Project News

As a part of the assistance for enhancing the National Forest Monitoring System, the Project has been working on the forest inventory targeting Stung Treng province. This activity is aiming at not only collecting the data on forest resources in the province, but also developing the counterparts' capacity and establishing a good example for the future National Forest Inventory (NFI) in Cambodia.

The field surveys for forest inventory and preparatory activities for them were conducted in Stung Treng province from November 2021 to February 2022. These were done by the JICA Experts and researchers from Royal University of Agriculture (RUA) with technical staffs of Ministry of Environment (MoE) and Forestry Administration (FA), supported by the rangers and the foresters of provincial Department of Environment (DoE) and Forestry Administration Cantonment (FAC), as well as local residents in the area.

Following a pre-inventory survey in the middle of January for researchers and technicians from RUA, MoE, FA, DoE and FAC to learn the survey methodology, field surveys were conducted on 120 clusters, using Field Manual for NFI of Cambodia 2018 developed by FAO for more than a month. The surveys included measuring diameter, height, species of trees, length and diameters of dead woods, and crown density of 3 survey plots in each cluster, as well as collecting soil and litter samples. 5 survey teams composed of 5 member each were formed. 1 team conducted survey on 1 cluster (3 plots) in average per day.

After finishing the field survey, on 25th March 2022, a hybrid workshop for reporting the implementation of the survey was conducted both in-person at RUA and online (ZOOM meeting). The survey team shared the summary of the field survey in Stung Treng including the survey methodology, cluster and plot design, and preparation of equipment.

The data entry, analysis and report making is in the process and expected to be finished in June 2022.

The data and the experiences from the forest inventory surveys will be shared with relevant actors of the project for the future NFI plan, which is advised to be implemented every four to five years across the country for sustainable management and utilization of forest and forest resources. NFI is also indispensable to ensure the transparency, consistency and accuracy for trading forest carbon credits.

Confirming the locations of survey clusters prior to field survey

Walking into deep forest to reach survey area

A JICA Expert guiding how to use measuring equipment

Participants of the pre-inventory survey

Researchers of RUA are measuring the diameter at breast height (DBH) of tree

A researcher of RUA is collecting soil samples