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cover
1. recommendations
2. introduction
3. the case for positive conditionality & international responsibility
4. the forest policy reform project & the steering committee
5. transparency
6. forest yield & revenue potential
7. concession activity and review
8. dfw–enforcement & jurisdiction
9. situation update–general
special military region
military region 1
military region 2
military region 3
military region 4
military region 5
10. the role of cambodia’s neighbours & other importing countries
thailand
laos
vietnam
japan
11. opportunities
the forest stewardship council (fsc)
protected areas and world heritage status
12. conclusion
At the 1998 rate of exploitation Cambodia’s forests will be commercially exhausted by 2003. The 1999 CG together with the Forest Policy Reform Project and the current stance of Hun Sen and the RGC offers a unique opportunity to reverse this process, with the medium to long term potential of Cambodia becoming a country that can maintain an extremely rich biodiversity whilst also operating a model timber industry.
However, the RGC needs to remove the military from the logging equation and continue the process that the January 1999 crackdown began. As long as the machinery of illegal logging remains untouched it will be hard for any observer to have too much faith in the RGC’s pre-CG promises–they have seen them before.
The country’s forest concessions need to be radically reviewed, with a cessation of activity until this is complete. The longer this is delayed the more eroded the resource will become.
The positive impetus begun by the crackdown needs to be maintained. It is thus incumbent on the international community to encourage and maintain this impetus by tying the awarding of non-humanitarian aid to performance related achievement in the forestry sector. It is the responsibility of the RGC to ensure that the issue of illegal logging and deforestation becomes a perennial issue, not just an agenda item at the annual CG which they need to promise their way out of.
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