women & env.

CARDAMOM MOUNTAINS WILDLIFE SANCTUARIES PROJECT

WOMEN AND ENVIRONMENT

Opportunities, Mainstreaming and New Initiatives

By Karen Lawrence Phd. Tim Savann, Soun Sophary

March 2004

CARDAMOM MOUNTAIN WILDLIFE SANCTUARIES PROJECT (CMWSP)

CONTENTS

WOMEN AND ENVIRONMENT - OPPORTUNITIES 2

PURPOSE 2 OBJECTIVES 2 METHOD 2 RESULTS 2 FIELD VISIT 5 WORKSHOP RESULTS 7 1. WVA ACTIVITIES 8 2. GENDER AWARENESS 9 3. MAINSTREAMING GENDER INTO COMMUNITY/LIVELIHOOD ACTIVITIES 11 4. WHAT NEXT 14

WOMEN AND ENVIRONMENT - CHECKLIST 18

KEY PRINCIPLES 20 GENERAL SOCIO-ECONOMIC RESEARCH ACTIVITIES 20 GENERAL SOCIO-ECONOMIC RESEARCH ACTIVITIES 21 PARTICIPATORY PLANNING IN PROTECTED AREAS. 22

WOMEN IN THE ENVIRONMENT – AN ADJUSTMENT 24

THE RATIONAL FOR ADJUSTMENT 24 CARDAMOM MOUNTAIN WILDLIFE SANCTUARIES 24 OUR GOAL 25 OBJECTIVES 25 ACTIVITIES 26 REPORTING OUTPUTS 27 LOCAL PARTNERS 29 MONITORING & EVALUATION 29

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WOMEN AND ENVIRONMENT - OPPORTUNITIES

Purpose To mainstream the objectives of the women and environment project into implementation activities of the Community and Environment team in the Wildlife Sanctuaries (Phnom Samkos and Phnom Aural).

Objectives 1. To assess the activities of Women’s and Veteran’s Affairs, Pursat office for

their relevance to the Central Cardamoms Wildlife Sanctuaries Project. 2. To incorporate gender analysis into Community Environment activities with an

emphasis on women and the environment. 3. Build the capacity of community livelihood team members to assess how

gender issues fit into existing project activities and how they can be mainstreamed within each of the Sanctuaries.

Method The following activities took place during a three day visit to Pursat and Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary. Date Person, place Activity 15th June: Director Em Ponna

WVA, Pursat Office Meeting to discuss the various activities facilitated by the Pursat office.

Visit to the house of a group leader based just outside Pursat

We saw a permaculture farm plot, food processing activities and wood collected for a natural dye project.

16th June: WVA Veal Veng district; Dei Kraham, Anleang Commune, Pramaoy.

We met representatives of two project groups, banana growers and red corn producers.

17th June WVA vocational training centre, Pursat

We were shown various training activities held by the centre to support the skill capacity of young women and some young men.

DoE office, Pursat Assessment of WVA activities. Review of gender awareness

18th June: DoE office, Pursat Mainstreaming gender into community/livelihood activities

Results The Director, Em Ponna of Women’s and Veteran’s Affairs, Pursat office provided us with several project reports on permaculture, market research and food processing activities facilitated by the department in Pursat. Copies of these reports are in DoE Pursat office. WVA has four projects to its programme;

1. Permaculture 2. Food processing 3. Small business support - income generation 4. Training and skills capacity building.

The permaculture project provides credit for vegetable seeds, technical training on composting, intercropping and the use of natural pesticides. We saw an example in

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a village just outside Pursat which combined the permaculture and income generation projects as surplus vegetables were being produced to market in Pursat. The example we saw had prepared the beds and composting well, but had not planned the pattern of plants adequately so that crops meant to protect vegetables from pests such as lemon grass and garlic, were planted to far away from the main vegetable beds. The WVA progress report in 2001 concludes that initial permaculture plots were not as successful as assumed and recommended that it should be combined with fruit tree gardens, especially for inaccessible rural areas. Fruit tree gardening is now another part of the permaculture project and they teach the women to prune, graft and propagate the trees, and provide training to establish a nursery. The trees grown in their system are; banana, jackfruit, mango, orange and lemon. Although they would like to offer other more marketable species like durian, mangosteen and rambutan, they lack a source of cheap seedlings. Another problem identified by the director was the lack of tenure in Veal Veng district which made the women reluctant to invest in a long term crop like fruit trees. Food processing project links the training activities with income generation. During the training the women receive a $3 DSA and the savings from this are used to buy the equipment which is simple kitchen ware. The centre then provides credit to the women and organises them into a group so they can make a small business. The two main food processing activities are banana chips and sticky rice cakes and these can be performed in the village. Other processing activities, such as crystallising ginger, making tamarind candy are done at the centre because they are more complicated. They have 18 different types of food processing training activities, which range from bottling vegetables to crystallising fruits and including making vegetable and fruit chips. The WVA offer various small business and income generation projects, often supporting the women after training with small loans. The department organises the women into support groups, offers training and then provides marketing assistance for the product. The group is loaned the credit for start up which is then paid back at harvest time. Income generation projects tend to focus on cash crops (cashew nut, coco nut, banana, red corn) and livestock raising such as cow and buffalo banks. For animal banks the women are grouped into 10 and loaned a male and female to start. The young are then shared among the members of the group and they are given credit to ensure the animals are vaccinated. They are then trained in the skills to run a small business and the WVA follows up the group every month, offering marketing assistance if needed. A key marketing strategy used by WVA is to identify those products currently supplied by Thailand or Vietnam and produce them locally. Training and skills capacity is provided for all the other projects, however there is a vocational training centre in Pursat run by WVA which seeks to build the skills of young women and more recently some young men. The centre offers 6 residential short courses such as sewing, marble and wood carving, rattan/vine mat and Kok grass mat weaving, cotton krama weaving with natural dyes, food processing and wedding make-up classes. The sewing classes are the most popular but also require the most financial support by the village or family. There are between 40 – 50 training places offered every year advertised through normal publicity channels and through NGOs. Places are open to single, married or widowed women, and no basic education level is required,

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but the minimum age is 14. They do need to pay $5 for the course and $50 for the cloth material used in the training. The courses start in March and again in September, and recruitment is a month prior to the start, those girls interested in training are recommended to the WVA director by their commune and village leaders, the WVA committee then decides whether to accept their application. Several young women apply for the sewing training but do not have the money for the materials needed, they are then offered another training course such as the mat weaving, krama weaving or wedding make up artistry. The course is residential and the girls can opt to stay in a dormitory at the back of the centre. Accommodation and food used to be free, however, the girls now pay 3,000 riel a day for food, accommodation is still offered free ($ 135.75 for food during 6 months). After training the girls either go on to get factory jobs in Phnom Penh or they apply for a small business loan and set up by themselves. A new sewing machine costs around $65 each (these are singer foot peddle machines that do not require electricity). The rattan and vine weaving is simpler than others mat making processes and can be easily woven in the village if the material is available, they just require space. The split rattan canes are bought from Leak/Kravanh and boiled in Neem tree water made from leaves or seed to whiten the rattan and protect it against insects. The liana vines (war slang) are obtained from Veal Veng district. A two meter mat sells for $8 which is more expensive than other mats but they are more durable. Director Em Ponna will be visiting Japan in August to investigate the potential export market. The nearest competitor to this type of mat are those made in Indonesia (East Kalimantan) which sell for about $10 - $131 for a similar 2m size mat. Indonesian mats the small rattan canes used are bleached with hydrogen sulphide and the mats mass produced with the half rattan canes being sown together by machine. The main markets for rattan mats are Japan, Taiwan and Southern Korea (they demand ivory white products). On the other hand the Kok grass mat weaving requires a wooden frame, these cost about $30 in 1996, but the weave comb is made out of bamboo and requires skills to manufacture it. The Kok grass is bought from Kandal province. The girls are less interested to learn how to weave the grass mats and the only place in Pursat where they can work is the centre. The dyes used are synthetic and produce vibrant designs that rival the plastic mats. However they are not as competitively priced, although cheaper than the rattan mats. The cotton weaving has two parts, one producing hand woven cloth using synthetic dyes and then making hats or bags out of them in combination with the woven kok grass or broader leaf grass weaving. Another part, supported by Deutcher Entwicklungsdienst (ded), is making natural dyes and weaving traditional kramas. The centre uses about 19 plants (one dye is an insect) which they process, which can take anything from 3 to 20 days where they boil the material, beat it and then distil the residue as dye. The raw cotton is bought, dyed, then spun and woven in the centre. Unfortunately the mark-up does not compensate the work needed to process the natural dyes, typically a natural home woven krama will cost $0,75, where as one woven using synthetic dyes costs only $0,50 – local tastes prefer the synthetic dyes which are vibrant and colour fast. Hand spun cotton cloth is a competitive market and therefore the financial sustainability of this activities is highly questionable. Similarly the sustainable harvesting of the dye sources seems in doubt. The director 1 Lawrence, K, E 1998, East Kalimantan Photo documentation of Asia Forest Network Cross visit, They Dyak Rattan Gardens. Asia Forest Network report.

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mentioned problems in obtaining enough dye material, at least ten dyes use the bark of the tree, eg 150 kg of bark for red colour is required to make 100 krama. Marble carving training is also offered in the centre. Again this is 6 months long as the students learn on wood and gradually progress to the soap stone, referred to by Khmers as marble. The material comes from Veal Veng and Leak/Kravanh (PAWS). The centre used to train young women but found they preferred less physically demanding skills, and this is now opened up to young men. Once they receive training they either get jobs in Phnom Penh, start up on their own with a small business loan from the centre or join a workshop in Pursat. We did not inquire about the wedding make-up training.

Field Visit The WVA activities in Pramaoy focus on income generation. The WVA extension officer has received two training courses in organising and marketing to support the income generation emphasis of the programme. There are projects in ten villages in Veal Veng district, five in Anleang commune, one each in Dei Kraham, Chamka Chrey kang chung & Tabong, Kandal, Anleang Reab and Krang Rongieng, and five in Pramaoy commune, two in Pramaoy village, one in Tumpur village, Chheu teal Chrum, Phchoek Chrum and Stueng themai. Banana Growing groups The women groups in Anleang commune are organised to grow banana and beans because both are easy to market. The WVA officer organised the group of women and obtained the banana seedlings which were bought locally. The seedlings are credited to the women which they then pay back through marketing the bananas through the WVA officer. We talked with the banana growing group in Dei Kraham.

The women grow upland rice which gives two months of rice for food per year, the remaining eight months they collect kaduich and potatoes from the forest around the village. (The women referred to the forest as the tree areas on the hills and not the forests around their village). The village has only recently moved to this site along the road. Two years ago 10 households of the village lived down by the river, the remaining 40 households lived at the old site. During the hungry season they also eat crabs and big water frogs. They do not go into the forest (hill forest) because it is full of leaches and is far away). The Khmer rouge used to live here in the 1980’s and they brought many fruit seeds from Thailand. There are about 20 really poor families out of 50 households. The nearest school is 7km away, but it is free. Many people fall sick with malaria but none die, when they are sick they go to the government hospital in Pramaoy. If they need to borrow money they do so from neighbours and then pay them back when they sell the bananas. The marketing is not clear and they sell to those passing by, mostly outsiders like the WVA officer. There are two outsiders that buy regularly about twice a year. Last year a women in the group harvested about 2,500 kg of dry rice on about 0,5 hectares, the bananas are intercropped with the rice. The biggest pests are pigs and rats and squirrels that destroy the young rice stems. The monkeys just come and look they don’t take the harvest. Rice can only be grown for two years after that they must open another area.

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The chamka fields are planted with a variety of vegetable crops and fruit trees, a legacy of the Khmer rouge rather than a government programme. The bananas were either grown in patches or intercropped with rice. The marketing relies on the WVA officer. Red Corn Grower Groups The women’s groups in Pramaoy commune are organised to grow red corn, although only three groups have started this year. They chose this product through a PRA activity because it is easy to plant and maintain. They will get marketing assistance from the WVA extension officer. Each women’s group (5-6 people each) was given the seed on credit, which is paid back when they sell their produce to the extension worker who has already been contacted by a trader in Pursat. Neither the women nor the extension worker knew the end product for the red corn. The women used to grow rice but decided to grow red corn instead with varying commitments for example;

Pramaoy group 1, has four women with seven hectares of chamka and plant four to red corn Pramaoy group 2, has eight women with 16 hectares of chamka and plant eight to red corn Tumpur group has ten women with 20 hectares of chamka and have eight planted to red corn.

The seed was bought from Thailand by the extension worker and one woman interviewed said that she is only planting two hectares of chamka to red corn, leaving the remaining half hectare to mixed vegetable crops, if she is able to get a good price for the corn she will plant it all next year. The red corn is similar to white and takes four months to grow and is ready to harvest in August, it is preferred because it requires less maintenance than rice. She plans to sell the corn to buy rice. The marketing aspect of red corn growing does not seem to be well thought through. In 2003 the red corn sold in Kravanh district fetched 6 cents (250 riel)/kg, but rice was 7.5 cents (300 riel)/kg to buy. The yield for corn is higher, but they do not know what it is for their area, in other places it is 6 –7 tonne/hectare. The minimum price one women wants to sell her corn is 15 cents (600 riel)/kg, but hopes to get as high as 20 cents2. We briefly visited a red corn field, the plant grows taller and is larger than the white corn variety. It was grown as a single crop. Comment: The red corn project promoted in its present form is a concern for the project ecologically because the corn is shifting women from mixed vegetable cropping to mono-cropping which will require chemical fertilizers and pesticides to maintain yields. Farmers elsewhere living in forest edge communities find corn yields are lower than expected due to rats, pigs and monkeys. However O’Som community reportedly sells their white corn to traders from Koh Kong for 37.5 cents a kilo, which is then sold to Thailand (eg during the CE team exposure report to O’Som 2004). This needs to be monitored.

2 The price of white corn grown and sold in the Philippines mainly for fodder fluctuates from 24 cents/kg to as low as 8 cents/kg, where the average price of normal rice is between 25-30 cents/kg.

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Workshop Results The Agenda

1. ACTIVITIES OF WOMENS AFFAIRS, PURSAT • Advantages and disadvantages per activity carried out by WA • Possible options offered by WA activities appropriate to conservation in

the PAs • What is required by the project and WA to actualize options

2. GENDER AWARENESS

• What is gender awareness (sharing understanding from previous workshops)

• What elements of gender awareness should be mainstreamed into project activities?

3. MAINSTREAMING GENDER INTO COMMUNITY/LIVELIHOOD ACTIVITIES

• For each type of project activity identify where the women should be ; develop a checklist.

• Clarify the objectives of the women and environment project; check whether these are met by our project activities.

• What villages need special focus on women

4. WHAT NEXT (a separate half day is needed to assist Savann and So Phary design this)

• Community/livelihood team workshops? • Community awareness? • MoE awareness? • PA staff awareness? • Organizing workshops or other activities?

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1. WVA Activities We evaluated the WVA activities we had seen over the last few days to understand which ones we felt were more appropriate in the Wildlife Sanctuaries. WVA Activity Advantage Disadvantage 1. Perma-culture – vegetables, composting

Good for the family, good for the land, food resources are near the house.

Roads are not good, difficult to market the vegetables, no market in the villages or Pramoay.

2. Fruit tree farms – nursery establishment, grafting, propagation

Can sell the fruit to get an income. Villages wont cut fruit trees, can plant vegetables under trees. Fruit good for family

No market links. People would need training on propagation. Higher value fruits are needed. Could develop Pramaoy as a training and tree nursery center.

3.Income generation – red corn production (Pramaoy commune, Tumpor village)

Good idea because women get organized and trained

Market is not clear – high risk. Women did not understand market movements. It encourages bigger farms and therefore threatens forest.

4. Income generation – banana production (Anleang Reap commune)

Grows well on the land. Can intercrop it. Provides an income for the family. Enriches the soil with organic matter.

Market not clear, links are not strong or steady.

5. Income generation – animal raising (pigs & chicken)

Good income for family. Easy to sell, easy to look after.

Pigs need to be vaccinated. If pigs are not kept properly children can get their diseases.

6. Income generation – cow bank (cows, buffalo)

Good for the farm. Expensive hard to sell if you only have 1 or 2, easier if you have many. they can be stolen

7. Income generation- food processing, banana chips, rice cakes

Cheap to buy, easy to sell locally, equipment is cheap

Needs skills training, need to buy equipment, need clean water and facilities. Income is not very big

8. Training center- sewing Good for young women Encourages out-migration if training is in Pursat

Costs about family $5 for training and $50 for materials.

9. Training center – mat weaving, Kok grass.

Good skill to have Good for family

Raw materials are not found in Pursat. Equipment is expensive

10. Training center – mat weaving rattan & vine.

Have material in pursat. no equipment needed, good skill Neem tree used to whiten and protect rattan so it is easy.

Training needed, product is expensive compared with other mats. Good quality raw materials are needed.

11. Training center – soap stone, wood carving

Good skill for disabled men. market competition for marble carving is strong.

12. Training center – krama, cloth weaving: natural dyes

Good skill Difficult to find the material 2-3 days to weave the cloth and many more days to prepare the dyes. Hard work and not paid well as krama are sold cheaply.

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After the evaluation we analysed which activity per programme we felt had the greatest potential for our project and therefore needs further discussions with the WVA director in order to see how we would support their activities. Programme Option FFI possible

contribution WVA possible contribution

Income generation

Pig and chicken banks $200 for young sow and boar, $10 for vaccination $ 5 for pair of male and female chicken

Buy the first pair to start the bank

Organise the women into groups and train them

Training center

Sewing (rattan mats may be latter) (carving for disabled men)

$75-$80 per person for training in the centre.

Provide space on training programme

Village Activity

Fruit tree farming with vegetables and composting (nursery could also propagate native tree species) Rice/potato bank, improve rice production.

Seedlings of higher value species, Equipment nursery material

Organise the women and men, train them, 50 % need to be women.

We analysed the various family units we have found in both Wildlife Sanctuaries and assessed how and why we would prioritise an intervention activity (such as income generation projects or pig/chicken bank projects). The three common family units were considered to be; women headed households (whh), families with disabled men and two able bodied adults. All of us agreed that the intervention priority should be for women headed households because they lack the labour to farm and lack the capacity to take up other livelihood opportunities. However by including women from each family type in a project group such as a pig bank, we would include them all, but whh would be the first recipients. By doing this we acknowledged that projects may have a lower socio-economic impact (whh are more likely to need to eat some of the pigs or sell them early to get cash), however this tactic would yield a higher social impact as it would lead to more stable communities, as the poorest families will be less dependant on handouts by better off families.

2. GENDER AWARENESS Both Savann and So Phary have had previous training in gender awareness so we drew out these various ideas and then considered what problems we felt women face in society and then identified those specific to rural Khmer women that we had observed during our work. During this process the meaning of gender analysis was explained as a way of assessing how different sub groups exist in a community. It was shown how these sub-groups cut across the male female divide and that good analysis enables us to seek the opinion of ethnic minority groups, elders, youth, forest product collectors and migrants, as well as those of women. The focus then turned to how they felt as women working in FFI and to understand how we could seek changes our own organisation as women working in conservation through the women and environment project. We then identified the women’s issues that the Central Cardamom Wildlife Sanctuaries Project should be able to address whilst implementing daily project activities. As a conservation orientated project and organisation we wanted to be clear what we could not claim to do as much as identify

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what could be done. As a prelude to mainstreaming gender in the project activities we drew out some clear aims that the project can achieve in order to address certain women’s issues both in the office setting and in the field. What is Gender Awareness

1. Understanding the role of women and men and equity issues 2. Women in Society 3. Women in community development 4. Understanding the reproductive importance of women and the value of women 5. Men and women working together 6. How women (and other socio-politically marginalized groups) are valued

Problems of Women in Society

• Women are not encouraged by men to do things • Men under value women’s tasks and opinions (so do women) • Women’s skills, capacity and or education level is often lower than that of men • Women have fewer opportunities in the workplace tod o well and be acknowledged. There is

a social pressure in jobs that favour the advancement of men ahead of women and that will give higher wages to men for the same work.

• Women have a low self esteem and low self confidence because they do not value themselves.

Problems Facing Rural Cambodian Women

• Over protective parents – they are afraid to let their daughters do things outside the home in case they come to harm.

• Families invest in the education of boys, but the girls stay at home to help in the house, or in the farm – it is not considered valuable to educate the girls.

• Women are afraid to participate in community activities • Women accept violence and violation as normal behaviour because many men in rural areas

resort to violence to express their anger or frustration with their wives or children or their situation.

• Women are vulnerable to being exploited sexually because they lack awareness, men lack respect and there is little support from government officials to stop it.

• Women that want easy money to buy material things are vulnerable to exploitation as they lack opportunities for alternative means of support and can get into situations where they are exploited.

Women in FFI

• FFI values women • FFI gives opportunities for women to improve their skills • Men and women are treated equally in the workplace. • BUT women still feel intimidated to participate and express their opinions because

They are afraid of being wrong They are afraid that the manager will not think they are good enough and decide to let them go In meetings they are told by their male colleagues to be quiet or shushed.

• Improving things for women in FFI Women want to be able to share their ideas without being judged by anyone that they are right or wrong They want an equal chance to talk about the work, share ideas and experiences even if they do not speak English as well as their male colleagues.

- Discussions with management should not be one by one, but the work should be discussed together as a team so that knowledge about the work can be gained equally by all and everyone has a chance to share their opinion. - Women want an equal chance to share ideas and experiences with the manager even if they lack English skills

• It would be better if FFI management assumes that everyone has an idea or experience that can contribute to the group discussion and not just rely on one person.

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How can the Central Cardamom’s Wildlife Sanctuary Project Address Women’s Issues • Encourage women to actively participate in project activities • Value the opinion of women during meetings and support them if they are cut down by men • Increase the skill of women in the villages, either by training or capacity building through

participating in committees and other activities. • Give women opportunities to show what they know and be acknowledged by the community

for having valuable skills • Increase the self esteem and self confidence of women by encouraging their efforts and

activities. • Ensure women actively participate in community activities, meetings and decision making • Develop income generation projects with women so they can become more financially

independent. The Project Can Aim to:

• Increase the value of women to the community • Encourage men and women to work together for the good of the community

and conservation activities. • Increase the number of women involved in community development activities • Ensure women are given equal opportunities to participate in project activities

and increase their skills, income and confidence. • Improve the participation of women in rural society through their involvement

in project activities.

3. MAINSTREAMING GENDER INTO COMMUNITY/LIVELIHOOD ACTIVITIES This was an initial activities that would be valuable to repeat with other members of the Community and Environment team, as well as other project staff. ACTIVITY WHERE ARE THE WOMEN CHECK LIST 1. Socio-economic surveys

About 50 % women were surveyed in Aural and about 60 % of women in Samkos

Number of women headed households (WHH),

poverty level of villages, differences between the

activities of men and women in 24 hrs and 12 months.

2. Meetings – village leaders 3. Meetings – commune leaders

Ask for women's participation in meetings, including leaders and older women Ensure there is a snack to occupy the children so they are not distracting to the mothers.

Number and names of women leaders

Number of times the facilitator asked women for there opinion?

Which women asked questions of the facilitator and what questions were asked.

Number of women that seemed too afraid to speak up.

4. Interviews Listen and collect the stories of women (and other socio-politically marginal groups in the community). They tend to be an honest account of what is going on in the village

Document the stories Collect them in a report

5. Field surveys Ask the community to women forest guides, but first tell them that there

50 % of guides are women

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will be food provided during the activity.

6. PLUP Project facilitation team Have 1 or 2 women in each

facilitation team Number of women in teams

Activities in villages • Inform and meet

leaders from the village, commune and district

See above Ban the participation of drunk people who can be disruptive.

• Make appointment with the people and meet them

Not just the VDC, include representatives of women, youth, elders and forest users.

Names of those attending meeting

• Interviews Talk with representatives from marginal groups in villages, whh, Disabled hh, forest resource collectors

Calendar of activities for the year

Needs assessment of each sub group in the village

• Sketch mapping When mapping together – women are offered the drawing pens, asked to verify what has been drawn. Women map separately their resources – no men allowed Food is provided after sessions so the women can participate and not worry about finding food for their children.

Note the changes made or information confirmed by women.

Separate resource lists for women;

hungry season (animals and plants), resources sold, everyday food resources, medicinal plant resources for women, own use resources.

Women’s symbols drawn on a map showing where important resources (hungry season & resources sold) are

• Sustainable resource use and harvesting discussions

Separate meetings for men and women. Discuss resource harvesting problems, causes of resource degradation and solicit their ideas for possible solutions

Ask the length of the hungry season.

Women’s resources where harvesting can be improved, list of forest resources that they market, costs and problems (mushroom, resin, rattan, cardamom, forest fruits, vines, medicine).

Acknowledgement of unsustainable practices and suggested solutions; eg. bird egg collection, hunting, accidental animal killing, reasons for fire, logging

• Forest/land use zoning

Meeting together with men but women are encouraged to participate

Ideas of women Rules suggested by women

• Verification of maps and plans

Go with women to verify in the field things the women have identified on their maps, or in interviews.

50 % of field guides are women

• Planning; community development, and forest management plans; income generation, food security

Women to make plans about their resources in the community forest management plans. Facilitate separate plans with the women that increase food security; rice/potato bank, pig/chicken banks

Plans include activities to increase or protect women's resources

Names of those interested to

participate in group.

Women’s needs in the village

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are known • Field surveys;

GPS, and impact assessments

Include women as guides Properly train female team members in GPS,

Names of guides 1 day training for women

staff. • Organizing CPA

committee 50 % of women on mixed committees. All women committees to manage food banks (rice, potato, chicken, pigs)

Names of elected committee officials.

Names of women committee members and organizational rules.

• Implement forest management and food security/income generation plans

Women to report on their activities. Child care is to be organised or food given as compensation to ensure women’s participation. In each WS at least one rice bank, pig bank, poultry bank, potato bank or fish bank operated by women.

Number of Whh participating in an intervention project

Monitor decreases in the number of months for the hungry season where projects are being implemented and where they are not

• Monitor and evaluate progress

Separate evaluation by women in the villages

Values identified by women Opinions on where they feel

the project can improve. Women in the Environment Proposal We then assessed the women and environment project objectives to see whether they would be achieved by the project activities identified above. Women & Environment Project Objective

Project activity that achieves the new objective

What more can be done

1. Researching women’s issues and assessing the impact of conservation

• Separate meetings for resource mapping

• Women’s management issues and solutions are identified.

• Female leadership capacity is developed.

Village surveys that identify whh and interviews allow women to share their situation. Resource mapping is facilitated for women and men in separate sessions. Women and men discuss resource problems and solutions separately first. Women are elected to be 50 % of the members of resource use committees, there are separate committees for women’s groups to increase food security

Food security groups (pig or rice banks) are set up in villages that have a high number of whh.

2. Empowering local women in natural resource management

• Increase plant propagation skills

• Increase sustainable harvesting practices

• Improve market links for NTFPs that women sell

Developing and implementing plans with women (50%). Women are trained to propagate trees and manage nurseries Women replant kaduich and forest potatoes to regenerate hungry season forest resources. Support cardamom management, collection and marketing in O’Som

Work with WVA to train women and set up a nursery Train women and men to prevent and fight fires Support women manage/market cardamom in O’Som and other areas, and extend to rattan collection, processing and harvesting

3.Encouraging women to work as conservationists.

• Employees of FFI • Interns • On-the job training of

women

Hold an awareness workshop for all project staff (Amanda, Hing Phiranich) PLUP, resource sketch map facilitation, (want animal raising skills)

Start a Khmer women in conservation network to share experiences (1/4ly meetings). Have a separate days training with the women for GPS use and practice.

It was acknowledged that although Matt and Richard had made special efforts to ensure Savann and So Phary understood GPS during the PLUP, there simply was not enough time to practice using it and be confident. Both felt that because they

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were not as quick to pick up the technology as their male colleagues, they would value a session together first to catch up with the men.

4. WHAT NEXT Prioritising Participatory Planning Leading to Food Security Projects For Women. The following villages were identified has being possible priorities to support women through special projects. Further discussions are required with male colleagues before decisions are made, but this was an opportunity to bring down the ideas we had been discussing to an actual village. Wildlife sanctuary Commune, Village Why this village was chosen. PSWS Dei Kraham, Anleang

Reap commune Known to be favoured by the group.

Stueng Thmai, Pramaoy commune

30 out 100 house holds are headed by women. Land is good for agriculture and it is far from Pramoay.

PAWS Samraong, Char-en commune

Out of 59 hh, about 20 are headed by women. They have a 12 month hungry season

Ngoy, Tuek Kbaal commune

Out of 19 hh, about 17 are headed by women. They have been excluded from a DoE community forest project.

A workshop with project staff needs to prioritise the villages and identify those places where women’s groups have been started or can start or where they feel women focused activities are needed (eg high number of women headed households). Recommendations Gender Awareness in the Environment Workshops Savann and So Phary are interested to design a workshop to mainstream women into project activities, and another half day can be scheduled next week for this. Other possible workshops could be;

• FFI staff • MoE and DoE staff • Communities • Commune Councils • District Government, Police, Military

They will need assistance to design the workshop which could be designed with Save Cambodia’s Wildlife and link to the environmental awareness programme. It would be valuable to link the design of these workshops with a “women in conservation network” both for staff and for women in the villages. I would suggest offering Hing Phiranich an internship for this summer so that she can assist in the design of this workshop and assist the project in other ways. It would be valuable for MoE if the internship were linked through the Community Protected Area office and assist FFI encourage more women into MoE and the environment. The following points should be considered in an awareness workshop design:

Gender perceptions: what the group understands by gender, women in Cambodian society, Women in the Wildlife Sanctuaries (different family models present and sub groups in communities).

How gender influences Natural Resource Use: Roles and responsibilities identification

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Impacts of access to and control of resources Differences in knowledge and practices Public participation in decision-making

Impacts of Environmental Degradation on Women and Men: Time and energy for tasks High exposure to indoor pollutants (cooking soot) Food insecurity Increased health risks from chemical pesticides

Creating Gender Responsive Project Activities Separating information collection and analysis Designing questions for women and men, Separate activities for men and women Women’s involvement in decision making Information accessible to women Identifying women’s skills Increasing financial independence Identifying well-being indicators

Activities on the Ground; Prioritising Villages in both Wildlife Sanctuaries

Women and Veterans Affairs The director is very dynamic and aware of the various stages of livelihood development. However, they lack an understanding of what the environmental impact of their activities could be as well as what sustainable harvesting means in practical terms. Increasing the awareness of their staff working in Veal Veng district and perhaps re-training some of them needs to be considered by the project. Mainstreaming the conservation into WVA by building the capacity of their local staff would increase the sustainability of project livelihood interventions beyond the lifespan of project funding. Further discussion is required with the director regarding our findings and the recommendations discussed below. Participatory Planning Linked to Intervention Identification The participatory planning process has been designed to be gender sensitive, and to ensure that women have an equal opportunity to share their knowledge, use pens to draw symbols on maps, categorise their resources in terms of their importance to them and to express their opinions about the causes of resource use problems in their area and to suggest possible solutions. In both areas where this has been facilitated it was the first time that women had an opportunity to use pens and participate in an activity as “important” as this. There was a noticeable increase in confidence and capacity to express opinions in public during the series of activities. It is suggested that all intervention activities and training are linked to participatory planning. The resulting maps could also result in a means for communities to obtain tenure agreements from MoE that will support long term interventions like fruit tree-spice gardens, rare tree gardening and permanent cropping of chamkas. The WVA director identified a lack of tenure security as a limiting factor in their fruit tree and vegetable home gardens. Informal Training An aspect not covered by the WVA programme is women’s literacy although they do not make this a requirement for participation in any of their projects or training.

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However to ensure genuine participation in many projects for income generation the women will have an advantage if they have basic literacy and numeracy skills. There is an existing informal education system that can be tapped to provide this support and increase women’s basic skills. This system could link to organised women’s groups who practice their basic skills in the supportive context of being member of a rice bank or tree nursery group. Short Term Interventions There are various short term intervention options available by linking through WVA, we suggest to focus on three key ones for now; rice and potatoe banks, pig-chicken banks, and sewing training (and carving). The other options presented are more long and medium term (such as nursery training for cardamom marketing, fruit-spice gardening, and rattan mat making). These short term interventions link indirectly to conservation. Rice and potatoe banks ensure women have enough food through the hungry season, plant more potatoes in their chamka or closer to their houses and therefore spend less time looking for food. The pig and chicken banks serve two purposes, one they provide protein to the family during the hungry season and second they generate income for the women. Both of these activities redirect time and energy from collecting in the forest to working on the farms or near the house. This reduces the number of time women take the dogs into the forest and therefore reduces the frequency that the dogs kill forest tortoises and lizards. Providing financial support, say $1000/year for eight young women to learn to sew in Pursat and a couple of disabled men to learn to carve is a very clear benefit with a six month output. It assists conservation because the women and men are more likely to get jobs after training that are outside the Wildlife Sanctuary, thus encouraging out migration. This option is more available to Phnom Samkos than Aural because the WVA Kampong Spue does not have the same programme, however, there is a training centre in Krakor district. Fruit tree-Spice gardening This would seek to adapt the WVA fruit tree gardens which focus on commercial species and vegetables. The species composition of fruit-spice gardens could mirror the complexity of the Dyak forest gardens found in East Kalimantan, but mix commercial species with traditional ones as well as introduce higher quality sweet potato varieties. There are about nine spices (including cardamom) and about 30 fruit trees that would be suitable to grow in fruit-spice gardens in the PSWS area. Future adaptations may include rattan (small clump calamus sp. Which matures in 6-8 years) and rare and endangered species such as Beng (Afzelia xylocarpa (Kurz) Craib), Thnong (Ptercarpus cambodianus Pierre), Neang nuon (Dalbergia bariensis Pierre) and Chan krasna (Aquilaria crassna Pierre). The purpose of these gardens would be to; Increase propagation, harvesting, management and marketing skills of women

Stablise chamka fields Increase nutrition, food security Provide cash crops (spices) and food processing opportunities Increase the agricultural biodiversity Develop tree maintenance and plant propagation skills

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These gardens would provide suitable canopy cover, soil moisture and shade conditions to plant the rare and endangered species, 10 out of 243 are listed in community resource lists from Phnom Aural. The WVA Pramaoy district, with DNCP may be interested to support a central nursery training centre focusing on various propagation techniques, nursery set up, and rare tree seedling production. Cardamom Marketing The only NTFP which has a market development potential at this moment is cardamom. It has a short harvesting cycle of between 2-3 years and therefore is an ideal plant for communities to learn how to manage sustainably. The only area with a culture of collection, management and marketing is O’Som, however there is no reason to indicate why learnings from this area cannot be extended into other villages in PSWS. As part of the women and environment project it would be helpful to analyse how the O’Som project is working with women both in its planning and implementation activities so that improvements can be made if needed, but insights can be drawn out for other villages in PSWS. A partnership with the WVA could assist with market development and packaging aspects of the cardamom market, currently cardamom is sold by Sensei (Siem reap) in silk sacks as an infusion and in copper tins mixed with black tea (bamboo and rattan cases are used to package other products but could be made locally to package other products). Other cardamom flavoured products may be worth investigating with the assistance of the WVA.

3 Cambodia Tree Seed Project/Danida 2001, National Priority tree Species Workshop Phnom Penh, 15-16 August 2000.

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WOMEN AND ENVIRONMENT - CHECKLIST How local residents live and work the environment is important. When they live inside a protected area or wildlife sanctuary the livelihood and subsistence activities of local people can make a big difference to how well the environment is managed. There are more women living in Phnom Aural and Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuaries than men yet men are still the main decision makers in the Village Development Councils and in the Communes. In order to get a full picture of how the whole community uses its environment, what it wants to change and how people plan to make those changes happen so that there is still a healthy and good environment to live in, we have to remember to include women as active participants. Getting women to actively participate is not always easy. Women living in rural areas have less opportunity to learn skills often because a family will invest in educating the boys because they will assume women will just get married and live elsewhere. In general rural society gives the impression that girls are less valuable to a family than a boys. When women have less skills and feel they are less valuable than men, they have low self-esteem and lack confidence. Women are often too shy to share their ideas in case they are wrong or people will think they are stupid. These factors mean that women are less likely to present their ideas in public, and more likely to let men make decisions for them or just agree to what men suggest and decide. When we are engaging with communities and asking for their participation in our activities we must be aware of these factors. It is import for our project for women to participate because Women and men do not use the environment in the same way, often they use different resources and visit different parts of the forest or river to do their own activities. We need to find out how differently women and men value the natural resources, and use them. We also need to know what women know about their resources, what resources are important for the well being of women and the family, how they explain connections in the environment and their ideas about to manage resources better. Women are not the only group in a community that can be left out of decision making. Old people may be deaf, blind, or just slower than others and they are left out of decisions or meetings because the activity is too fast for them or goes on too long and they get too tired. Young people may be excluded because they are not considered to have enough experience and their opinions are therefore considered less valuable than others. Ethnic minorities may be excluded because they are considered backwards, uneducated and their opinions are less valued. People that collect forest products may be excluded because they are considered uneducated, or too poor or too dirty or they may not be present when decisions are being made because they are out in the forest. Gender analysis is understanding how different types of people in a community are excluded from decision making and participating in projects. Many women are accidentally excluded from participating in projects because they are busy with child care or finding food for their family and no provision is made to support them. This is definitely the case when women head their household as they have no one to share other tasks with and must work on the farm and in the house on their own. Women headed households are common in communities in both Phnom Samkos and Phnom Aural as many men were killed during the civil war or

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have simply found another wife, leaving their first wife to bring up the children on her own. Villages that have many women headed houses holds tend to be economically poorer than those with more men because the women have less skills and therefore less capacity to engage in livelihood or income generation activities. Similarly families whose men are disabled or missing a limb may be less able to take up livelihood opportunities and maybe economically poorer. Women with these types of families may not be able to participate in activities or accept training opportunities because they are already over worked and too worried about finding enough food for their family. Small projects can be designed to make the life of women much easier. Women can be organised into small groups to manage a rice – potatoe bank which allows women to borrow rice or potatoes when they need to and pay it back (plus a small interest) at harvest. To increase household incomes women can be organised into animal raising groups, which look after a sow and boar or a pair of chickens so that all the group can benefit by receiving animals to raise and sell, but they can also eat them. These types of activities may not link directly to helping conservation but it means that women may need to go less far into the forest to collect potatoes, hunt less animals to feed the family during the hungry season and may not need to be involved in illegal log transportation. By training a group of women to manage this kind of project they learn new skills, gain confidence and depend less on forest resources. If we are going to make a difference to these women and their families we may need to change the way we implement activities or support training so they can also benefit. If we can provide real opportunities to these women then we will reduce the burden on other wealthier members of the community that help out these families during crisis and ensure the community is socially more stable. Communities that are more socio-economically stable are more able to use resources sustainably in a planned way because they experience less crisis. This can help protect and conserve biodiversity If we are going to protect biodiversity and conserve the environment we need to engage with all members of the community. Women are often more concerned about the future stability of their families and whether or not their children will be able to use the forest, live in a healthy environment and enjoy the things that they do. Women are often very honest about what they and their families have to do to survive and often they have a strong sense of wanting to do the right thing. Evidence from India and the Philippines shows us that women are more likely to keep agreed rules that control natural resource use and protect areas of their environment. How can the Cardamom Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary Project Address Women’s Issues

• Encourage women to actively participate in project activities • Value the opinion of women during meetings and support them if they are cut down by men • Increase the skill of women in the villages, either by training or capacity building through

participating in committees and other activities. • Give women opportunities to show what they know and be acknowledged by the community

for having valuable skills • Increase the self esteem and self confidence of women by encouraging their efforts and

activities. • Ensure women actively participate in community activities, meetings and decision making • Develop income generation projects with women so they can become more financially

independent.

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Key Principles

Some of the women may need to be encouraged to participate – ASK THEM TO DO IT.

Women must always be present in meetings – ASK THEIR OPINION

We cannot make assumptions about how women use resources - ASK

Women listing their resources used – PROVE THEY CAN DO IT.

Young and Old Women work together to draw their resources – SHOW WHAT THEY KNOW

Women drawing their hungry season resources, many using a pen for the first time – WHAT THEY KNOW IS IMPORTANT.

Forest guides should be 50 % Women but to get them to volunteer ensure they know there will be food and/or facilitate child care by other women – THEY CAN DO

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The women organising food preparation for the community after mapping, to ensure women do not worry about food and can participate – GIVE REAL SUPPORT

An elder explains the cultural stories surrounding this area and the history of the village – GIVE TIME


General Socio-Economic Research Activities Surveys How many women headed households (WHH) are in the village? ______ Number How many poorest households do the people think there are in the village? ______ Number How many households have a disabled member? ______ Number Yes No Have you identified the activities women do in 24 hrs? Have you identified the activities men do in 24 hrs? How many activities in 24 hrs do women do alone? ______ Number Have you identified the activities that women do during the year and clarified which they do alone? Have you identified the activities of men during the year and clarified which they do alone?

Meetings Yes No Have you listed the names of women leaders in the village How many women are present in the meeting? ______ Number How many times did you ask women for their opinion during the meeting? ______ Number

Have you documented the questions that women have asked you? How many women seemed to afraid or shy to speak up? ______ Number How many women regularly come to the meetings? Were the children distracting the women or did the children stop the women participating in any way? Have you made note of what kept the children quiet? Have you something for the old people (eg. betel nut) Interviews Yes No How many women have you asked to tell about their situation? ______ Number Have you documented a story about women’s resource collection or marketing experiences? Have you documented why women are heads of their households? How many old people have you asked about the cultural beliefs, legends of the forest or area?

______ Number

How many people still speak Por or Soui? ______ Number How many dances do the women remember, or practice, are there restrictions on when they can dance? Have you made note about any traditional rules that limit when the women can dance? Have you noted the sacred places/forests of the village that the women remember? Have you noted how many women are midwifes or have herbal medicine knowledge?

Field Guides Yes No Have you arranged child care and food provisions for those wanting to be field guides? How many women wanted to be a guide but could not because they were too busy? What activities stopped the women from being a guide?

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Participatory Planning in Protected Areas. The facilitation team Yes No How many women are on your facilitation team? ______ NumberHave the women on your team received proper training on GPS use? Have the women on your team practiced using the GPS and other technical equipment?

Preparation Yes No Have you banned drunk men from participating in the meetings? (ignore them by standing in front of them and do not acknowledge them if they insist on coming to a meeting)

Have you asked to meet representatives of women, youth, elders, ethnic minorities and forest resources user? Have you documented the names of those in the meeting? Have you scheduled sketch mapping activities with the women, men and whole community during times they can come? Have you informed the community that participants in the sketch mapping will be fed?

Sketch Maps Yes No Have you facilitated a social map that shows where the women and men with skills live? Are there women present during mixed sketch mapping activities? How many women are actively participating in mixed mapping activities? Have you facilitated a women only sketch mapping activity where women identify their resources and decide which to map? Have the women identified the hungry season resources (including animals) and drawn where they collect them from? How many months is the hungry season? ______ NumberHave the women identified their medicinal plants and drawn where they collect them from? Have you found out what the medicines are used for? Have the women identified their resources? Have the women identified the resources they sell? (you need to note the prices and marketing mechanism for each one) Have you facilitated a separate meeting so that the women can discuss the problems of resources in their area and share ideas about how to increase their resources?

Have the women expressed an opinion about the

1. causes and ways to control fire, 2. causes of forest degradation, 3. suggested ways to improve the way resources are harvested, 4. suggested ways they can stop illegal logging and 5. suggested causes for changes in the rivers?

1 2 3 4 5

Have you a list of resource management rules the women would like implemented? Have the women given you a calendar of their annual activities? Have you asked the women what their development needs are and ways they think these can be met? (ask also the needs of old people, youth, ethic minorities, poorest households and forest users)

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Forest Zoning, Resource Use Rules, Planning and Implementation Yes No Have you asked the women for suggested rules to regulate or increase resources? Have you supported good ideas of women if they have been challenged by the Leaders or men? Have rules been made that ensure women’s resources are protected or are able to regenerate? How many women participated in the decision making? ______ NumberHave the women expressed their resource use plans? Have the community identified women to be members of their resource management committee? Is there between 25-50% representation of women on the committee? (suggest 50 % but work with less if necessary, but ask the community for an explanation if they want less)

Is there a network of women in the community to support women committee members by looking after their children during activities? Have the women discussed the short term intervention options and have they decided on a project? Is there a separate women’s group organised to implement food banks (pig, chicken, rice or potato)? Is there at least 1 women employed as your field guide? (try to ensure that 50 % of guides are women)

Training & Skills Development Yes No Have women’s training needs been identified? Is there at least 25% but preferably 50% of women participating in skills training activities? How many women want to improve their skills by joining an informal education network?

______ Number

______ Number

______ Number

______ Number

How many women headed house holds are members of a food banks group, receiving skills training in resource management are members of a committee are learning skills in a non formal education network? ______ Number

Evaluating the Project Impact Yes No Has the hungry season reduced? The hungry season has reduced by how many

1. Days? 2. weeks? 3. months?

1 2 3

How many women find it easier to find or buy food during the hungry season? ______ NumberHave you asked how women value the forest, wildlife, water and land? Have you asked women what they need from the environment for a secure future? Have you asked women how has the protected area helped them?

Have you asked women what they think about the project and what things it can do better?

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WOMEN IN THE ENVIRONMENT – AN ADJUSTMENT

The Rationale for Adjustment

Cardamom Mountain Wildlife Sanctuaries The two wildlife sanctuaries are either end of the Cardamom Mountain Range located in the Southeast of Cambodia. This area is one of the last sanctuaries of biodiversity in Indochina and comprise in a wide variety of tropical habitats including wetlands, to important lower montane evergreen cloud forests. They are home to over 30 large mammals, many of which are rare and endangered species such as tigers, bears, Eld’s deer and gibbons. There are also many rare and endangered trees commonly growing in local areas within the two Sanctuaries, one of which belonging to the ginger family, Cardamom, gives the Mountain range its name. The resources in the two Wildlife Sanctuaries provide subsistence support to some of the poorest communities in Cambodia. Over the last five years greater peace and stability in the country have enabled conservation groups, like FFI to work with government agencies and communities to conserve the magnificent heritage for future Cambodians to value and enjoy. Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary Phnom Samkos is a 3,338 km2 mountainous area along the Thai-Cambodian border and as such was an area of intense fighting between government and Khmer rouge soldiers. Although the area has been peaceful for several years, it is now subject to logging and illegal hunting by outsiders. If this resource depletion is allowed to continue the communities will have fewer livelihood options, therefore they need a way to keep outsiders out, manage their local forest areas more sustainably and find ways to address their livelihood needs. There are about 33 villages located inside the boundary of the Wildlife Sanctuary. Many residents are demobbed Khmer Rouge soldiers or their sympathisers seeking a more peaceful life and as such there are more women than men (a large number are widows), but still men are the main decision makers in the local government councils. There are 3 types of ethnic groups represented and many of them maintain high dependency on collecting non forest timber products. The women have very little access to education or skills improvement opportunities and where they head households, they are vulnerable to being trapped into an endless cycle of poverty. Phnom Aural Wildlife Sanctuary Phnom Aural is a 2,538 km2 area of gently rolling hills leading to Cambodia’s highest mountain at 1,771 meters above sea level. The civil war finished earlier in this area and allowed many of the refugees to return to their villages in 1997. Since that time local people have been re-establishing their lives and communities with many former Khmer Rouge child soldiers. As the nearest Wildlife Sanctuary to Phnom Penh it is very accessible to illegal loggers, firewood buyers and organised hunters. Many communities are desperate to stop these outsiders from entering their forests and taking their resources, but lack the confidence and authority to do so. The project

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seeks to address this problem through facilitating a participatory planning process that results in community based management plan that MoE can use to approve Protected Area Communities. There are about 58 villages inside Phnom Aural Wildlife Sanctuary, some as small as 17 or 20 households, but many have more women headed households than men, as the men have left to start new families elsewhere – sometimes if x-soldiers have beaten their wives, the women have left! Old attitudes still prevail in Cambodian rural society where boys are often valued more than girls and are sent to school to learn skills. When women are left to head a household she will have few livelihood opportunities, less physical capacity to work the land and have less food available to feed her family through the hungry season. This can be as much as 5 months in some villages. Those villages that have more women headed households than men are often left out of MoE initiatives to secure community access rights to their forest areas, simply because they are assumed to not to use the forest because it is too far from their house. This project seeks to assist government agencies to review their understanding of women in environment so that women’s right to feed her family and gather forest resources is respected and supported. Changes Made The original proposal was focused on women in Phnom Aural Wildlife Sanctuary rather than in Phnom Samkos, but as work has proceeded it is apparent that women out-number the men in both Wildlife Sanctuaries. It is also the case the women are under represented in decision making at both sites. Therefore this grant is considered an opportunity to mainstream women and the environment objectives into project activities implemented at both Wildlife Sanctuaries. We are therefore seeking minor changes to the original proposal that reflects this greater institutional commitment. We present below the adjustments we are making to the Goal, Objectives and Activities of the project, which in principal has not changed, but it is allowing us to make an institutional commitment to addressing Women’s issues in the Environment across all aspects of community interaction in both Wildlife Sanctuaries. It was also apparent that we needed to engage with other organisations through this project if we are to promote Cambodian women to work as conservationists. We are therefore seeking to work with the Women’s and Veteran’s Affairs department which offers many training opportunities for women but whose field staff lack exposure to working in the environment and in a conservation area.

Our Goal The project goal is;

Improve the livelihoods of women living in Mt Samkos and Mt Aural Wildlife Sanctuaries in ways that are sustainable, culturally appropriate, environmentally sound and compatible with biodiversity conservation.

Objectives 1. Researching women’s issues in the communities and assessing the impact of

conservation policy on local women’s survival strategies. 2. Empowering local women to manage natural resources 3. Encouraging Cambodian women to work as conservationists

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Activities 1.1 Village surveys and assessments at both Wildlife Sanctuaries identify the

number of women headed households and their perceived relative poverty status.

1.2 At both Wildlife Sanctuaries, village women experiencing various support and family situations are interviewed, including women headed households, women married to disabled men, women that are ex-Khmer Rouge leaders and those involved in trade.

1.3 Participatory landuse planning will be used as a means for the communities and project staff to identify appropriate community based development intervention activities. During this process women will be given opportunities to identify their own resources, prioritise them, draw them on the plans and discuss resource use problems and solutions.

1.4 Women will be supported to join informal education networks in their community where they will learn basic literacy skills and learn more about their value, rights, responsibilities and opportunities in the Wildlife Sanctuaries. Through the Women’s and Veterans Affairs some young women may be given the opportunity to take up skills training unrelated to project activities, but will provide them with other income generation options in the future.

1.4 Women will be elected onto the Protected Area Community Committees as a result of the participatory landuse planning activities. This committee will be responsible for implementing resource management plans the community decide upon.

1.5 With the assistance of the Women and Veteran’s Affairs representatives women will be organised into food security groups where they will manage either rice and potato banks, or pig and chicken banks. The primary recipients of these activities will be women headed households to ensure they have enough resources to get through the hungry season (the 3-4 months/year without rice) and learn new skills within a support network.

2.1 With the assistance of MoE, Women will be trained in fruit tree nursery

propagation skills such as grafting and pruning. They will also be trained in setting up and running a nursery which where they will also learn how to germinate rare native tree species which will provide resins and other resources for their children in the future.

2.2 Women will be trained as field guides, learning wildlife identification, tree species identification and the roles and responsibilities of resource users in the Wildlife Sanctuary. They will also be part of community forest patrol teams who will be trained about how to control and protect against forest fires.

2.3 Research will identify the growing conditions of forest spices, improved harvesting and propagation techniques. Women will then be trained in propagation and maintenance techniques of cardamom and join in domestication trials which plant it in mixed fruit-spice gardens. Improvements will also be sort in the cardamom marketing links, finding new products and training women accordingly with the assistance of Women and Veteran’s Affairs.

3.1 Assessment of training activities facilitated by the Women and Veteran’s

Affairs and training of their staff in participatory landuse planning process and environmental awareness.

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3.2 With the assistance of female staff design a workshop to mainstream gender into project implementation activities, increase the awareness women in the environment for MoE, District government, village leaders and commune councils and military.

3.3 Short term employment of women student interns to provide ensure women get field experience in conservation projects.

3.4 Provide technical training opportunities to female project staff to increase their capacity to lead field teams and provide technical advice to communities regarding natural resource management.

Reporting Outputs The project will provide an annual report outlining the activities accomplished under each objective during the year. We have outlined the probable results which seeks to assist women in 6 villages from participatory planning, organising, choosing their own development projects, increase in skills both basic literacy and in natural resource management and improve their socio-economic situation. At least three of these target villages will be in Mt Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary and at least 2 of which will be in Mt Aural Wildlife Sanctuary. Year 1. 1. Researching Women’s Issues in the Communities and Assessing the

Impact of Conservation Policy on Local Women’s Survival Strategies. i. Survey results indicating the number of women headed households

in each Wildlife Sanctuary. ii. Documentation of 4 women’s survival stories. iii. Participatory planning in 4 villages.

2. Empowering Local Women in Terms of Natural Resource Management iv. Research on Cardamom harvesting and marketing options and the

role of women in O’Som Commune, Mt Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary. 3. Encouraging Cambodian Women to Work as Conservationists.

v. Assessment of the activities of Women’s and Veteran Affairs. vi. Women and Environment Checklist guide for ensuring gender

mainstreaming in project implementation activities engaging communities.

vii. Employment of a female student summer intern. viii. Train female staff on participatory landuse planning and the use of

Geographic Positioning System Year 2. 1. Researching Women’s Issues in the Communities and Assessing the

Impact of Conservation Policy on Local Women’s Survival Strategies. i. Documentation of 4 women’s survival stories. ii. Participatory planning in 2 villages. iii. Women’s informal education network is supported to increase the

skills development of local women in Pramaoy, Mt Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary.

iv. 2-3 villages elect members of their Protected Area Community Committee, with a target of 50 % representation of women as committee members.

v. 2-3 women’s groups trained and operating a rice bank or pig bank in two villages

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2. Empowering Local Women in Terms of Natural Resource Management vi Nursery set up and training of 2-3 women’s groups in plant

propagation techniques vii 2-3 groups of women are trained as field guides and learn about

controlling forest fires, identifying wildlife and reporting illegal activities.

viii Spice propagation plan is developed with farmer-to-farmer exchanges to assist in the training of 2-3 other Protected Area Community Committees or women’s groups.

ix Women’s and Veteran Affairs are supported to provide skills training to 4 young women from Mt Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary

3. Encouraging Cambodian Women to Work as Conservationists. x. Women and Environment workshops are held for MoE staff and

government and military officers that have duties in both Wildlife Sanctuaries.

xi. Employment of a female student summer intern. xii. Provide on the job training of female staff on one of the following;

wildlife identification, tree propagation techniques and animal raising.

Year 3. 1. Researching Women’s Issues in the Communities and Assessing the

Impact of Conservation Policy on Local Women’s Survival Strategies. i. Documentation of 4 women’s survival stories. ii. Women’s informal education network is supported to increase the

skills development of local women in Pramaoy, Mt Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary.

iii. 2-3 villages elect members of their Protected Area Community Committee, with at least 50 % representation of women as committee members.

iv. 2-3 women’s groups trained and operating a rice bank or pig bank in two villages

2. Empowering Local Women in Terms of Natural Resource Management v Nursery set up and training of 2-3 women’s groups in plant

propagation techniques vi 2-3 groups of women are trained as field guides and learn about

controlling forest fires, identifying wildlife and reporting illegal activities.

vii Forest spice propagation trials are begun by 2-3 villages as part of their fruit-spice gardens farming system.

viii Women’s and Veteran Affairs are supported to provide skills training to 4 young women from Mt Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary

3. Encouraging Cambodian Women to Work as Conservationists. ix. Women and Environment workshops are held for village and

commune councils in both Wildlife Sanctuaries. x. Employment of a female student summer intern. xi. Provide on the job training of female staff on one of the following;

wildlife identification, tree/cardamom propagation techniques and animal raising.

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Local Partners Cambodia Ministry of Environment – Department of Nature Conservation and Protection (DNCP) – government agency responsible for the wildlife sanctuaries in law. A new office dealing with Communities in Protected Areas has been set up and seeks to address issues such as lack of tenure security and livelihood opportunities in Cambodian Protected Areas. Their capacity is low in terms of understanding the social issues of conservation, especially women and participatory. Women’s and Veteran’s Affairs Department, Pursat Office – government agency responsible for improving the well being and socio-economic situation of Cambodian women and disabled war veterans through skills training and livelihood projects. Their capacity is low in terms of understanding the environmental consequences of some of their projects. Lutheran World Federation (Aural Office) A highly reputable, well managed and effective rural development and community empowerment NGO which assists communities in Aural district in Phnom Aural Wildlife Sanctuary. Cedac (Centre détude et de Developement Agricole Cambodgien) A Cambodian non-profit research and development NGO having extensive expertise and experience in the field of eco-friendly agricultural techniques and rural development. It is assisting villages in O’Som commune, Veal Veng District, some of which collect cardamom from Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary.

Monitoring & Evaluation The gathering of women’s survival stories every year will assist us to continuously review our understanding of the future impacts of this project. In the short term we can only hope to increase the number of skill women in communities and stabilise livelihoods of some women headed households in the six villages we are assisting in this project. We will be asking the women we assist to evaluate how well they think implementation activities have been conducted as part of a commitment to their skills enhancement. This feedback will assist us to make any changes necessary to increase the effectiveness of our activities or adjust to new circumstances.

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