Community Conservation and Sustainable Use of Tropical Upland Forests in Battambang, Cambodia

The aim of the project is to improve the capacity of the remote Cambodian indigenous minority communities of Phnom Rai and Toek Thlak to sustainably manage their community forests. The community-led approach will enable the development and implementation of conservation and sustainable use plans to protect of threatened species and the forest ecosystem, whilst continuing to support their unique culture.

We will use a variety of methods to build capacity including training, workshops, field practice and on-the-job training. The main activities will include:

• Collaborate with authorities, villagers and community representatives to collect baseline data, species inventory, forest mapping and prepare long-term sustainable use and conservation plans and M&E by using Vulnerability Reduction Assessment (VRA) tools.
• Conduct training and consultation workshops on legal rights, conservation, sustainable use of natural resources, culture and beliefs.
• Conduct M&E workshops to create project implementation and M&E materials.
• Support patrolling and community conservation/sustainable use initiatives (e.g. replanting, agroforestry etc.) with small grants.
• Community reflection workshops.