Objectives of ITTO Mission to Cambodia

1. The ITTO Diagnostic Mission requested by the Forestry Administration to analyse the obstacles to achieving sustainable forest management. Undertaken between October 16 – 30, 2004 The mission concurred with most of the recommendations of the IFSR, adding priority areas to the economic role of productive forests

2. Objectives of ITTO Mission to Cambodia (i)   Identify and prioritize the constraints to achieving SFM (ii) Identify the actions that the Government of Cambodia and the ITTO might take to accelerate progress towards SFM

3. Review of the progress towards achieving the ITTO Year 2000 Objective PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE IN: • Policy and legislative reform • Establishment of PFE • Consultation with local communities • Expanding forest lands for conservation • Reorganization of administrative arrangements

4. The core issues of Forestry in Cambodia • Ensuring that forests contribute to national development goals in a sustainable manner through • Contributions to growth • Poverty alleviation • Good forest governance • Local needs for products and environmental services • Global environmental values – biodiversity, carbon storage etc.

5. Main challenges identified • No long-term National Forest Programme – and no support for the process. • Management systems must be compatible with SFM • Capacity in forest sector – in government agencies and in private sector and other civil society – too low for SFM. • Donor and Government coordination is weak – TWG is an important facility. The TWG Action Plan a positive first step for a NFP. • Lack of incentives for SFM – both at industrial forestry and community forestry. • Development and testing of Partnership forestry and other decentralised mgt. systems.

6. Uncertain sectoral policies • Community forestry is important but will NOT solve problems of extensive forest landscapes • Avoid excessive regulation of marginal issues – focus on regulating things that are important and realistic. • Do not over-regulate community forestry • Recognise the large indirect contribution of forest to the GDP, including subsistence and other non-market values, estimated to 10% highlighting the forestry sector’s prime role in rural livelihood

7. Dealing with the capacity • Focus on incentives to retain competent staff • Focus on attitude and organisational performance in addition to technical training • Emphasise accountability to stakeholders • FA’s operational budget should be made adequate • FA staff should include social and environmental disciplines • FA should work in partnership with specialists from outside and resident advisers for successful implementation

8. Commune council has no tradition or competence of forest management. Would require some re-organisation of FA, at triage and division level Commune is too small to accommodate landscape scale Proceed with caution on a pilot scale Perspective on Partnership Forestry

9. Viable Forest Plantations • Private investment in plantation can contribute to forest sector development objectives • High quality hardwood plantations must be considered. • Plantations may vary in scale from household woodlots to industrial pulpwood estates • Land allocation for industrial plantations should be restricted to areas designated for conversion, not on biodiversity rich areas. • Small and medium plantation enterprises have potential to contribute to sustainable and equitable economic growth and poverty alleviation

10. Plantations Issues to be solved • Some large management units needed in extensive forest rich landscapes for long term framework • Annual coupe sales introduce too much uncertainty – recommends experimentation with caution. • How to reconcile concessions with commune councils, Forest Divisions or Public admin Districts • Review incentives to attract foreign investment for long term equitable growth and commitment.

11. http://www.itto.or.jp/live/pagedisplayhandler?pageeld=205.