Cambodia Breaking News (Kampot): The fishermen in Prek Tnout commune, Teuk Chou district, are worried after receiving the information that an investment company is planning to build a port and special economic zone in the area now covered with mangrove forest on the Kampot coast.
Recently, fishermen were alerted when a specialist officer from the Jing Koing company came to study the location for clearing the beach and mangrove forest. The company has been studying this development for four years, but they can not find a solution to compromise with the local community, and Mr. Tet Rin, the director of the community, as well as the fishermen, will not agree with the mangrove deforestation.

The fishermen are alarmed that the planned investment project to build an international port and economic zone will destroy the mangroves and deprive them of their livelihood. They are all very worried, because recently they received the information that the project consists of developing 640 hectares (1580 acres) of coastal mangroves in the fishing community. Mr. Ly Seur, a fisherman in Tropeang Ropov village, Teuk Chou district, Kampot, said that most people in the village work as fishermen, and out of the 100 families in the village, only 2 or 3 own land for growing rice, and so have other resources.


The project would mean the destruction of the mangrove forest which currently protects the coastline near Kampot. This area acts as a buffer against coastal erosion, storm surge, and flooding. Mangrove forests also help protect the planet against climate change, because they “sequester carbon at a rate two to four times greater than mature tropical forests and store three to five times more carbon per equivalent area than tropical forests”.*
Mangrove forests are a natural environment for many species of fish and shellfish, as well as providing a valuable breeding ground for marine life, and also acting as a filter, cleaning dirty water. The trees also provide a habitat for many bird species. All this will be lost.

The destruction of the mangrove ecosystem on the Kampot coastline will also destroy the way of life of hundreds of fishermen and their families, rendering them jobless and homeless. The local people say that they can not agree to this. Unfortunately, the loss of traditional fishing communities does not count for much against the grandiose economic plans for the development of the Cambodian coast. The environmental loss caused by the destruction of the mangroves will also be a great loss for Cambodia, as it seems that the mangrove forests and accompanying ecosystems are as doomed as the rest of Cambodia's forest lands.
- CEO News
*Source: https://ecoviva.org/7-reasons-mangroves-matter/

CEO News opinion: The international NGOs who are offering to help Cambodian fishing communities with climate change should have a closer look at the more immediate dangers to these communities. The whole Cambodian coast is up for grabs, and if they haven't understood that, then all these efforts to help coastal communities and ecosystems are useless.

GEF aids fishing communities in adapting to climate change
19 June 2019
A five-year project known as CamAdapt, which aims to help coastal fishing communities and ecosystems in four coastal provinces – Kampot, Kep, Koh Kong and Preah Sihanouk – adapt to climate change, is expected to start early next year.

The project is being funded to the tune of $4.35 million by the Least Developed Country Fund of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Cambodia told The Post on Monday.

Climate Adaptation and Resilience in Cambodia’s Coastal Fishery Dependent Communities (CamAdapt) will be implemented by the FAO in Cambodia and the Ministry of Environment’s Fisheries Administration (FiA).

The project will involve carrying out vulnerability assessments for men and women in fishing communities in coastal areas and developing strategies to help them adapt to climate change.

CamAdapt will offer livelihood diversification options and early warning systems, provide safety at sea for fishermen and women and develop a management plan for fisheries and other coastal resources.

It will also help integrate adaptation considerations into relevant policies and programmes and strengthen partnerships among stakeholders at national, provincial and local levels.

More than 130 officials and experts participated in four provincial workshops from May 7-10 to validate the CamAdapt project.

Participants included officials from several ministries – Environment, notably the Department of Marine and Coastal Zone Conservation; Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction; Water Resources and Meteorology; and Women’s Affairs – and from fishing communities, NGOs and the FAO in Cambodia.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ ... ate-change

September 10, 2019
Mangroves aid families in Kampot

Civil society organisations and the Kampot Fisheries Administration on Saturday warned that around 3,500 fishing families in the province stand to lose a total of between $16 million to $220 million in income yearly if mangrove forests are not protected.

The warning was made during the launch of 100,000 Mangroves Campaign in the province’s Toek Chhou district, organised by ActionAid Cambodia, Children and Women Development Centre in Cambodia, Samaky Organisation, and eight communities in collaboration with the provincial Fisheries Administration.

The campaign is aimed at planting mangrove saplings in the province.

Hun Boramey, AAC country director, said that mangroves along with corals and sea grass play a vital role in maintaining the coastal ecosystem by absorbing carbon dioxide and other toxins, act as barriers against waves and strong winds, help to filter soil and provide breeding grounds for sea creatures.

She said that currently, mangroves are providing fishing resources that feed around 3,500 fishing families in that province, who are able to each earn between about $12 and about $172 per day or between $16 million and $220 million per year in total.

“The living conditions of these fishermen will be affected seriously if the mangrove and sea grass resources are destroyed by development projects,” Ms Boramey noted. “I hope that the 100,000 Mangroves Campaign in Kampot province will achieve fruitful results, and become a foundation for communities in other provinces to participate in taking care of mangroves and preserve our natural resources.”

Ms Boramey said that according to a Mekong River Commission report in 1992, Kampot province had up to 7,900 hectares of mangrove forest cover, and that a 2018 report by the provincial fisheries administration showed that it had lost 62 percent of the forests with only 1,966 hectares remaining.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50641759/m ... in-kampot/

Kampot province, Cambodia News: On 20 December 2019, it was reported that the Minister of Tourism and the Governor of Kampot have agreed to support the construction of a road to the Trapeang Sangker Community in Kampot's Teuk Chhou district. The 400 meter road from Kampong Keu village will join up to the Kep-Kampot national road.


The authorities say that the idea behind the new road is to create easier access to the communities living in the mangroves on the Kampot coast, and thus encourage a sustainable tourism that will support the economy of the local fishing villages.


CEO News: Note that (officially) this road has nothing to do with a largescale Chinese development also planned for Teuk Chhou district, which is considered to be a grave danger for the Kampot mangrove eco-system and to the fishing communities who live there. Official information about development in protected areas is difficult to assess. Stay tuned.
posting.php?f=9&mode=reply&t=29717&sid= ... 8#pr343394

The Try Pheap group, (infamous for alleged illegal logging activities and land grabs all over Cambodia), has blocked access to the sea for thousands of families from Teuk Chhou district, Kampot, who rely on fishing for a living. What are local authorities doing to protect the rights of these villagers ?

Cambodian Villagers Lose Fishing Jobs as Company Blocks Access to the Sea
2020-01-16
Thousands of villagers in southern Cambodia’s Kampot province are being forced from their homes by work on a nearby seaport which has filled in long stretches of seashore, barring them from traditional fishing areas, sources in the country say.

No longer able to fish, many former residents of the Teuk Chhou district’s Prek Thnoat commune have now left to find work elsewhere, one villager told RFA’s Khmer Service on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“Before the Try Pheap Group took over this area, my family was able to make between 30,000 riel [U.S. $7] to 100,000 riel [$25] from fishing every day, but now thousands of fishing families have lost their jobs because the seashore has been completely filled in,” he said.

“Some people have now left their homes to work for someone else,” he said

The Try Pheap Group, which began work on the seaport in 2017, has now built a wall two kilometers long along the seashore to prevent villagers from entering the area, RFA’s source said, adding that villagers are afraid to protest against the company because they fear persecution by authorities.

Previously, authorities would quickly arrest villagers entering flooded forest areas to clear trees, the villager said. “But when the Try Pheap company began filling in the seashore, authorities did nothing to stop them.”

Concerns over transparency

Also speaking to RFA, Yun Phally—Kampot provincial coordinator for the Cambodian rights group Adhoc—confirmed that the Try Pheap Group’s presence in the area has caused thousands of families to lose their jobs, with some now turning to construction work and others forced to migrate from their homes.

Meanwhile, the company’s ban on seashore access for local residents is a possible sign that company owner Try Pheap is concealing details of his investment plans, Adhoc official Soeung Senkaruna said, adding that authorities need to carefully investigate the company’s activities there.

“We don’t know if the relevant authorities have properly examined the legitimacy of the investment, or if they have looked at the [project’s] environmental and social impacts in the area,” he said.
If the company is fully complying with the law, it shouldn’t bar entry by local residents he added.

Calls seeking comment from a Try Pheap Group representative and from commune, district, and provincial officials rang unanswered this week.
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambod ... 53815.html

19 January 2020
The video shows dump trucks illegally filling mangroves in Kampot province.