CAMPAS is not a stand-alone project, but rather a platform for increased coordination engagement and effectiveness building on past and existing activities, with government, non-government, and private sector partners. Related government agencies such as the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MoEFi), Ministry of Interior (MoI), Ministry of Education Youth and Sports (MoEYS), Ministry of Land Management Urban Planning and Construction (MoLMUPC), Ministry of Planning (MoP), Ministry of Rural Development (MRD), Ministry of Tourism (MoT), and the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology (MoWRaM) will be involved through inter-sectoral coordination, capacity building, communications, and stakeholder engagement. Sub-national government, in Mondulkiri province and relevant districts and communes, will be involved with project activities. Significant funding is earmarked for government agencies, especially GDANCP and Forestry Administration due to their strategic role in implementation, but other national and provincial government agencies will also be engaged.
The project will engage and invest in partnership with the above-mentioned agencies under Output 1.1 as well as the communications program of Output 1.3 all in all to broaden the willingness to act along a unified vision, significantly increase the profile of biodiversity conservation in those economic development decisions, as well as to reduce – at least in the demo landscape, the many conflicts related to the Economic Land Concession program. Agencies concerned with law enforcement such as the Police, Customs and judiciary will also be engaged in Outcome 1.2 to strengthen capacity and collaboration on national and regional illegal wildlife and timber trade issues (LEM system).
The management committees of Community Protected Area (CPA) and Community Fisheries, responsible for the areas inside the MoE mandated protected areas, and of Community Conservation Forest, inside of protected forest, are key partners in the local pilots on protected area zonation, and local development and surveillance activities (LEM). At the provincial level, the project would work closely on demonstration landscape activities with the provincial sub-committee on Forest, Biodiversity and Development, and directly with the governor’s office, and the provincial offices of MoE, FA, FiA and other key stakeholder agencies, as well as district and commune officials, and field offices/representatives of related civil society organizations.
4.3. Civil society organizations
Civil society organizations will play a significant role in providing technical inputs to project implementation under the overall coordination of MoE, based on stakeholder consultation exercises. An initial consultation took place in 2011, in which key technical capacities of international and local civil society organizations for participating in the project were identified, including potential co-financing contributions totaling a minimum of USD 3M. During the project preparation grant request (PPG) stage, there was confirmation of major co-financing from ADB, BirdLife International, UNEP, USAID, WCS, and WWF. While the activities will be led by GDANCP it is expected that in line with co-financing there will be co-management with partner organization and agencies, which responds to their background, history and technical strengths in support of key activities. Based on the enhanced cooperation and collaboration developed through the Project Preparation Phase, it is proposed that the existing NGO Alliance, including Birdlife International, Live & Learn, Wildlife Conservation Society, and World Wildlife Fund continue to strongly support implementation of CAMPAS activities, including the recruitment of a suitable Chief Technical Adviser to be based within the ‘project management unit’ (PMU). In regards to proposed organization and management of field activities it is often more efficient to link into existing co-financed activities, rather than to duplicate existing implementation structures. It is therefore expected that significant finance for on-the-ground implementation, for example for Deliverable 1.2.1, will be fed through the NGO Alliance. In addition to the co-financing of activities, some direct funding will also be required for the NGO Alliance to support the implementation of field activities by Ministry of Environment and Forestry Administration. The major areas of involvement of the partners within the NGO Alliance are presented in Table .
The demonstration landscape activities in Outcome 2 will build on existing civil society organizations’ work in the Eastern Plains Landscape, including: WCS’ work on the REDD pilot, forest communities rights and biodiversity monitoring in Seima Protected Forest; WWF work in the Mondulkiri Protected Forest and Phnom Prich Wildlife Sanctuary, including protected area law enforcement, capacity building, endangered and critically endangered species monitoring, ecosystem health monitoring, NTFP livelihood development, community forestry development, protected area management planning and implementation, and trans-boundary collaboration under the Lower Mekong Dry Forests Eco-region Action Program and with the Yok Don National Park, Vietnam as part of WWF’s tiger reintroduction efforts; BirdLife International and its partner work on large conservation landscapes in the Lower Mekong and Lomphat Wildlife Sanctuary development a management zoning plan for the sanctuary, monitoring of critically endangered species, establishment of community conservation areas, providing support to community fisheries, and working with economic land concession holders to develop management plans and to reduce impact to biodiversity.
At the regional GMS level, ADB’s Core Environment Program is an important project stakeholder, providing regional context and co-financing for actions planned in within the Eastern Plains Landscape. Regional stakeholders also include WWF, TRAFFIC, UNODC63-PATROL project and others involved in controlling illegal trans-boundary trade in wildlife and timber products.
At a national level Conservation International may contribute to ecosystem valuation and Community Conservation Agreements and Fauna & Flora International, through their partnership with the Royal University of Phnom Penh may contribute to the collection and dissemination of biodiversity status. Several other civil society organizations likely to participate in central protected area planning and policy inputs, and at the time of project implementation have relevant activities that will strengthen the project approach.
Local non-government organizations such as Live & Learn, Save Cambodia’s Wildlife, and Mlup Baitong will be involved in supporting the MoE Department of Environmental Education and Communication, with biodiversity communications and stakeholder engagement campaigns, especially in linking education to practical project activities to enhance understanding and promote positive behavior change. There will also be use of innovative tools such as branding and social marketing and increased effort to engage with a wider stakeholder base including the private sector.
Local and indigenous communities will participate in field demonstration project activities and benefit from planned investments in sustainable livelihoods, development of sustainable forest management activities at landscape level, and work on other community-based initiatives within protected areas, such Community Protected Areas (CPAs), Community Forests (CFs), and Community Fisheries (CFIs).
