With logging operations generally focused on timber “mining”, and royalty collection ineffective, forest management in Cambodia has yet to deliver the economic, conservation, and rural development benefits envisioned. Rather, the management approach in production forests has tended to marginalise local forest users and producers. Based on experiences in Cambodia and elsewhere in the region, continuation of the current commercial forestry model will result in further forest losses with little revenue generated for government. It will not lead to poverty reduction […]

Cambodia embarked on its decentralisation reform with the enactment of two laws in 2001, the Law on the Administration and Management of Communes and the Law on Commune Elections. In 2002 Cambodia held its first free and fair commune elections. The decentralisation builds extensively on the lessons learned through the CARERE/Seila programmes, which were collaborative efforts between the Cambodian government and its donor partners.The aims of the recently launched decentralisation in Cambodia are to establish a pluralist democracy and reduce […]