“Like in other countries, the need and interest for agroforestry, including payments for ecosystem services (PES), are now growing in Cambodia,” said Grace Villamor, RUPES Research Fellow. She was in Phnom Penh from 16 to 23 of November to organize and attend a round table discussion among key government and university officials to explore ways to enhance research and capacity building options to support the preparation and implementation of Cambodia’s National Action Plan to Combat Land Degradation (NAP-CLD).

Cambodia is a signatory to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) since 1997. Because of this, the country is committed to prepare and implement a credible National Action Program (NAP) that presents the extent and costs of land degradation, the technical and institutional strategies, investment program and financial strategies to support the key stakeholders particularly the women who are responsible for the 80% of food production. Based on the advice of the UNCCD and the Global Mechanism, NAP preparation will take note of good practices and constraints observed in other countries applicable in Cambodian context.

“Cambodia is also facing environmental degradation issues. Low fertility of half of its soils and land degradation due to deforestation and inappropriate agricultural practices are among them. Also the adverse effects of climate change,” added Grace explaining how Cambodia’s economy and livelihoods depend on natural resources which provide various ecosystems services to society such as water, biodiversity, and carbon sequestration.

The participants of the meetings, representatives from DALRM, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), UNDP, Meanchey University (MCU), Royal University (RUA), the Sustainable Land Management Project- SLM Project, ERECON (an NGO), and University of Illinois, specifically discussed about the integration of agroforestry and PES into the preparation of the NAP during the two days meeting held at the Faculty of Forestry, Royal University of Agriculture (RUA).

On the first day Grace delivered a presentation entitled “Sustainable financing for maintain ecosystem services in rural landscapes” taking examples from PES mechanisms studied and implemented at RUPES sites in Kalahan, Bungo, Singkarak, and Bakun.

“We learned a lot about PES from what Grace presented,” said Mr. Keang Seng, National SLM-Project Manager, MAFF. “We are very interested to know about the potentials of PES in sustainable land management particularly to combat land desertification and learn from the experiences of our neighboring countries.”

The results of the roundtable discussion were later presented to the MAFF Secretary of State which is the government body leading the preparation of NAP. 

“The participants recommended some initial activities necessary to integrate in the NAP. We have also identified some collaborative options, including the possibility of establishing an agroforestry education network in Cambodia to help implement the NAP” explained Jess Fernandez, from ICRAF-SEA SEANAFE Program facilitating the round table discussion.

As a follow-up to this effort, RUPES will translate some of its publications in Khmer language in collaboration with the Meanchey University while the Royal University of Agriculture is willing to take the lead to organize an agroforestry education network in the country. At the same time, the RUPES team is ready to showcase its pilots sites through study tour.