Welcome to SEARCA Knowledge Center on Climate Change Adaptation in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management in Southeast Asia (KC3)

Cambodia

Published on 26 September 2017
The Tonle Sap Poverty Reduction and Smallholder Development Project was originally approved in December 2009 with a total amount of $51.15 million. It has since supported community-driven development in rural roads and other infrastructure and improved agriculture and people’s livelihoods in 196 communes in five provinces, including Banteay Meanchey, Kampong Cham, Kampong Thom, Siem Reap, and Tboung Khmum. The additional support will add a disaster…
Published on 25 September 2017
It was a scene that perfectly encapsulated Phnom Penh’s development dilemma: Hundreds of ramshackle houseboats that usually anchor in the river north of the Cambodian capital had pushed downstream in search of cleaner waters, mooring with a view of glittering high-rise buildings that are reshaping the city skyline. Home to poor fish farmers who earn their living on the water, the boats had found…
Published on 2 August 2017
Read the article here: https://www.thestar.com.my/news/regional/2017/08/02/cambodia-facing-economic-peril-countrys-most-important-ecosystem-is-at-the-point-of-no-return/ Source: The Star Online | 2 August 2017
Published on 26 July 2017
Cambodia has the fastest rate of deforestation in the world, with forest loss increasing by 14.4 percent annually between 2001 and 2014, according to scientists from the University of Maryland and the World Resources Institute. Much of the loss is tied to the leasing of large swaths of land, known as economic land concessions, to big companies for rubber and timber production. But in 2012…
Published on 13 July 2017
Used multicolor straws and other trash from Phnom Penh’s notorious litter piles, transformed through Silong’s artistic gaze, will decorate an artistic bar and apartment-hotel aimed at attracting Phnom Penh’s tourists and residents. “I want the world to stop throwing trash inappropriately, learn to recycle, care about the environment, climate change and support artists,” he said, standing next to a tire he transformed into a colorful…
Published on 11 July 2017
“I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris,” U.S. President Donald Trump declared during a speech announcing his decision to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement. In so doing, Trump sent a message to the world: that his administration — as promised during his campaign — was putting America first, and prioritizing American economic prosperity over everything, including…
Published on 21 June 2017
A photograph showing rampant deforestation in Prey Lang, 2014. Photo supplied “Soldiers were running around villages and raping women; trucks destroyed houses. Security would shoot at you if you went into the forest to collect some resin. It was really bad,” said Marcus Hardtke, a former official Cambodian forestry monitor with Global Witness who has worked in Cambodia for more than 20 years. Disturbing reports…
Published on 21 June 2017
For many people, these kinds of incidents simply push development back to square one. That’s why the project consortium and the National Committee for Disaster Management is operating at every level to help ensure people are prepared for the unpredictable – from the villages, communes and Sangkats up.”Hun Boramey, Acting Country Director at ActionAid Cambodia As well as drawing up village, commune and district emergency…
Published on 21 June 2017
Future concerns Full ratification of the VPA would ensure, in principle, that wood exported from Vietnam to the EU has been legally felled and that its source is verifiable. However, there is a concern among environmentalists that the establishment of the VPA could legitimize the export of illegally logged timber if its provenance is not properly monitored. Given that so much of this timber already…
Published on 15 June 2017
The donor-driven policy narratives of ‘triple wins’ — synonymous with catchphrases like ‘climate compatible development’ and ‘low-carbon climate resilient development’ — that emphasise the possibilities of simultaneously producing adaptation, mitigation and development benefits have had a clear buy-in in Cambodia. But while international and national actors seem to agree that Cambodia is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, the underlying causes…
Published on 14 March 2017
The good news is that the dramatic increase in tourism has not destabilized the historic structures of Angkor Wat. The bad news is that seasonal variations in groundwater levels still pose a significant threat. These findings by Cambodian and Chinese scientists have been published in Science Advances. Built in the 12th century in the capital of the Khmer empire, the Angkor Wat temple complex in…
Published on 14 March 2017
Cambodia asked for cooperation with IRRI on rice planting and new climate-resilient varieties that are suitable to withstand conditions in Cambodia, said Hean Vanhan, director-general of the Agriculture Ministry’s general directorate of agriculture. “We asked IRRI to conduct research on rice-seed varieties that suit climate patterns here in Cambodia and to meet current market demand,” Mr. Vanhan said. “We asked them for more assistance by…
Published on 1 March 2017
For Cambodia, the El Niño that began in 2015 hit hard, causing a two-year drought that jeopardised the health, food security and finances of millions of people. According to the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM), some 2.5 million people across 18 provinces were severely impacted by May of last year, and the province among the hardest hit was Banteay Meanchey, in the northwest of…
Published on 9 February 2017
Ringed by Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam, Cambodia was once covered in lush rainforests. In them lived now-Endangered animals like Indochinese tigers (Panthera tigris corbetti), wild cattle called banteng (Bos javanicus), and two species of colorful monkeys called doucs, as well as many other kinds of plants and animals. However, forest conversion for agriculture and other purposes has reduced wildlife habitat significantly, and tigers are…
Published on 15 November 2016
        On 03 November 2016, Mr. Bin Chhom, Vice Director of University of Battambang was invited to open a workshop on “Awareness Raising Workshop on Climate Change in Cambodia” under the presence of His Excellency Choup Paris, Deputy General Secretary of the National Council for Sustainable Development. The aim of this workshop was to share knowledge and raise awareness to students and…
Published on 19 October 2016
The workshop was run by the United Nations Institute for Training & Research (UNITAR) and the training arm of the Ministry of Economy and Finance as well as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Cambodia Climate Change Alliance (CCCA). It aims to provide government officials with the tools to estimate and justify additional spending on potential investments that will work…
Published on 13 September 2016
Looking at both moderate and extreme economic and climate change scenarios, they found that it is not a matter of whether rice prices will go up in coming years, but by how much. In the worst-case scenario, the authors predict that by 2030, rice prices will have increased by as much as 1.52 million riel ($370) per tonne – or 88 per cent above the…
Published on 13 September 2016
In his welcoming address to the 61 members of the Council, H.E. Say Samal, Minister of Environment and NCSC Chair, noted that the institutional reform has led to the establishment of the NCSD in May 2015 as a policy making body, which is a significant step to promote sustainable development, ensuring economic, environmental, social and cultural balance of the nation. He further highlighted that immediate…
Published on 23 August 2016
A joint working group between Cambodia and Russia held its first meeting in Phnom Penh to explore the possibilities of using “atomic energy for peaceful purposes,” said the statement, quoting Minister of Environment Say Samal. According to the statement, the Russian ambassador to Cambodia, Dmitry Tsvetkov, and representatives of the Russian corporation Rosatom were also present at the meeting. In June, memorandums of…
Published on 22 February 2016
The Kingdom returned one of the lowest Environmental Performance Index (EPI) scores in the region, narrowly edging ahead of Myanmar and Laos. The 2016 EPI pointed to widespread logging as a key cause for Cambodia’s disappointing result, citing the government’s move to convert protected zones into economic land concessions for plantations and large-scale agriculture projects. “Cambodia has consistently witnessed some of the greatest annual…
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