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CVD Community Development and Education/Awareness activities in Samlaut and Pailin regions. First Semester of fiscal year 2005 By Laurence Desvignes - CVD/MJP-CD Advisor EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A total of 12 villages were visited, including 9 where community development (CD) and education activities have already been implemented or initiated, and 4 where community surveys were conducted for CD/education to be implemented. A. Perception of CVD/MJP community development activities by the villagers:
Continued support must be considered to ensure that those people are not going to resume illegal activities. This can be achieved through the monitoring of CD activities implemented by CVD. Action to be taken following the workshop: CVD teams were restructured into a 3-member team including one education, one CD and one monitoring team members. B. Type of assistance needed The various villages requested different type of assistance which has been compiled as follows:
The type of assistance needed depends on each village. As such, the approach has to remain flexible. The budget must reflect this and budget lines should not be too specific to allow unplanned activities to take place. Action to be taken: A budget review will take place on February 22nd, once the 2005 strategy will have been reviewed as well (on February 23rd). C. Education
The education component has been working in the villages but has not been targeting all groups within the villages, for various reasons, including a timing factor. Although the work carried out by the team members has been valued by the villagers, it needs to focus on a closer integration with the community development team as well. New issues, such as environmental law, must also be included in the curriculum. Capacity building of certain groups within the villages must be considered. Education should be implemented on a regular basis, as requested by villagers. Action to be taken: Following the workshop, CVD agreed with the relevant Departments to review the curriculum and to include environmental law. The 3-member teams will allow education and community development activities to be integrated and followed up by the monitoring staff member. A meeting with the Ministry of Education should be established to verify whether the training of teachers is possible and what the schools are already teaching regarding environmental issues. An education mobile team will be set up to respond to the education needs of the communities. D. Monitoring/law enforcement
More interaction and integration between monitoring/LE teams and CVD teams and respective activities are needed. The involvement of communities and community leaders is a key to the good implementation of MJP activities. Can and should MJP/CVD staff members be involved in collecting information from villagers about wildlife they have encountered (to be checked with John/Kerryn)? Action to be taken: All MJP staff members to be moved into the same location in both Pailin and Samlaut for a better cooperation and communication. Regarding the involvement of communities and community leaders, the restructuring of the CVD/MJP team should allow for a better cooperation with villagers and local authorities. Anlong Puk village, Samlaut CVD activities helped people to decrease logging and hunting. They received seeds, agricultural tools, cows etc. No environmental education was received in this part of the village but interviewees (village leader and SHG member) think it is important to understand about the environment. People who received assistance were selected because they were going into the PA to survive e.g. the woman interviewed is poor, a widow with three kids at school and was collecting fruits from trees in the forest. She says being in a better situation now and she can stay at home rather than going to the forest. A pile of wood in the village leader’s house - bought from the road... It is estimated by the village leader that 70% of the people who received MJP CD assistance have stopped cutting wood and hunting. They are still using their chainsaws for cutting trees in the farming areas. People who haven’t received assistance still need to receive some. Generally, it is now easier for the whole village than it was before CD activities took place. Other CVD programmes were implemented by other project staff members in this village e.g. emergency aid (blanket, rice, mosquito net etc.). Kantout village, Samlaut SHG members were selected as they were the ones performing illegal activities i.e. cutting trees, hunting, making traps. They are now going into non-protected areas for hunting and cutting trees with commune authorisation. Trees were planted near the village and micro-credits were distributed. The village is better off now than what it was before, since assistance was distributed. Education was received once and people understood well the message. Children did not receive any in primary school. In pre-school, they received a story book. Beng Run village, Samlaut (800 families) Improvements in the village since assistance was distributed: infrastructure, education materials and awareness, improved living standards, SHG, support to poor families (farming, 26 cows etc.), activities developed to protect area and provide alternative livelihoods. CVD activities reached their goal. 95% of the population is happy with the plans to protect the forest. There is a good cooperation between rangers and authorities/communities from the top level to the commune level. Logging is being carried out by people outside the commune. Rangers should patrol with local authorities and on a regular basis, not from time to time. People have changed activities since CVD support but environmental education should be increased as well as support to vulnerable people. People poaching and logging were targeted and received agricultural tools, cows and seeds. People do not poach anymore. The commune leader doesn’t allow them to do so anymore. Education should be conducted for everybody. People in this commune need to understand the value of the PA. Education could be done through building the capacity of teachers, gathering people in one place. The materials distributed help people to keep informed. Videos about the negative impact of cutting trees and about other protected areas would be useful. Rangers patrol with their own team and there is no cooperation with the local authorities. Rangers should inform the commune/district leaders about what they have found and what they did. It would be better to be informed. An improved communication and cooperation is needed. Key people at district level should know what is going on in their area, what happened and could then helped out to sort any problems and stop people from conducting illegal activities. People encroaching the land are coming from other provinces. Top level instances should have a meeting and sort out the problem. At commune level, he can’t do anything. Beng Run village, Group 2 Hunters, people collecting fruits and wood in the forest were selected as beneficiaries of CVD assistance. One hunter was interviewed and said he stopped hunting after receiving 21 kg of soybean seeds (he harvested 1 ton). His living conditions have been improved and he doesn’t need to hunt or cut trees anymore. People understand why the area needs to be protected. Since CVD/MJP assistance was received, it is possible to have a decent livelihood, as opposed to hunting activities. Only about 1 out of 4 people received environmental education, which is not sufficient. The interviewee said he attended an interesting session about the impact of destroying the forest i.e. the environmental changes will cause heavy rains etc. They need to learn more. One session per month or every 2 months. CVD assistance is important as if we continue to destroy the forest, there will be no tree and no wildlife for the next generation and the whole environment will change. Chhak Roka village (newly surveyed village) 20-30 families have their land in the PA (they had the land before it became a protected area) and DoE informed them not to encroach the land. Hunters have decreased their activities since DoE is engaged in wildlife protection and they are farming instead. 6 or 7 families are still using chainsaws occasionally in PA to collect rattan. It is important to inform people that activities in the PA are against the law and that they can earn 30,000 Baths per harvest if they farm (2 harvests a year are possible as the soil is good for farming and growing vegetables). Other solutions to prevent people from going into PA are to educate them and organise vocational training, to increase living standards, to implement law enforcement (to burn the chainsaw and establish a contract), to distribute agricultural tools, food support and to compensate for chainsaw destruction. A contract should be established between villagers and MJP: if they receive assistance, they should stop going into PA. If they breach the contract, assistance should stop. Environment education should take place at the same time as assistance is implemented. Tanon village To cut trees, people must ask the permission from the village leader. He is still allowing the cutting of the trees in a controlled way because the village development committee can not totally forbid villagers to cut trees because of living conditions. People are not clear about the PA boundaries and they are cutting trees and poaching but they are not sure of whether it is within PA boundaries or not. Bar Huy Khmen Tboung village Wives of SHG members were interviewed. They have been farming now instead of hunting and logging, since CVD came in. They were not clear about the exact boundaries of the PA but the DoE installed some marking. Mostly men attended education sessions but all people must understand the importance of PA and the negative effects which would be caused by its destruction. Thmey village 3 SHG and 23 beneficiary families selected as they were cutting trees as one of their main activity. The SHG members admitted not having entirely stopped their illegal activities but they have reduced as they have started farming. They estimate that they will need two more years before they can definitively stop. Also the assistance they have received is not sufficient (5 kg seeds). 13-14 families are still missing land and it is a problem as they can not farm. They would need to buy land to be able to farm as they could get more income from farming than from hunting. There is no other job in the area otherwise they could give up poaching. CVD CD activities have helped out but are not sufficient - they were not given enough seeds. People have garden but need rice fields as well. Beside the production was low this year due to the lack of rain. 1 ha cost around 750 USD in this area (30,000 BATHS) and 5 ha are needed for a family of 6. But it is difficult to find some land in this area - only small surfaces are available but are not sufficient to support a family. Some families borrowed money from business men to buy seeds so they have to reimburse them with high interests (2800 B per group and per month, twice a year. Interest rate is between 100 - 200 B per month for 1000 B borrowed = 20% interest per month compared to 0.25% interest with CVD credit system). They need more seeds, cows, small-credit or to be hired as labour etc. They do not want pigs as it is like feeding another child. 50% of SHG members have changed activities but some are still poaching as they don’t have land or not enough land (however, they said that they were collecting trees which have already been cut and not cutting new ones). They have received education, which was important as it helped them to understand the value of the PA and of the trees (i.e. if there is no tree, there is no rain and no national resources and it will affect the next generations). Support documents e.g. pens, notebooks, billboards etc. are needed to help people remember the messages - most people have already forgotten about what was said to them. Teacher training might be difficult to implement as teachers are already very busy. Beside, environmental issues are being taught in grade 6 and up. Toul Kieu village (newly surveyed village) A list of poachers was already produced by the village (their main occupation is to cut trees, including digging the roots out to sell them). People are entering the PA to collect rattan and old wood or to hunt. More than half of the 45 families of the village go into the PA. This is one of the poorest villages in the area and people have no other alternative. 50% of the villagers have land near the PA. People came for gem mining and then decided to stay but as they did not have land, they encroached land within the PA. Other occupations are charcoal making and bamboo collecting. People can not rely on farming alone as the land is too small. To prevent logging and poaching, the village would need cows, rice, agricultural tools, seeds, chicken and to be hired as labour. The villagers do not want pigs as they eat too much and sell at a cheap price. Education is seen as very important for people to understand the importance of wildlife. More education is also essential as people tend to forget if there is only one session. Even if they are poor, it is important that they learn more, in the village but also in schools. Dey Krohome village SHG members were met. They said having changed and stopped completely hunting and logging activities but more assistance is needed such as seed, tool, water source. (At the moment they are collecting water 400 m away and the source is already almost dry at that time of the year.)
There were not many improvements since they received assistance. More is needed. Some animals (or tracks of) were seen by the villagers: elephants, gaur, tiger, banteng. Opres village "If we received more assistance, we could stop going into the forest." The villagers want to establish a tree nursery e.g. fruit trees to plant trees in the village and distribute them around. They have enough land and will set up a committee to take care of the nursery. They would also need technical assistance. Villagers ask whether we could discuss with the rangers and ask them to return the logs they had confiscated. The trees have been cut already and the villagers were not allowed to remove them. It was explained that it was not possible as the rangers were implementing the law. As the villagers are not allowed to go into the PA anymore, some families are getting poorer. Assistance was distributed but it will take time before they can live from it i.e. the cow bank takes time, half of the seeds were wasted as it was too dry. One of the priority for the villagers is to dig a well (25-30 m) or a pond. The priorities for the village are water, trees and loans. If this is implemented, then they will be able to decrease their activities in the PA. 95% of villagers stopped going into the PA. They only collect wood for charcoal but in few more years, there will be no more wood for charcoal. The villagers do not need pigs as they required too much water. Chicken are OK but they need vaccination. The village is however better off than before but needs more assistance. The villagers attended environmental education sessions twice already but they think the education team should come back at least 2-3 times. Tchap Leu village The village is located 6400 m from the main road (the entire forest has been cut along this road) and has 77 families (345 people). The village leader organised a meeting with each family and ask them to sign an agreement not to go into the PA. 30% more land is needed however for the villagers. He will inform the Governor to find a solution. The villagers want to plant fruit trees to sell fruits on the market. But they need to know what kind of trees they can re-plant in this area. They need technical assistance and the villagers also need more support to improve their livelihood e.g. tools, seeds etc. They need to finish the school, they need a well and road repair. They will use the land for corn, soybean, mongbean but they need enough water. Until now, they did not have sufficient food and had to eat roots of trees. Some have borrowed money from the bank and are worried about reimbursing the bank as the weather has not been good for the crops. Two proposals were submitted to CVD for the bridge repair and for the school. They claim that rangers came to destroy equipment outside the PA. The villagers are open to receive more education on the environment. Krotchop Krahom village Three SHG were formed two weeks before the visit took place. OXFAM have been supporting community forestry activities in this village for the past 3 years. Village rangers (3 groups of 5 volunteers) are monitoring 200 ha of forest nearby the village (out of the PA). OXFAM has been providing the capacity building and the villagers are providing the protection system of the forest which belongs to the community and is recognised as such by the Governor. The village cooperates with the Department of Forestry who is taking action against people going into the forest. Regular meetings are organised by OXFAM in PNP (Phnom Penh) with representatives of 24 districts involved in community forestry. Villagers were taught about the type of trees which should be re-planted without affecting the environment/soil. A local NGO (border development) based in Pailin, is facilitating the work with the DoF, the other NGOs and the community. The villagers do not cut trees anymore now that they have gardens and are being hired to work. They need fruit trees. SHG members and local authorities have received education but not the rest of the village. They need more environmental education as well as education on human rights, gender etc. |
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Cambodian Vision in Development
Battambang, Cambodia