Current state and trends in forest management in Cambodia

Abstract

While forest resources in Cambodia have been decreasing rapidly in the last few decades, a great deal of attention is being given at present to the idea of community forests. This study tried to investigate the current change of forest management with a special reference to the present trends in community forestry development in Cambodia. Forest resources are a central part of livelihood of many local communities in Cambodia. The forest laws that came to be applied in the last few decades alienated local communities' rights to claim ownership of forests. This has resulted in a huge loss of forest resources and a poor national environment, threatening the subsistent livelihoods of the rural poor. The apparent growing interest in community forestry in Cambodia in the last decade has opened a new page of forest management. We are convinced that community forestry will become an integral part of sustainable forest management in Cambodia. While, at present, community forestry is still at the initial stage, there is a demand for more experiments and trials to test a variety of manifestation of the concept. In order to achieve a successful community forestry development, learning from both successes and failures of the current community forestry implementation is vital.