recognized that over-exploitation of forest products and non-forest products is prejudicing the sustainability of the world's forests. Cambodia has been chosen as a case study to test this hypothesis regarding sustainable forest management. There are two main types of forests in Cambodia, namely dryland and edaphic forests, covering a total area of 10.59 million ha or 58% of the total land area. It had been reduced from 12.32 million ha in 1973 as a result of wars and political instability over the last 25 years. Against a background of government instability, great domestic and foreign demands for wood in recent years have resulted in Cambodia's forests being over-exploited. To prove this, a selective 25-year felling cycle system used by F Company was analyzed with the aid of various statistical tools. The analysis shows that although the growing stock of F's evergreen forest is as low as 82 m3/ha due to illegal logging, the company has exploited 7m3/ha or 9% of the total stock. This was 6 percentage points higher than the sustainable cutting rate of Cambodia's evergreen forest. This supports the hypothesis of over-exploitation. The result also shows that there is still a large number of residual trees with diameter less than 45 cm, which are available for extracting over the next 25 years if they are properly managed. Strong enforcement mechanisms for forest monitoring and control are needed to stop illegal logging, to prevent over-exploitation and to manage the residual trees for long-term availability of forest resources. Keyword: Cambodia, forest management, selective felling, tree classification