Community Development and Outreach Virachey National Park’s Community Development Programme aims to optimise the park’s contribution to the welfare of local communities and to improve relations with these communities. It develops, tests and implements proactive measures which involve local communities more directly in the planning and co-management of the park. The programme is implemented by the park’s Community Development Component which currently comprises thirteen national staff and one international advisor.

The population adjacent to the park is characterised by a high percentage of local indigenous communities which particularly depend on natural resources from within the park for subsistence purposes. Community involvement and support to park management will significantly contribute to the sustainable management and protection of the park.

Working towards the goal

The Community Development Programme’s key goal is to increase community involvement and support for conservation. The three main activities [1] to achieve this goal are:

1. establishment of Community Protected Areas,
2. development and implementation of a small grants programme, and
3. community education and awareness raising.

The work undertaken by the Community Development Component during the project and the lessons learned in the process are summarized in a report titled ‘Community Development in Virachey National Park 2000-2006’.

Establishment of Community Protected Areas

Community Protected Areas are specific areas within the sustainable use zone of Virachey National Park which are managed in cooperation between local communities and the park. Local communities can use specified natural resources within the Community Protected Areas in a sustainable way for their subsistence. This will contribute to improving livelihoods of the local communities.

Four Community Protected Areas in the park and their respective regulations were formally approved by the Ministry of Environment in 2005. A fifth Community Protected Area was approved by the Ministry in June 2006. The Community Development Component and the local communities are now in the process of jointly developing management plans for the approved Community Protected Areas. The plans will essentially detail who can do what, where and when in the Community Protected Areas and will also include the permitted harvesting quantities of natural resources within the Community Protected Area by the local community. The plans are being developed in accordance with the Ministry of Environment’s draft Technical Guidelines for Community Protected Area Establishment including the principles of co-management. It is expected that the first of the management plans will be submitted to the Ministry of Environment for approval during the third quarter of 2006.

The Small Grants Programme

The Global Environment Facility has provide a grant to BPAMP to support community development activities which encourage the sustainable use and conservation of Virachey National Park’s resources, particularly those activities which are income generating and geared towards reducing poverty.

Small grants guidelines, which detail how to select, fund, implement, monitor and evaluate appropriate sub-projects for local communities and indigenous peoples in and around the park for livelihood improvement initiatives, were approved by the Ministry of Environment in 2005 and implementation of the guidelines has been underway since January 2006.

The construction of four community meeting structures have been completed to date under the Small Grants Programme (one in Veunsai District and two in Taveng District, Ratanakiri Province and one in Siem Pang District Stung Treng Province). In addition, applications for a number of further community sub-projects which can be funded by the Small Grants Programme and which have been identified by local target communities are being prepared by those communities with the park playing a facilitating role. These include the provision of agricultural tools, veterinarian training and community owned and managed guesthouses. Several applications have already been made and approved for the provision of agricultural tools and a community guesthouse and implementation of these sub-projects is expected to start in September 2006.

Small Grants Applications 1 January - 31 August 2006

Community Meeting Structure, Taveng Krom Commune – A further small grant sub-project nearing completion (June 2006)

In addition to the Small Grants Programme the park has been designing and implementing some pilot agricultural production improvement initiatives for target communities around the park to improve their food security and reduce pressure on the park’s natural resources. Demonstrations have been provided to 33 selected families (including 3 families of park protection rangers) on improved rice growing techniques, domestic fruit tree growing techniques and composting. Results from pilots of the improved rice growing techniques show that significantly more rice yield was produced than before (around 60%). It is hoped that such demonstrations will encourage more members of the local communities to adopt the improved crop growing techniques.

Community Education and Awareness Raising

The objective of this programme is to increase local community understanding and awareness about conservation in and around the park. Awareness raising activities are undertaken by the park’s Information and Education Unit.

Most of the local communities around the park have their own spoken languages which are unwritten, and because of little education they also have a very low understanding of Khmer, the national language. As such most awareness raising messages need to be given via picture drawings and the spoken word in the local language. A project artist has assisted with the development of drawings used in awareness raising activities. Training manuals have also been developed for use in schools in the Districts and Provinces around the park.

Awareness raising activities continue to provide a level of environmental education to the park’s target communities and local schools and pagodas. The Information and Education Unit proposes to develop further awareness raising materials including an environmental awareness poster in the latter part of 2006 following some current research of awareness raising materials produced by other conservation organizations. The Unit also proposes to identify and recruit some village volunteer teachers who can assist with the dissemination of environmental concepts and park issues during September 2006.

[1] Further details of the Community Development Programme and its objectives are contained in the Virachey National Park Management Plan 2003-2007 (pp 42-47).