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Ministry of |
Global Environment |
The World Bank Washington, D.C. |
Cambodia exhibits the typically rich tropical biodiversity of the South-East Asian region. It is directly threatened by poorly planned and illegal logging indiscriminate land clearing for development, and illegal wildlife poaching. Since 1990s, harvesting pressure on forest and wetlands have increased rapidly.
The protected areas system covers a total of 3.3 million ha, covering about 18% of the country's total land area. The Ministry of Environment is responsible for the management of these protected area, but these protected areas remain largely "paper parks" because of the limited capacity of the MoE, lack of up-to-date information on bio-diversity, security concerns, unsustainable/illegal logging, agricultural development and illegal wildlife trade.
The development objective of the project is to improve the capacity of the MoE to plan, implement and monitor an effective system of National Protected Areas. The project has two related immediate objectives. First, to develop and test proactive measures to minimize unsustainable exploitation / degradation of biodiversity in Virachey National Park. Second, to use the experiences gained from Virachey National Park to formulate institutional models for the development of National Protected Areas System.
The project has four closely integrated components:
Two major strategy choices related to the number of sites and scope of activities were made to address the issues facing biodiversity conservation. Due to limited institutional capacity of MoE, it was agreed that the project activities should focus on Virachey National Park as a pilot to develop and demonstrate a model approach to protected areas management in Cambodia.
VNP was selected for the project site, because it is one of the priorities identified in the NEAP. It has diverse habitat and biological communities of international importance, transboundary potential (with Chu Mon Ray National Park in Vietnam and Dong Amphan in Laos). Due to the limited information and urgency of potential threats to biodiversity in the park, the basic on the ground protection and management activities should be urgently implemented as a pilot.
The key policy and institutional reforms the project would support are:
The management structure for the project would comprise:
1. Government of Cambodia
The Ministry of Environment of Cambodia is the executing agency of the project
2. National Project Coordinator (NPC)
Overall implementation responsibility for the project will rest with a NPC to be appointed from the senior staff of the ministry (Secretary level)
3. Project Steering Committee (PSC)
It is an inter-ministerial committee chaired by the minister for the environment. Its members come from relevant government agencies. PSC provides guidance and oversight to the project in the areas involving cross-sectoral.
4. Project Director / Technical Team Leaders
Project Director (PD) and Technical Team Leaders (TTL) are Cambodians. The PD is the head of Project Management Office and will be responsible for day to day operation of the project include reporting to the minister. TTL will be responsible for implementing the individual project components.
5. Technical Assistants
To support capacity building in many areas of protected areas management, technical assistants will be provided under the project through a core team of technical specialists.
The estimated total cost of the project is US$ 4.90 million. The GEF is requested to finance US$ 2.75 million and the rest would be financed with an IDA loan of US$ 1.90 million and US$ 0.25 million from the Royal Government of Cambodia.
Pum Vicheth, Project Director, PMO, Ministry of Environment. # 48, Preah Sihanouk, Tonle Bassac, Chamacarmon Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Tel & Fax: 855 23 219 164
Email: neap@forum.org.kh
