Outline of the Project

Project Name

Project for Facilitating the Implementation of REDD+ Strategy and Policy (CAM-REDD)

Country

Cambodia

Target Area

The whole country

Period of Cooperation

June 1, 2011 to November 30, 2017

Implementing Organization

Forestry Administration, Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries

Backgrounds

According to the official statement in Cambodia, the forest accounts for nearly 60 per cent of national land. It includes not only the forest on land but also the other types of forests, such as mangrove forest in Koh Kong and the flooded forest in the Lake Tonle Sap. Such the forests are a significant habitat for precious species, for example; Asian elephant, ibis, gibbon, ironwood and rose wood.

However, Cambodia has a tendency to reduce the forest land annually. Particularly the reduction has been caused by different factors since 1990s, such as land-use change in the forest, population growth and impoverishment of rural communities. From 2000s, the Royal Government of Cambodia (hereinafter "RGC"), especially Forestry Administration (hereinafter "FA") under the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (hereinafter "MAFF") played a main role in conducting forest management in cooperation with international NGOs. But due to global financial crisis in 2007, it faced difficulty in raising fund, and forest management was pushed into severe situation.

In the international community, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (hereinafter "UNFCCC") was adopted and was signed by 155 member countries in 1992. The leaders of those countries were engaged in a full-fledged discussion of measures against global warming. As one of options, they have agreed with the item on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries" (hereinafter "REDD plus"). Based on the result, RGC approved REDD plus roadmap in September 2010, which would be conducted in the inter-ministry approach. At the same time, different donors such as UN-REDD and FCPF made a decision to support the implementation of REDD plus in Cambodia.

The implementation of the REDD+ process is not only able to support sustainable forest management in Cambodia, but it also has high potential to contribute to one of measures against global warming in developed countries including Japan. JICA decided to send a technical adviser to the Director General of FA in Cambodia from July 2010 and as a part of national forest programme (NFP) in Cambodia, to implement technical cooperation project for facilitating the implementation of REDD+ Strategy and Policy, known as CAM-REDD from May 2011.

Link

Cambodia REDD+ Home Page:

Structure of National Forest Programme in Cambodia (under construction)

(Author:Naomi Matsue)