The government’s Forestry Administration is scheduled to hold a regional public consultation in Pursat province Thursday on a new draft national framework for protecting Cambodia’s forests, officials said.
The discussion would involve 160 people who work in forestry-related fields from Phnom Penh as well as Kandal, Kompong Speu, Kompong Chhnang, Pursat, Battambang and Pailin provinces, according to a Forestry Administration statement.
Forestry Administration Director-General Ty Sokhun said by telephone Monday that population growth has put pressure on Cambodia’s forest cover, but that the government still hopes to increase overall forest cover from the 2006 amount of 10.8 million to 11 million hectares by 2015.
Ty Sokhun added that one of the key elements of a new national forestry framework would be to preserve forestland as a means to sell carbon credits to more industrialized nations.
Forests act as carbon wells, draining carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Companies can purchase carbon credits on the international market to offset excess carbon dioxide that they produce.
Ty Sokhun said however, that with regard to Cambodia getting involved with carbon credits trading, “the process is complicated and in the long term.”
Kim Chantha, a coordinator for the Forestry Administration in Pursat province, said Tuesday that NGOs, community forestry workers, monks and local authorities were invited to Thursday’s meeting to comment on how to protect the forests. By Tim Sturrock
The Cambodia Daily
Garment factory orders declined 40 to 45 percent in February compared to last year, the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia said Monday, yet another sign of decline in one of Cambodia’s main industries.
In January orders decreased 30 percent and then fell an additional 10 to 15 percent in February, said Van Sou Ieng, president of GMAC.
“Factories are receiving less and less orders, and some can survive with financial backers and those that don’t [have financial backers] will close,” he said. Factories are now running at 50 percent capacity, he said, and more than 80 factories have shut down since the downturn began in September.
Most factories currently have an average of three months worth of orders before they run dry, he said.
“We will see in April if orders come back,” he said.
The numbers come less than a week after Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh revealed that both the number of garment workers and exports have plummeted.
More than 51,000 garment jobs have disappeared since September, an approximate drop of 15 percent, Cham Prasidh told an economic forum Thursday. The industry now employs about 300,000 workers.
The job losses in the garment industry come as garment export figures for February dropped approximately 56 percent compared to last year, according to numbers he provided.
Economists have blamed a worsening global economy, particularly in the industry’s main export markets: the US and Europe.
Numbers released by the Commerce Ministry show that garment exports to the US declined 35 percent from January 2008 to January this year. Exports to the European Union declined by nearly 10 percent.
Chan Sophal, president of the Cambodia Economic Association, said by telephone that the losses will have a major effect on the job market and economy.
“It may help the agricultural sector in the rural area because there will be more workers in that sector,” he said, adding however that many unemployed workers will likely remain in the city.
However, Pursat’s coordinator for local rights group Adhoc, Ngeth Theavy, and a community forestry leader, Kuch Veng, said Tuesday that they were not invited to join. “If they take the national workplan to discuss with two to three people, it will not be transparent and effective,” Kuch Veng said.
