The Cardamom Conundrum: Q&A with CI’s Tim Killeen

Deforestation in Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains. (Photo by David Emmett)

Tim Killeen inspecting timber beams confiscated by forest rangers and military police near the Central Cardamom Protected Forest in 2008. (Photo courtesy of Tim Killeen)

June 11th, 2012
By Molly Bergen
TriplePundit.com

Later this month at Rio+20, world leaders will gather to discuss the future of our planet — a future that must account for the value of nature in order to achieve truly sustainable economic growth. In his new book, “The Cardamom Conundrum: Reconciling Development and Conservation in the Kingdom of Cambodia,” scientist Dr. Tim Killeen provides an insightful new look at sustainable development opportunities in this resource-rich but poverty-stricken country. He recently took time to discuss his research with me.

Q: What is the “Cardamom conundrum”?

A: The term “conundrum” describes a puzzle whose solution involves resolving a paradox. In Cambodia’s case, the paradox arises from two widely held and conflicting assumptions: that the pathway to a modern economy requires exploiting a country’s natural resources, versus the contrasting vision that the long-term prosperity of a nation depends on the conservation of those very same resources.

In the book, I attempt to show that the best economic options are also in line with priorities in the environmental and social dimensions. Development options that promote investment in a productive asset are good business, and applying that logic to the natural assets of a country or region also makes good business sense.

Q: Why is this region of Cambodia so important?

A: The Cardamom Mountains and surrounding regions — what I call the “Greater Cardamom Region” — makes up about one-third of Cambodia’s land area and has a combined population of more than a million people. The region’s watersheds extend to the Tonle Sap Lake in the north and the Gulf of Thailand in the south and provide freshwater resources of strategic importance to the country.

Monks Fight to Get Cambodian Forests on the Carbon Market

The monks of Sorng Rukavorn forest in Oddar Meanchey province, Cambodia (Brendan Brady)

Monday, May 09, 2011
By Brendan Brady / Sorng Rukavorn
Time Magazine (USA)

For years, the guardians of Sorng Rukavorn forest have drifted through the muted greens and grays of the underbrush in their saffron robes. In the far north of Cambodia, the monks live in what should be peaceful isolation, but all too often they have had to fend off incursions on this land. Using their authority as holy figures, they've turned away illegal loggers — among them, they say, armed police and soldiers — as well as local officials who have tried to wrestle control of the public land to parcel it out for their own profit.

Now the monks are looking for backup. They plan to institutionalize their communal ownership of the forest and shared profit from its 44,479-acre bounty by demarcating it an international ecological asset. Sorng Rukavorn is one of 13 community forests spreading over 168,032 acres in Oddar Meanchey province that is being registered as a bank of carbon credits. Under this nascent international tool of climate change mitigation referred to as Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD), governments and companies in industrialized nations can pay developing countries to cut carbon emissions on their behalf by not cutting trees. Deforestation accounts for roughly a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity, according to the UN. Trees and plants absorb the gas — produced by a number of natural and manmade processes, from the combustion of fossil fuels by factories, cars and volcanic eruptions, to the flatulence of livestock — and are therefore essential to balancing its levels in the atmosphere.

IRIN | Film | The Gathering Storm - Asia | Holy Forests

The Prey Koki forest in the south east of Cambodia was devastated during the Indochina wars of the 60’s and 70’s and latterly by loggers. But an army of Buddhist monks in search of a place to meditate are replanting the forest to the benefit of farmers. (May 2009)

Click on the following link to view the work of Ven. Nhem Kim Teng
http://www.irinnews.org/film/?id=4140

Japan to finance 4 major projects in Cambodia

16 March 2010
By E.B.
Cambodge Soir
Translated from French by Alain de Veng
Click here to read the article in French

On Thursday 18 March, the Japanese ambassador and the Cambodian foreign minister will sign an agreement for the donation of a Japanese aid package amounting to about $31 million to Cambodia.

The donation is directed to four projects: the construction of the Neak Leung bridge, the introduction of clean energy through production of electricity from solar power, the capacity improvement for facing natural disasters stemming from climate change, and for the preservation of forest.

Cambodia aims to roll out forest preservation program [-Can the govt be trusted to maintain such program?]

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Forestry Administration of Cambodia hopes to implement by September a program designed to prevent development projects from decimating Cambodia's forests, national media reported Thursday.

The program would prioritize the use of law enforcement to crack down on illegal loggers, the identification and demarcation of forest areas, increased community participation in forest conservation, and investment in research projects related to the country's forests, Ty Sokhun, director of the administration, was quoted by the Phnom Penh Post as saying.

Currently, the administration has completed 30 percent of a draft document detailing the program, Ty Sokhun said, adding that they hope to hold forums for public discussion of the program in May and to implement it in September.

"We strongly believe that this program will not only make forests in Cambodia more abundant but also improve the lives of people living in rural communities and reduce poverty throughout the country," he said.

Meanwhile, Keng Pou, a member of the Phnong minority group living in Ratanakkiri province, called for the government to assist local efforts to encourage forest preservation.

"We need the government to encourage us, and support and protect us when we are fighting against illegal loggers," he told the Post.

He said some members of his village have sustained serious injuries while fighting off illegal loggers.