Payments for Environmental Services (PES) programs in

Cambodia Yeang Donal

REDD+ Specialist

Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) –Cambodia Program

E-mail: yeangdonal@gmail.com

www.wcscambodia.org

Regional Workshop on Payment for Environmental Services24-25 November 2014

Hanoi, Vietnam

Contents

1. Bird-nest protection

2. Ecotourism

3. Ibis Rice

4. Seima Protection Forest REDD+ Project

1. Bird-nest protection

• Initiated in 2002 by the WCS in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and the Forestry Administration of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

• The globally threatened large birds found in the Northern Plains are heavily threatened by human disturbance and particularly the collection of nests for eggs and chicks

Northern Plains

Giant Ibis (Pseudibis gigantea)

White-shouldered Ibis (P. davisoni)

Slender-billed Vulture (G. tenuirostris)

Sarus Cranes (Grus Antigone)

Greater Adjutant

Storks (Leptoptilusdubius)

Green peafowl (Pavo muticus)

• Local people are offered a reward of up to US$5 for reporting nests

• Protectors receive $1/day for their work and an extra $1/day worked upon completion if the chicks successfully fledge

• The bird nest protection program works entirely through individual contracts; it is not community-based

2. Ecotourism• Initiated in 2004 in the village of Tmatboey in Kulen

Promtep Wildlife Sanctuary

• The ecotourism program aims to conserve the globally threatened wildlife through establishing local village-level tourism enterprises that directly link revenue received to long-term species conservation

• $30 per person if all key species are seen and $15 if only a subset are seen

http://www.samveasna.org/Sam Veasna Center (SVC) manages wildlife viewing

trips with exclusive access to Wildlife Conservation

Society sites across Cambodia.

Design of the community-based ecotourism program

3. Ibis Rice• Initiated in 2007 as an alternative community-based payment

program

• Farmers that keep to the land-use plan and no-hunting rules

• Sell their rice through the village committee responsible for management of the land-use plan to a marketing association

• Offers preferential prices to the farmers, which are supported by directly selling the rice to national market centres, bypassing middlemen who previously monopolized village trade, and through selling to tourist hotels under the ‘Wildlife-Friendly’ certification system, a new global brand

• All profits are shared between the farmers and the village organizations, after deducting the costs of the association

• Average: $160/farmer

4. Seima Protection Forest REDD+ Project

• Mondulkiri Province

• Started: Jan. 2010

• 180 513 ha

• 20 villages

• VCS and CCBA

• Undergoing validation

The key communities are ethnic Bunong (Phnong)

The livelihood value of the reserve for these communities is very high – farmland, forest resources and cultural values

Major Community BenefitsThe project meets the Gold Standard for exceptional community benefits:• Increased benefits from forest and resource protection• Better land tenure and forest use rights• Income generation from livelihood activities• Benefit-sharing from Carbon credit salesAlso:• Project zone is in a low human development area• Benefits for people in the lowest category of well-being • Detailed Monitoring of social impacts on communities

Large Biodiversity Benefits

The project meets the Gold Standard for exceptional biodiversity benefits:

• Better enforcement against illegal activities • Reduced threats to biodiversity from local communities• Better regulations and zonationAlso:• Large concentration of globally threatened species• Irreplaceable global biodiversity value (most important site for

several key species)

Key conclusions• Bird nests scheme (individual contracts with NGO):

• target only a single outcome (stopping nest collection)

• delivered rapid protection for highly threatened species

• however, didn’t influence other threats to species: land clearance, etc

• or build local support for conservation

• Ibis rice & Ecotourism schemes (village-managed): • bundled values (species conservation, habitats, food security)

• slower initially to see impact (takes time to build local institutions and clarify land tenure)

• more significant impacts over longer-term: habitat and species protection, reductions in immigration, local conflict management

• village management builds local support for conservation

• Seima Protection Forest REDD+ Project• bundled values (species conservation, habitats and community

benefits)

• takes time and resources to build local institutions and clarify land tenure

• Carbon prices remain low, demand soft and transaction costs high while commodity prices inexorably rise

Thank you

References

1. Clements, T., et al. (2013). "An evaluation of the effectiveness of a direct payment for biodiversity conservation: the bird nest protection program in the Northern Plains of Cambodia." Biological Conservation 157: 50-59.

2. Clements, T., et al. (2010). "Payments for biodiversity conservation in the context of weak institutions: Comparison of three programs from Cambodia." Ecological Economics 69(6): 1283-1291.

3. Clements, T., et al. (2008). "Tmatboey Community-based Ecotourism Project, Cambodia." Wildlife Conservation Society, New York.

4. Evans, T., et al. (2012). "Pilot REDD activities in Cambodia are expected to improve access to forest resource use rights and land tenure for local communities." Lessons about land tenure, forest governance and REDD+: Case studies from Africa, Asia and Latin America: 73-82.