Date/Time
Date(s) - 18/08/2020 - 20/08/2020
All Day

Categories

• Exposure Visit

Background:

Prey Lang is placed in the northern part of Cambodia and spans 500.000 ha in the Cambodian lowlands, and to the west of the Mekong River in North-Central Cambodia, and stretching over four provinces: Kratie, Kampong Thom, Stung Treng, and Preah Vihear. It lies within three watersheds, the Stung Sen, Stung Chinit and Siem Bok and traverses the hydrological divide between the Tonle Sap and Mekong Basin, and also a major watershed feeding into both rivers supporting the fisheries, which provide much of the protein intake in the country. It is the largest lowland evergreen forest in Cambodia, and possibly the most expansive in the Indo-Burma region either possibly all of Indochina, of high biological value. This landscape provides a range of important ecosystem services such as livelihoods for local communities and watershed protection, but it is also a crucial refuge for a diverse range of wildlife species that are facing increased threats throughout the country. Prey Lang supports seven distinct forest ecosystems, including swamp forests as well as evergreen, semi-evergreen and deciduous forests. It has a high density of threatened timber trees and numerous other endangered plants and animal species. The forest is of high importance to the local economies and households, as well as for the broader Cambodian public. More than 250,000 mainly indigenous people live in 340 villages in Prey Lang or within 10 kilometers from it[1], while the forest is an integral part of their culture, they also depend on it for their survival, collecting resin, building materials, medicine, and food. The forest is an irreplaceable part of the communities’ culture and spirituality and they depend on it for their survival for sustainable forest-related activities such as resin tapping, collecting food products, and collecting wood for house construction are important for the every-day life of the local communities.

Despite the unique value of Prey Lang, illegal logging and forest destruction has intensified over the past decades. According to Open Development Cambodia, forests covered 72% of the country’s territory in 1970, while in 2014 the forest cover was reduced to 48%, including plantations[2]. Forest loss in Cambodia between 2001 and 2014 accelerated at a faster rate than in any other country in the world, according to new global figures based on U.S. satellite data from the World Resources Institute and the University of Maryland[3]. Over the last 20 years, land grabbing has emerged as a major threat to the forest and rural livelihoods in the area. Moreover, conflicts have emerged between the affected local communities and the authorities as well as within communities between local citizens engaged in forest protection and citizens involved in illegal logging. Prey Lang is an important ecological and economic resource and if it is managed sustainably, it will be of considerable benefit to the country and contribute to national development.

Since the trees ordination which organized by the activists and local youths in Prey Lang had been banned by the MoE, we found on the nation and international news that right now, the illegal logging in Prey Lang has been increased rapidly day-by-day, and the restriction of the PLCN members’ activities also become the major barrier to the PLCN team to patrol for prevention the forest crimes. We can clearly see that while Cambodian citizen’s rights have been protected by legislation for a long time, the PLCN rarely been able to freely exercise their rights which is protected by the Cambodian’s constitution. So, this exposure visit would be an opportunity for opening sense for behavior change of the urban youths to clearly see what really happen underground, as they right now standing in the role of the receiver from the third party.

Objective:

• To ensure the young people from urban and university have a golden opportunity for connection, with nature, and their local environment, so they can appreciate it into the future perspective.
• To involve more youths with the contingency to develop as young environmental leaders in the future.
• To strengthen the effort of the youth engagement by creating a safe-space of urban, university youths and FDCMs throughout cross-generation outreach and intensive capacity building.

Expected Output:

• Urban, rural youths, and forest-dependent community members can be connected in exercising the support of environmental justice.
• Youth and community are connected and have a special chance to exchanges, share, and learns from each other about their challenges and how they overcome those situations, either extend further networks of the university, Prey Kla forest community, and Prey Lang’s youths.

Methodology:

The exposure visit will be conducted as Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and Specific Measurable, Achievable, Realistic/ Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART) sessions where youths, community, and facilitators actively join and lead the discussion. The tasks fill to be as follow:

• Presentation
• Group discussion
• Debate
• Small group dialogue with Socratic Cycle
• Games

 Participants:

• University students
• FDCM, Youth from Prey Lang community and Kbal Kla forest community