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Some Problems in the Implementation of Decree No. 35 on Forest Management: A Case Study in the Forest concession area of Gat, Kampong Thum Province, Cambodia.
Thesis Abstract:
The implementation of forest regulations in forest management in Cambodia has been ineffective since 1970 when political crisis started in the country. To promote a sustainable forest management in the country, Decree No. 35 on Forest Management was adopted in 1988. Since then, almost 13 million hectares of forest resources had been under the jurisdiction of the Decree, even though forest management had been reformed from the individual coupe management to the concession management in the early 1990s. However, the forested area had been reduced from almost 13 million hectares in 1988 to nine million hectares in 2000 due to the appearance of some problems in the implementation of the Decree No. 35 and other regulations of forest concession management in the practices in the country.
The research aimed to analyze the effectiveness of Decree No. 35 in forest management practices and to identify the problems regarding the implementation of the Decree and other relevant regulations of forest concession management in forest management practices in the country.
To achieve the research objectives, information on the effectiveness of the implementation of Decree No. 35 and other relevant regulations of forest concession management on the national and provincial levels were obtained through interviews with the forest management institutions and nongovernment organizations (NGOs), and secondary data collection on forest management from NGO papers. An ocular observation was additionally carried out in the GAT Concession in Kampong Thum Province in order to further analyze the effectiveness of the implementation of these regulations in the forest concession management system.
As a result, the implementation of Decree No. 35 and other regulations of forest concession management in the forest management practices on both administrative levels had been ineffective. On the national and provincial levels, the individual coupe owners and forest concessions had been conducting an inadequate forest assessment and had systematically overestimated the timber availability by applying yield coefficients from other countries which was four to five times larger than the Cambodian forest increment which was only about 0.3 m3/ha per year. As a result, between 1991 and 1995, almost one million cubic meter of timber extraction surpassed the increment. In addition to overexploitation, all kinds of deforestation activities had been orchestrated throughout the country like: (1) logging in national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and other protected areas; (2) logging without authorization in the forest concessions; (3) illegal sawmill installation; (4) illegal transportation; and (5) illegal hunting. The Concession Investment Agreement and Forest Timber Licenses of the concessions had been breached. The forest management plans of the concessions had not been abided by the concessions. The best trees were screened for felling. Out of more than 15 commercial tree species, only Dipterocarpus alatus, Sindora cochinchinensis, and Anisoptera glabra were felled. Consequently, only 23 percent of more than one million cubic meter of the planned annual cut was reported as actual cut in 1998, leading to a reduction in forest tax collection. The social and environmental impact assessment had been ignored, resulting in violation of customary rights of indigenous people to access the forests in the concession areas. Logging and hunting had even been conducted in spiritual forests of forest dwellers in Ratanakiri province.
On the concession level, the GAT Concession, which was investigated as an example, had not complied well with the forest management regulations. The infrastructure of the concession was not properly constructed—no school, no hospital, and no proper training offices. The forest inventories and plans were not properly prepared due to lack of statistical rigor in volume computation and little supervision in the field. The concession borders were not properly demarcated. No boundary stones were installed along the concession borders. Furthermore, proper logging techniques, ecological aspects, silvicultural activities, and socioeconomic welfare of forest dwellers had not been taken into serious consideration. Only one percent of the logged areas of 12,748 hectares had been replanted. Only little consultation had been given to the forest dwellers to improve the livelihood. Thousands of resin trees belonging to the people were felled in 2000, instead.
The unsatisfactory implementation of Decree No. 35 and other relevant forest management regulations was due to the shortcomings of the concession legal system, weak legal enforcement mechanism, lack of transparency of forest concession allocation and concession forest inventory, and plan preparation. Other reasons were weak administrative structure of the forest management agencies, lack of coordination within forest management institutions, limited capacity of the forest management agencies, political instability, and socioeconomic conditions.
To upgrade the implementation of Decree No. 35 and other relevant forest management regulations in Cambodia, it was recommended that the concession legal system be revised. The Comprehensive Drafted National Forest Policy, New Drafted Forest Law, Drafted Model Forest Timber Concession Agreement, and other necessary forest management regulations should be adopted. All existing forest regulations that are inadequate should be revised and prepared in favor of the people’s interests. The forest legal mechanism should be further enforced. The administrative structure of the forest management institutions should be improved. Overall, all weak points that have resulted in the ineffective implementation of the forest management regulations should be developed in order to promote sustainable forest management in the country.
