VZCZCXRO1032
PP RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHLN RUEHMA RUEHNH RUEHPB RUEHPOD
DE RUEHPF #0113/01 0251013
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 251013Z JAN 08
FM AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9310
INFO RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE
RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PHNOM PENH 000113 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS, EAP/RSP, OES/PCI--SALZBERG AND COVINGTON 
BANGKOK FOR REO-WALLER, AND USAID/RDMA-PASCH 
STATE PLEASE PASS TO USAID/ANE/TS--MELNYK AND EGAT/NRM/W--DEELY 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: SENV EAGR EMIN ECON CB
SUBJECT:  CAMBODIA'S NEW LAW ON PROTECTED AREAS:  NGOS APPLAUD 
THEORY, WORRY ABOUT PRACTICE 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  On December 27, 2007, the Cambodian National 
Assembly passed the Law on Protected Areas, which, for the first 
time, regulates commercial activities within the country's 23 
protected natural areas.  The law aims to promote economic 
development and reduce poverty while protecting and conserving 
biodiversity in protected areas.  Several NGOs complain that they 
were not consulted when the law was finalized and worry about 
effective use and enforcement.  If, as it appears, the new law opens 
the door to more environmental exploitation, the big economic losers 
could be low-income families dependent on fisheries and forests for 
their livelihoods--the very people most in need of economic 
development.  End Summary. 
 
Protected Areas Divided into Four Zones, Economic Development 
Permitted in Two 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶2.  (U) The Cambodian National Assembly passed the Law on Protected 
Areas on December 27, 2007.  Once approved by the Senate and signed 
by the King, typically one to three months after National Assembly 
passage, the law will come into force.  The new law supplements the 
1993 Royal Decree on the Creation and Designation of Protected 
Areas, which demarcated the boundaries of the protected areas but 
did not set guidelines for their protection, and the 1996 Law on 
Environmental Protection and Natural Resource Management, which 
created the Ministry of Environment and gave it jurisdiction over 
the protected areas, but again failed to define what activities were 
permitted or prohibited in the areas. 
 
¶3.  (U) The new law divides the protected areas into four zones: 
the core zone, the conservation zone, the sustainable use zone, and 
the community zone.  The core zone is an area for conserving 
endangered and threatened flora and fauna species and which has a 
vulnerable ecosystem.  The conservation zone is near the core zone 
and meant to be beneficial in conserving natural resources, 
ecosystems, watershed, and aesthetic beauty.  The sustainable use 
zone is a managed area significant for national socio-economic 
development; the community zone is an area managed for existing 
social and economic development activities of the local and 
indigenous people.  Environmentalists expressed concern that these 
definitions are unclear and subject to substantial interpretation. 
The government will issue an implementing sub-decree in the future 
which will delineate the new zoning within the protected areas. 
 
¶4.  (U) The proposed law bans any economic development in the core 
and conservation zones, although research in the interest of 
security and national defense is allowed.  The government can permit 
investment and development projects in the sustainable use and 
community zones at the request of the Ministry of Environment 
following consultations with relevant ministries, local authorities 
and communities.  However, prior to any economic development 
project, the law requires that an environmental impact assessment 
(EIA) be completed. 
 
MPs Call for Robust Environmental Impact Assessments 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶5.  (U) During the debate in the National Assembly, SRP 
parliamentarian Son Chhay and FUNCINPEC MP Monh Siphan urged the 
Minister of Environment to ensure that credible  EIAs were conducted 
properly before permitting any economic development in protected 
areas.  (Comment:  Currently, EIAs are conducted by the 
concessionaires, and are generally not considered to be credible. 
End Comment.)  Son Chhay added that the EIA must be conducted with 
the participation from the relevant ministries, communities and 
civil society in order to avoid conflict, as past experience showed 
countless disputes between the local villages and concessionaires. 
 
 
Environment Minister Announces Exploration Rights Awarded 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
¶6.  (U) In response to press inquiries immediately following 
National Assembly passage of the law, Environment Minister Mok 
Mareth said the government had granted several private companies the 
right to explore many protected areas, including the Cardamom 
Mountains, Phnom Aural, and Virachey National Park.  He noted that 
the law is a tool that the government can use to effectively 
implement programs in the 23 protected areas to make sure that 
Cambodia can conserve those areas for the current and future 
generations. 
 
NGOs Applaud Legal Concept, Worry about Implementation 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶7.  (U) Environmental NGOs commended the effort to finally define 
 
PHNOM PENH 00000113  002 OF 002 
 
 
what activities are permitted in protected areas.  However, they 
expressed frustration at not being involved in drafting the law, 
saying that they had not seen the law after the first draft and were 
not invited to provide comments.  They also expressed strong doubts 
about whether the law could be effectively implemented, and worried 
that legal provisions allowing the government to change zone 
boundaries based on policy and strategy concerns will give the 
government carte blanche to allow environmentally harmful activities 
in sensitive areas. 
 
Comment:  Economic Development at What Cost? 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  Comment:  While Cambodia's efforts to finally provide a 
legal framework for regulating protected areas are to be lauded, 
like so much else here, the gap between theory and practice 
threatens to outweigh the potential benefits of legal clarity. 
Environment Minister Mok Mareth's eagerness to announce that private 
companies had been awarded exploration rights in protected 
areas--even before the law allowing such activities comes into 
force--suggests that economic development is the government's 
overriding motive in passing the legislation.  Cambodia's 
environmentally sensitive areas--protected or not--already play a 
big economic role in the lives of its most vulnerable people. 
Cambodia's fisheries--among the most productive in the 
world--produce an annual fish catch valued at USD 500 million in 
2005, which millions rely on for protein.  And reports by a local 
research institute indicate that low-income Cambodian families 
generate 42% of their income from non-timber forest products.  If 
the new law allows the government to grant economic concessions or 
permit large-scale economic activities in protected areas, the 
government's purported efforts to assist economic development may 
end up undermining the livelihoods of the Cambodians who need help 
the most.  End Comment. 
 
MUSSOMELI