Speech from the representative of Cambodia Delegation at the First Meeting of Asia Forest Partnership

11 November 2002, Tokyo Japan,
by Hour Limchhun

For the national development the forest is one of the Cambodia's most significant natural resources which covered 13.2 million hectares or 73 % of the country's total land areas in 1969. It has been reduced by 2 million hectares and it was further confirmed by the Forest Cover Assessment and Monitoring Project in 1997 that the forest cover remained 58.9% of the total territories of Cambodia.

It is no doubt that the deforestation in the world caused by similar reasons such as population grow, conversion of forest land to agriculture or other purposes including shifting cultivation, forest fire, illegal harvesting, civil war, etc.

Having aware of the alarming rate of deforestation, the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) has tackling with the illegal logging by strengthening the forestry sector and issued regulations in this regard. Moreover, the Department of Forestry and Wildlife (DFW) has reviewed on the forestry with the support from ADB. In addition, the initiation of new forestry law was taken place and it was finally adopted in the third quarter of the year 2002.

To reflect RGC's commitment and show the activities and efforts of RGC in taking actions to eliminate anarchic forest activities and to provide a better understanding for national and international communities, in May 1999 the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) collaborated with the Ministry of Environment (MOE) to formulate the Forest Crime Monitoring and Reporting Project for the period of 3 years with the financial support from DFID of the UK and AusAid of Australia and technical assistance from FAO and UNDP. The Global Witness was engaged as the independent monitor. The project created its Focal Point at the Council of Ministers and office at the DFW of MAFF and Ministry of Environment.

In order to improve the management of the forest concessionaires the RGC has requested the loan of 5.4 mil from the World Bank to carry out the Forest Concession Management and Control Pilot Project. This proved the efforts made by the RGC to improve the management of forest resource to reach one of the goals of World Summit for Sustainable Development since the world has paid high attention on the forest resources.

Moreover, the huge areas of forests approximately more than 1 million hectare was granted by Royal decree and sub-decrees for biodiversity conservation.

As resulted from the above mentioned efforts illegal activities on forest and wildlife in Cambodia have been significantly reduced by the last few years. However, cross border illegal trade is still the issue that we should look closely and collaboratively among the neighbor countries. Therefore, the regional mechanism on cross border illegal activities should be established as soon as possible.

May I conclude that the initiation of AFP is utmost important for the Asia Region to combat the illegal logging on forest and wildlife to contribute to one of the objectives of the World Submit on Sustainable Development, i.e. Sustainable Forest Management and to remain the Asia Region green for eco-tourism.

Thank you very much for your attention!