Title
Monitoring and combating forest threats through community participation
Author(s)
Gnoeurn, G.;Pieters, C.
Published
2015
Publisher
Cambodian Journal of Natural History
Abstract
Three Community Patrol Teams have been formed in two key areas of Seima Protection Forest—two in a Community Forest area that covers 9,070 ha, and one in Andong Kraloeng Village, which in 2012 was the first indigenous community to receive collective land title in Cambodia. The community originally formed their own teams in response to rapidly increasing threats to their forest, but since October 2013 they have been supported by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Hundreds of hectares of land have been illegally cleared and sett led by poor families from neighbouring provinces, and illegal logging has become a very serious problem in recent years. The galvanising issue for the communities has been the illegal felling of their resin trees, which are of vital importance to the livelihoods of local people. With support from WCS, the community patrol teams are now using Cyber Tracker-SMART enabled tablets to collect data and monitor both the patrols and emerging threats. Furthermore, the teams have received signifi cant training from specialist law enforcement staff on patrol tactics, and SMART data are providing information for strategic deployment. Within 14 months the teams have made more than 64 arrests, and have confi scated 132 chainsaws, 64 modifi ed motorcycles and 4 oxcarts. We present on the successes and challenges of Community Patrol Teams, and advocate for governments and NGOs to support local people, and to provide them the tools with which to protect their forests.

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PUB15504