National forest products statistics, Cambodia

Introduction

Cambodia lies between 10°-15° North and 102°-108° East and shares borders with Thailand, Lao PDR, and Viet Nam. The country has a total area of 181 248 km² and is divided into 21 provinces. There are 3 major towns, Keb and Sihanoukville and the capital city, Phnom Penh.

In 1998, Cambodia’s population was estimated at 11.5 million with an annual growth rate of about 2.8 percent. The population is concentrated in the central plain (318 persons/ km²) with lower densities in the coastal (60 persons/ km²) and upland regions (as low as 1 person/km²). Eighty-five percent of the Cambodian people depend on agriculture and wood and non-wood forest products for their subsistence.

The climate of Cambodia is classified as humid tropical with alternating, distinct wet and dry seasons, which are most pronounced in the central plains. The southwest rainy season lasts from May to October and is followed by a dry period from November to April. Average annual rainfall ranges between 1000 and 2500 mm and average annual temperature from 25°C in late December to 29°C in early May. Humidity increases from 65-70 percent in early part of the year to 85-90 percent in August and September.

Forests are a natural source of wealth and, managed wisely, can continue to provide for the next and future generations of Cambodians, both at the local level and in terms of Government revenues for rehabilitation and development.

In the 1960s, Cambodia's forest cover was approximately 13.2 million ha, or 73 percent of total land area. Forests form a major part of the natural resource base and the importance of sustainable forest management has been the subject of much recent discussion given that many countries in the region have lost a large proportions of their productive forests in recent decades.

Until 1970, the forests of Cambodia were managed in a way that caused little impact to the overall forest ecosystem. The country was divided into a system of forest reserves with management designed to be conservatively sustainable. There was a fledgling timber industry and strong institutional controls by way of a District Forester and District System.

The outbreak of fighting in 1970 curtailed forest industry development, forced closure of local industry and prevented access to forests. Over the following twenty years, forests were only used for provision of fuelwood and building timber for local communities. Shifting cultivation in the northeast of the country had some impact on the forests but these were minimal. However, as the country emerged from the unstable political conditions of the 1970s and 1980s, increased timber demand led to a proliferation of timber extraction that rapidly reached unsustainable levels. The increases in timber production have also exceeded the forest management capacity, both physical and institutional, to regulate production and maintain sustainability of forest resource use. The seriousness of the problems has motivated the government to work with international development institutions (FAO, IMF, UNDP, WB) to develop solutions.

The current forest resource base

The forest cover of Cambodia includes evergreen, semi-evergreen, deciduous, swamp, mangrove and bamboo forest in various conditions from closed to disturbed and mosaic formations. There are also regrowth and plantation forests as well as open forest types including evergreen shrub land and dry deciduous shrub land (Table 1).

Table 1. Forest cover by forest type, 1997

Source: GIS & RS Unit, DFW

Based on the pre-1970 inventory data of IREF/USAID, forest cover was estimated at 13 227 100 ha, or 73 percent of the total land area. In more recent years, estimates of remaining forest area from various organisations have varied greatly. However, a trend of rapid forest resource depletion is clear, with forest cover estimated from satellite imagery to be as low as 10 535 763 ha or 58 percent of total land area (GIS Unit, DFW, 1996-97).

An FAO forest inventory, currently underway, will provide data on wood volumes within the aforementioned forest types. Estimates indicate that commercial management is only feasible within less than 4 million ha of the total forest area of which about 33 percent (3.3 million ha) has been ‘set-aside’ in protected areas.

Although there is no precise data on the area of forest remaining at present, between 1970 and 1997, approximately 2 million ha of forest cover were removed. Analysis of land use data from 1970, 1992/93 and 1996/97 shows that the annual rate of change in forest cover moderated after 1993 as shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Forest cover and annual change, 1970-1997

¹ Forest growing in costal or flooded area (e.g. mangroves). Source: GIS & RS Unit, DFW

The forests of Cambodia have been and are being transformed to other land uses, and much of the remaining forest has been disturbed. The causes of forest degradation include effects resulting from the combination of poverty, population pressure, forestry policy failure and weaknesses in rural development; they include agricultural expansion, shifting cultivation and increased demands for fuelwood and construction wood. However, the main factors constraining management and implementation in the forestry sector are associated with uncertainty over forestland management and utilisation. These factors include forest clearing for land ownership, illegal occupation of forestlands and ‘land grabbing’ for commercial purposes. Organised collusion in illegal logging is also an impediment, especially with respect to removal of timber in excess of sustainable cut.

Although forest resource information required for operational planning purposes is limited, maps and databases are sufficiently well developed for strategic planning purposes. Forest inventories necessary for commercial management have only been produced for a few areas and little is known about the condition or current level of utilisation of remnant and degraded deciduous forest. However, there have been various estimates of medium term levels of sustainable production from the Cambodian forest estate.

Over the past five years, the Government has made numerous attempts to stop illegal logging and log export, but none have been successfully implemented. Recent efforts involving the international community have made some progress towards improving the situation and recent reports by the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) claim significant progress in reducing the rate of illegal logging. Logging controls implemented by the RGC include a requirement for concessionaires to carry out inventories and determine the sustainable annual allowable cut (AAC). However, due to the questionable reliability of initial inventories and the lack of monitoring of illegal logging AACs may often be incorrectly set. The actual inventory figures are probably significantly lower than the estimates used, and calculated AACs are therefore almost certainly above sustainable levels.

Forest concessions

To the extent that timber harvesting took place in a legal and controlled manner before the early 1990s, it did so under a system of collection permits and log quotas that originated in French colonial times. Since then The Royal Government of Cambodia has promoted foreign investment in the forestry sector and has introduced private industrial forest concessions as the main instrument of commercial forest management. Investors were required to enter into Investment and Timber License agreements with the RGC, which warranted capital investment in sawmills and veneer and furniture manufacturing plants. They also required agreed numbers of employees and the transfer of technology and knowledge. In return investors gained exclusive rights to logging concessions at agreed royalty and tax rates. However, instead of creating a clear legal context for the concession system, the government simply superimposed it on the existing permit system.

The first concession was granted in 1994, and over the following three years, 33 concessions were established totalling almost seven million hectares. Based on 1997 DFW data, forest concessions covered 41 percent of total land area, with protected areas at 31 percent and unallocated forestland 28 percent. Concessions range in size from 55 000 to 1 400 000 ha and together cover 6 581 641 ha or 62.3 percent of 1993 forest cover. The entire process of delineation of concessions and negotiation of their terms was done without any reliable resource assessment. In the absence of this information, many concessionaires invested heavily in veneer plants. As a substantial proportion of the forests contain large quantities of dipterocarps, usually unsuitable for veneer production, most concessionaires do not consider these forest types operable and do not invest in their protection and development. These forests do, however, remain attractive to illegal loggers.

DFW stipulated that, as of 1 January 2002 cutting permits would not be issued until completion of 100 percent inventories in the next annual coupe and 1-5 percent intensity inventories for the five subsequent annual coupes. Each concession company was also required to complete and submit a New Master Plan and an environmental and social impact assessment to the DFW, to ensure the sustainability of forest management planning. In 2001, following the cancellation of the concessions of 11 companies (16 concession areas) with 2 437 970 ha, concessions were held by only 17 companies (24 concession areas) with a combined forest area of 4 362 729 ha.

Weaknesses and constraints in the forest products statistical system

The main weakness and constraints in Cambodia’s forestry statistical system include: (i) poor institutional linkages, which impede data sharing, (ii) a lack of information technology with which to manage data, (iii) a lack of institutional capacity, (iv) difficulties with law enforcement, (v) an inappropriate forestry administrative structure, (vi) low effectiveness, (vii) a lack of transparency and (viii) the predominance of short-term planning.

Commercial timber and wood consumption

Timber is now considered to be the most valuable forest product, especially in terms of provision of foreign currency to the government. Within the country, large quantities of timber are used for construction of wooden houses and also for manufacture of furniture, bridges, wagons, and sleepers and in the construction of concrete building. National log production increased dramatically following government elections in 1993 and by the end of 1996, log export bans and linkages between log production and processing has been installed by the government to help regulate forest sector development.

Since 1997, Cambodia ceased to export round logs and crudely sawn timber, however, the export of processed forest products and some non-wood forest products, such as rattan, charcoal and bamboo, has remained.

Currently, most governmental and international agency representatives agree that the sustainable timber utilisation is of great important to the economic development of Cambodia. Reductions in log production are also important for bio-diversity conservation and wildlife protection. Cambodia’s support of this policy is shown by the falling log production between 1996-2001 (Table 3).

Table 3. Production of forest products, 1996-2001

1- either (i) illegal logs intercepted by DFW or (ii) old logs collected under quota issued by Office of the Council of Ministers (quotas were suspended in 1998). Source: FMO, DFW, 2001.

Table 4. Wood processing installations, 2001

Source: FMO, DFW, 2001. 1. Forest Concessionaires own four major sawmills, 2. Many of these mills will become Industrial Timber Processing Complexes, where both sawing and further processing (e.g. furniture production) will take place.

The export of processed forest products also decreased in the years preceding 2001 (Table 5). The dominance of veneer (56 percent of exports) and plywood (33 percent of export) in 2001 reflects recent high demand for these products.

Table 5. Forest product exports by product type, 1993-2001

Source: FMO, DFW, 2001.

Figure 1. Forest products export by product type, 1993-2001.

Markets for Cambodian forest products

Markets for Cambodian forest products do not show great stability (Table 6, Figure 2 and Figure 3). They may vary according to free market trends or political decision of the RGC based on investment policy. In 1999, Hong Kong was the largest importer of forest products with a total figure of approximately 39,100 m³ or 42 percent of all processed forest products exported. In 2000 and 2001, the largest importer was China followed by Taiwan.

Table 6. Forest product exports by product type and recipient country, 1999-2001.

Source: KAMFOREXIM, DFW 2001

Figure 2. Forest product exports by recipient country, 1999-2001

Figure 3. Export quantities of forest products 1999-2001.

Conclusions

The collection of quantitative information on the production and trade of forest products in Cambodia has been limited over the last decade. However, the situation is expected to improve annually through the Government’s forest reform policy and various forest management and conservation studies.

References

Department of Forestry and Wildlife (1999, 2000, and 2000) Annual report from KAMFOREXIM.

Forest Management Office Annual Report (2000-2001).

National Institute of Statistics (1999) Report on the Cambodian Socio-Economic Survey. National Institute of Statistics, Ministry of Planning, Phnom Penh.

Papers of Forest Management Office, Department of Forestry and Wildlife. 2000-2001.

Department of Forestry and Wildlife (2001) Biodiversity conservation guideline for forest concessions.

Sustainable Forest Management Project (2000) (TA-3152-CAM).