National Protected Area System Planning

As part of its National Policy and Capacity Building activities, BPAMP initiated and is supporting a
National Protected Area System Planning process. The participatory process and resulting materials will provide conservation policy-makers, decision-makers, and other practitioners with useful tools for developing and improving management at both the individual protected area level protected area system level. The primary outputs of the process will be: a Protected Area and Biodiversity Gap Analysis and a Protected Area System Plan. Additional outputs include a number of information products and an increased capacity for staff at the national and site level to carry out effective conservation planning. Numerous national and international level policy and planning exercises provide a strong mandate for these activities.

Through the application of established methods and conventions and in the context of national conservation objectives, the Protected Area and Biodiversity Gap Analysis identifies "gaps" in the ability of Cambodia’s protected area system to represent and/or effectively conserve the country’s biological diversity and other values derived from natural systems. Measures to fill these gaps are then recommended. The Gap Analysis will serve as a primary input into the Protected Area System Plan—underscoring the importance of biodiversity in the designation and management of Cambodia’s protected areas.

The Protected Area System Plan is a strategic plan detailing the current status and context of Cambodia’s protected area system and identifying priority activities to further develop and improve the system’s ability to meet its objectives. The system plan clarifies the goals and objectives of the protected area system as a whole and details individual protected areas’ contributions to achieving these objectives. It addresses such topics as protected area system size and design, strategies for effective management, governance-related issues such as community involvement in protected area management, and strategies for achieving a greater level of protected area system financial sustainability.

A number of information products have resulted from or are being developed by the Protected Area System Planning Process. A national level conservation planning geographic information system (GIS) has been compiled which brings together numerous geospatial datasets including several original products. An aerial image database includes over 10,000 aerial images of the country’s protected areas and other landscapes.

The primary motivation for initiating a Protected Area System Planning process has been the Convention on Biological Diversity’s various programmes of work. The 7th Conference of Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (February 2004) proposed that parties elaborate action-oriented targets to improve the representativeness and effectiveness of their protected area systems. On a national level, Ashwell’s ‘Cambodia: A National Biodiversity Prospectus’ details the need for and benefits of a system plan. Cambodia’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan reinforces this recommendation with specific action steps including reviewing the effectiveness of the existing system to secure key biodiversity sites. The recent Independent Forest Sector Review and Protected Area and Development Review both highlight the need for relevant government agencies to clarify protected area objectives and identify clear strategies for meeting those objectives.