Cambodia has made great strides over the last three decades, transitioning to peace, transforming livelihoods, and realising striking gains in socioeconomic development. Accompanying economic growth, however, there have been growing pressures on land, water, and forest ecosystems. These pressures are beginning to challenge the long-term viability of Cambodia’s development model and its ability to achieve the objectives set out in Vision 2050 and the Cambodian Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
This report explores how to activate the mutually reinforcing links between environmental and human wellbeing, with a view to creating a sustainable future, by focusing in particular on the management of forest resources. There are three reasons for this focus: (i) Forests are Cambodia’s primary natural resource and influence human development in numerous ways; (ii) Forests vividly illustrate the importance of high-quality resource management; and (iii) The striking rate of deforestation in recent years has made conservation an urgent concern.
The report shows that, in order to enable the shift to sustainable management, a set of cross-cutting topics will need to be addressed, including: (i) the current proliferation of cheap, unsustainably sourced natural products, along with complex regulatory requirements, which discourage communities and industries from pursuing sustainable modes of production; (ii) communities' limited powers and rights in relation to natural resource management; and (iii) the need for policy tools such as integrated land-use planning and payments for ecosystems services (PES) to balance the needs of conservation and development. Based on these findings, the report makes several priority policy recommendations for Cambodia, all of which are aimed at facilitating and accelerating the shift to sustainable management of natural resources.