Transboundary Cooperation
BPAMP is supporting the Ministry of Environment with
the establishment of a transboundary cooperation agreement with
Lao PDR and Vietnam for the Virachey - Dong Am Pham – Chu
Mom Ray Protected Area Complex. This initiative has been supported
by the Cambodian Council of Ministers.
As the first step towards developing a formal agreement,
the project facilitated the drafting of country positions on transboundary
cooperation for Cambodia, Lao P.D.R. and Vietnam. In November 2006,
BPAMP organised a tri-country meeting which drafted a Memorandum
of Agreement on Strengthening the Transboundary Collaboration in
the Establishment of the Protected Area Complex.
Cambodia’s vision is to strengthen collaboration
with Lao PDR and Vietnam to create an area of great beauty and inspiration
for the benefit of our people and the world at large. The aim will
be to conserve and sustainably manage the natural and cultural resources
of the Virachey - Dong Am Pham - Chu Mom Ray Protected Area Complex
in partnership with the governments of Lao PDR and Vietnam, the
local communities that surround the complex and other stakeholders
for the benefit of the nations, ecologically, economically and politically.
Transboundary cooperation will contribute to poverty
reduction by delivering significant benefits to the three nations
and the marginalised communities of these border regions.
Equally important, Cambodia believes this transboundary
collaboration, small as it may be in a regional perspective, will
contribute to increasing the speed of integration of conservation
and sustainable development into the Association of South East Asian
Nations as central to the sustained progress in the region and international
recognition as a responsible group of nations.
In addition, several international and national treaties,
agreements and other formal cooperation protocols guide Cambodia’s
thinking and actions in conceptualising the establishment of a collaborative
management regime in the Virachey - Dong Am Pham - Chu Mom Ray Protected
Area Complex.
- United Nations Rio Declaration on Environment
and Development (1982)
- World Summit on Sustainable Development (2002)
- The 5th World Parks Congress (2003)
- Convention on Biological Diversity and decision VII/28 on protected
areas (2004)
- ASEAN Declaration on Heritage Parks and Reserve (1984)
- Regional Biodiversity Conservation Forum (Vietnam 2001)
- Platform for Cooperation between Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam
(2001)
| The proposed objectives of the Virachey - Dong
Am Pham - Chu Mom Ray Protected Area Complex are to: |
- strengthen tri-nation collaboration among the Parties
which will establish an effective and efficient natural
resource management in the Transboundary Protected Area
Complex,
- encourage political, economic and social partnerships
amongst the representatives of the Parties, the private
sector, local communities and non-governmental organisations,
- jointly plan and prepare the application to UNESCO for
the listing and proclamation of the Virachey - Dong Am Pham
- Chu Mom Ray World Heritage Site,
- integrate environmental management, management procedures
and legal processes across international boundaries and
in doing so strive to remove the obstacles and barriers
these boundaries create for successful natural resource
management,
- develop strategies and approaches that target environmental
crimes such as illegal logging, poaching, illegal mining,
unlawful developments, etc.,
- ensure the economic potential of the area is utilised
by empowering the local communities through appropriate
development frameworks, strategies and work plans that focus
on the comparative advantages of the Transboundary Protected
Area Complex,
- develop trans-border ecotourism as a primary means of
providing benefits for the local communities who act as
the first interface between the Transboundary Protected
Area and the ideals of the Parties in conserving the biodiversity
of the Virachey - Dong Am Pham - Chu Mom Ray ecosystem,
- develop local community capacity so that communities can
participate in all aspects of the management of the Protected
Area Complex in a dignified and productive manner, and
- establish mechanisms to facilitate and monitor the exchange
of technical, scientific and legal information for the joint
management of this ecosystem and where such knowledge may
have a potential meaningful contribution for conservation
elsewhere in the region and the world at large.
|
The Asian Development Bank Greater Mekong
Subregion Biodiversity Conservation Corridors Initiative also
recognises the
tri-border forests of the Virachey - Dong Am Pham - Chu
Mom Ray Protected Area Complex as one of the biodiversity
conservation landscapes included in the initiative.
The Asian Development Bank writes: straddling the borders
of Cambodia, Lao, and Vietnam, this biodiversity conservation
landscape represents the Southeastern Indochina Dry Evergreen
Forest and a smaller extent of the Central Indochina Dry Forest
ecoregion. This landscape is also a major catchment area for
the Sekong and Sesan, two major tributaries to the Mekong
River and the second largest watershed in the Mekong drainage. |
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