Some more musings..

The amount that some rural communities rely on the forest is amazing – one village we went in to managed to list 27 Non-Timber Forest Products (anything they collect that isn’t timber). Whilst working in environmental microfinance projects we often describe the forest as a natural bank that people rely on in times of need (chopping down a tree because your daughter is ill and you need to pay hospital fees as an example) however it would be equally as fitting to call it the local shop (Co-op or Spa or even a Londis if you will). These products have a vast array of uses and not least importantly as a nutritious addition to all that rice! However there is more opportunity in the forest than is currently being utilised...

Micro-enterprise:

So a part of my job here is supposed to be to help my organisation facilitate a bit of micro-enterprise in these communities. Entrepeneurship is something that I find very interesting and trying to encourage this in an environmentally responsible way is a challenge – there is not the same entrepreneurial spirit here as in some countries. (I have just started reading a great book called The White Tiger that also talks about Entrepeneurship in India – a fiction but so far it’s very good).

One of my colleagues told me a story that they were discussing with one group of villagers how time consuming producing rice noodles is and how after they have been made you make even less money than if you had sold this as rice. When they looked at this closer and saw it to be true the response was – “but then no one would have rice noodles so we must continue”. I like fresh rice noodles so who am I to complain? This attitude is difficult when explaing a market based approach to development, lol.

Staff and CF members quiz a stallholder in our recent Market Study

Recently we took some of our staff and representatives from our CF communities on a Market Study. This meant travelling to different market centres around OMC and neighbouring areas – seeing the price of different products and what was available. We concentrated on the value of processing as most of our CF members are selling raw materials. The Market Study also helped us to complete Value Chains for important NTFPs so that a more in-depth feasibility study can be conducted with CF members later.

The trip went really well and everyone seemed to be brimming with business ideas and with a sense that things would be possible. There are hurdles to overcome when doing this however and a lack of processing skills and the remoteness of the communities are not insignificant.

We will be giving basic business training over the coming months and we are getting the CFs to identify how they would like to move forward and we may be able to offer small grants for training etc. We have identified some key areas that we work in where with training communities will be able to access markets and have the right NTFPs available within their forest areas. The next steps should be very interesting – the important thing from a “capacity building” point of view is not only the technical skills of how to undertake these processes and give business training (yep I am going to be responsible for that!) but also understanding the importance of proper research the team has seen how some of our initial ideas just wont work in some places. I hope this will lead to improved best practice in the future – not just undertaking activities because the donor wanted some “livelihood activities” etc. Anyway I have rambled on long enough – in my next blog I will talk about our clean Samrong action day that was a great success but leaves us with some more work to do...

A bit more on Community Forestry

Last month CDA had a signing ceremony where the government officially recognised the rights of 9 of our communities to manage their forests. This was a big step for the communities and it was the first time that this agreement had taken place with the help of an NGO and not solely the Forestry Administration (FA) Cantonment in Cambodia. This completed step 6 of community forestry law in Cambodia – with two steps remaining. This has since snowballed with quite a few being granted in Cambodia– which is absolutely fantastic.

Some of the NGO workers/Stakeholders

Whilst this is a great achievement the process is far from finished with two steps remaining (see next paragraph) and the FA Cantonment is also relatively low level of government and there is always the problem that someone higher up in the food chain will decide to get involved. Recently however we did receive a signed document from Hun Sen (Cambodias “strongman” primeminister) for the military to stay out of some of the CF areas they have become increasingly fond of – I think it’s fair to say that the CFMCs were pretty chuffed when we went to the FA office to pick them up.

So the remaining steps –

Step 7 – believe it or not is to create a management plan. It would make sense for the government to have agreed a management plan with the community before they said they could look after it. On the flip side I suppose it doesn’t make sense for the CF communities and the FA to sink resources in until an agreement is in place. Creating a management plan will be a arduous process – they need to conduct an audit of the forests first and this has taken communities three months in Siem Reap province and the CF areas there are approximately 5 to 10 times smaller than the areas here and they have more CF members. It is going to be interesting times. Step 8 then involves 5 years of Monitoring and Evaluation by the FA. The CF members are going to have to be very careful during this time as it does not appear that pressure on the land from external forces is going to diminish anytime so I cannot see the competing pressures for land diminishing in the near future. Civil society and advocacy is growing stronger in Cambodia but they are a long way off ensuring no dodgy dealings! But – then again who am I to say anything when the MPs who are responsible for safeguarding my taxes in the “developed” country that I live in have been caught fiddling!

Another potential problem is any changes to the law or a change of strategy from Government will still leave the CF areas vulnerable. Apparently CFO are currently trying to establish more steps so that the livelihoods of community foresters are also taken in to consideration. I am torn when I hear this because although in theory a great idea but the more steps there are the harder it is for communities to pass the test and if it puts the communities.

Handing over of the agreements

Nine months in I still have really mixed feelings about CF – it has massive potential and some of the communities seem to be really motivated – however it is not an easy process and the competing pressures make it very difficult for the communities to stay motivated. The process will get even more complicated as CDA try to facilitate a process whereby the forests are sustainably managed and to the benefit of the whole community. This is a process that we have started working on a bit more since I came to work for CDA and I will talk about that a bit more in my next blog (sooner this time I promise).

9 CF areas

In summary the recognition of the CF areas is an important step and it’s a good time to recognise this achievement but also that the work has only just begun. As I have a masters in it I also feel it’s time I should write a bit about the sustainability of our projects but also within the development context as it is a word that is banded about a lot by NGOs here but achieving sustainable change in an ever changing country (world?) is a very different proposition. But more of that for another day....