Som Doeun, a Kuoy villager from Romchek, holds a fish he caught in Choam Prei lake
26 August 2010 (UN News Centre) – Funds from a global environment grants scheme implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will enable an indigenous community in one of Cambodia's poorest provinces to build an ecotourism project at a lake recently returned to them from private ownership.
The mostly indigenous ethnic Kuoy residents of Romchek village in northeast Preah Vihear province are to receive a share of almost $20,000 in grant money from the Global Environment Facility’s (GEF) Small Grants Programme, according to a press release issued today by UNDP.
They will invest the money in environmentally sensitive visitor sites in the pristine forestland around the Choam Prei lake.
The lake, used by the Kuoy as a cattle-grazing site and as a water and food source, was returned to the 213 families of Romchek from private ownership this year after a process that involved the local, provincial and central Government.
A plan to develop the 70-acre lake into a site for hosting tourists was approved in June by GEF’s Small Grants Programme.
“The site has a lot of potential for the entire village,” said Ly Setha, a project officer for a provincial civil society organization, Ponlok Khmer, that will channel funds from the small grant into eco-tourism projects for the area.
“Villagers hope there will be a spill-over from the tourists coming every year that will allow them to earn income by selling local products, and that will help them improve their livelihoods,” said Mr. Setha.
The two-year project aims to accommodate tourists to carry out conservation-related research, or to experience the wild animals and plant life around the lake. Activities include production of publicity material, building campsites, and training community members to become tour guides.
Ponlok Khmer was already running a programme that employed villagers to repair the lake’s drainage and water level and to improve it as a fish spawning ground.
Before January, the lake had been part of a fish-farming enterprise run by the family of a local entrepreneur, who was given permission by a village chief in 1998 to use the area for private business.
Villagers accused him of blocking public access to Choam Prei. They collected 86 thumbprints to file a petition through their local government office.
The head of Romney commune took up the case in 2008 and raised its profile through a nationwide local government-association. The association, the National League of Commune/Sangkat, receives technical and financial support from UNDP as part of a project for democratic reforms at the local level.
