Project Detail

Developing Sustainable Community-Based Livelihood Systems for Peoples in Protected Areass in the Cardamom Mountains (SCLP-VPS)

This project will explore and experiment with production systems, income generation activities, and community organization and networking in order to allow communities to live sustainably within the Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary and the Central Cardamom Protected Forest.

The project implementation will therefore concentrate on developing agricultural improvements and establishing an ecological agriculture training centre in Pramaoy commune, Veal Veng district, Pursat province. The project will focus on discovering livelihood strategies and methods of agriculture that are compatible with living within a protected area. Differences in ethnic and cultural make up, community solidarity, exposure to destructive natural resource influences and market pressures, will be taken into consideration when transferring/introducing livelihood-enhancing experiences and processes.

The main task of this project is therefore to ensure that the maximum number of farmers possible can access technical innovations and successfully implement the ecological options. The project will focus on supporting farm families in applying innovations such as, agro-forestry, the principles and techniques of system of rice intensification (SRI), improved home gardening, chicken raising, fruit tree planting and replanting cardamom in degraded forest areas. The project will also work on improving; green manures, making composts, wild fish management, community non-timber forest product (NTFP) exploitation, livestock rearing and at the same time work to reduce forest cutting through introducing improved cooking stoves which can reduce the need for fire wood by 50%. Through promoting environmental awareness of conservation, the project will also work with farmers to find alternatives to clearing old/mature forest areas for upland agriculture.

At the end of the project it is expected that around 60% of the families in the area will be able to increase food production by approximately 100% and to increase income by about 50%. This will result from improved access to technical and social innovations, marketing and credit. We also aim to assist farmers to set up at least 18 farmer associations and a network of farmer associations at the district and national level by building the capacity of 33 farmer experts and 40 farmer leaders, among them 5 commune council representatives and 25 marketing leader representatives. This building of community institutions is a long term process which will go beyond the present project cycle.

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Project Snapshot

Grantee:

Cambodia Center for Study and Development in Agriculture

Country:

Cambodia

Area Of Work:

Land Degradation

Operational Phase:

Phase 3

Grant Amount:

US$ 50,000.00

Co-Financing Cash:

US$ 65,032.00

Co-Financing in-Kind:

US$ 37,800.00

Project Number:

KHM/06/01

Start Date:

12/2005

End Date:

11/2007

Status:

Satisfactorily Completed

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Project Characteristics and Results

Notable Community Participation

1000 families will directly benefit through the innovation and adaption of the new technologies. Approximately 400 small farmers will be selected for training and capacity building activities, with an average of 20 farmers per target village. 40 farmer leaders/promoters (50% are women leaders =20) will be invited to participate in bi-monthly training in Pramoay. 33 farmer experts will be selected from all farmers in the village which are qualified as having the best practices or leadership. They will be provided with regular bi-monthly training and coaching in Pramoey and will become farmer promoters which can then train other farmers. 20 farmer marketing leaders and 5 representatives of the commune council will be invited to attend bi-monthly training in Pramoey on marketing activities. 20 community leaders and 5 representatives of the commune council will be invited in the second year to improve the capacity of the community and to monitor socio-cultural and environmental changes. The process used will be developing and orienting a project monitoring system known as Participatory Impact Monitoring (PIM) which aims to empower the community members and promote autonomous activity.

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods

Agro-forestry system, System of Rice Intensification (SRI), improved home gardening, chicken/livestock raising, planting fruit trees /forest gardens, soil fertility improvement (growing green manures, making composts, etc), sustainable use of NR and NTFP, and more fuel-efficient cooking stoves. The project will identify and pilot new sustainable marketing projects through capacity building in the community market and income generating activities. In particular, and based on experiences already developed in O?Som commune, there will likely be a special focus on re-instating the market of wild Cardamom and renewable NTFPs, which have traditionally been harvested in several areas of the Cardamom Mountains. The training materials and agricultural innovations produced as a result of this project will become long term physical assets. It is expected that these innovations will help to improve community livelihoods, generate income and enable farmers to show they can make a productive contribution to agricultural development in the Province through environmentally sustainable and culturally appropriate agricultural innovations and livelihoods. It will also improve marketing activities and credit cooperatives.

Gender Focus

The project has a strong interest for female farmers which will make up approximately 50% of the total involved in training actively and experimenting with new ideas. However, the project will organize special training for womens groups to develop womens capacity to try new ideas and improve family livelihood as well as to participate effectively in any discussion. The women?s involvement in this kind of work is an integral factor to improving the quality of life and an essential part in order to significantly decrease the level of womens workload. The project will also be developed through job provision, learning opportunities for women and men in agricultural techniques based on learning documents, exchange visits, face to face meetings and other activities. In particular, the project is promoting women to be in the leadership positions of the group and farmer associations and to develop women?s capacity to try out new ideas for improving family livelihood as well as participating effectively in discussions and decision making that affect the position of women as leaders in the community.

Capacity - Building Component

The project uses a participatory approach which plays an important role to build the capacity of key farmers, farmer experts and farmer promoters as local resource persons. They are preparing the demonstration farms/plots and providing training and advice to other farmers. They will also play a leading role in organizing farmers into village associations, including developing by-laws, organizing elections of the president and a steering committee. Key farmers, farmer promoters and other stakeholders will be involved in the review, monitoring and evaluation of the project. Other important stakeholders of the project are members of the Commune Council, Village Chiefs and representatives of the Agricultural, Rural Development and Woman?s Affairs Departments at the commune and district level. Their main tasks and function will be to assist in spreading experiences of the project in the target areas and giving advice on the project implementation. As they are local authority representatives, they can help to encourage farmers to try new ideas. In addition, they act as the legal body to register farmer associations at the local level. Officials from the district agriculture office will be counter-parts in project implementation. This will be a good opportunity for them to get exposure and experience in participatory development as well as in ecological agriculture and farmer organizations. Representatives of the Provincial Department of Agriculture will also be involved in regular project monitoring to steer a smooth and responsible project implementation. Other CEDAC staff from the headquarters will be involved with the project, especially with regards to sharing field experiences. They will help to host field visits of farmers from the project area. In order to ensure good coordination, CEDAC will participate in regular meetings of the commune and district, to integrate CEDAC activities in the local development plan. Local authority representatives will be invited to participate in the district workshops organized by the project.

Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment

The project will introduce agro-forestry systems, System of Rice Intensification (SRI), improved home gardening, chicken raising, planting fruit trees/forest gardens, soil fertility improvement (growing green manures, making composts, etc), sustainable use of NR and NTFP, replanting cardamoms in degraded forest areas and increasing use of fuel-efficient cooking stoves. The project will also promote environmental awareness through introducing concepts of land design.

Project Results

The Results of project activities up to date (by March 2007)

During project implementation of nine months, we can conclude that the project has proceeded very smoothly as planned, although there is strong interest among small farmers to participate in farmer training/meeting as bellows:

? Around 1434 cooperating farmers of 20 villages are involving with project and of them 904 are women.
? 920 farmers (551 women) were participated the village general meeting.
? 36 farmer experts (17 women) would be selected to involve the regular bi-monthly training in Pramay.
? 1018 farmers (418 women) are involving regular monthly training at village.
? 300 farmers applied ecological agricultural practices such as 213 farmers applied SRI on rice filed and the Chamkar Rice of 47 ha size; 11 farmers applied frog raising and 135 farmers applied Home gardening, 38 farmers applied ecological chicken raising, 40 farmers have raised catfish in Plastic Bag, 8 Farmers makes compost teas.
? 14 Farmer associations have established and 4 farmer associations in O?som of Veal Veng District that are dividing 30 groups with 637 members among them 441 are women with total amount of saving increasing to 26.025.100 riels = 6506.27 USDollars.
? 38 farmer leaders (16 women) have selected to be the farmer association leaders, they are playing important role to mobilize the farmer association in their village. They are also involving to build the capacity regular bi-monthly training in Pramay.
? 4 warden groups in O?som commune are still controlling the crocodile sanctuary and Cardamom forest.
? 23 farmer marketing representatives (12 women) would be selected to involve the regular quarterly training in Pramay.
? 4 marketing groups in O?som are still active in Cardamom and NTFP products.
? 4 groups of chicken bank.
? 4 groups of rice banks.
? 1 group of CHHUNG music with 13 members.
? 1 group of Tayam music with 8 members.
?1 group of traditional music with 12 members.

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Indicators

Empowerment

Number of women participated / involved in SGP project 526

Empowerment

Number of indigenous people participated/involved in SGP project 15

Biophysical

Hectares of land sustainably managed by project 26000

Livehood

Number of households who have benefited* from SGP project 700

Livehood

Number of individuals (gender diaggregated) who have benefited* from SGP project 1150

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