Support the community members of Veun Sai – Siem Pang so that they know their rights and can defend themselves against threats to their territory and the species that inhabit it.

The Veun Sai – Siem Pang area in Cambodia adjacent to the Virachey National Park, the biggest park in South-Eash Asia. The park contains more than 55.000 hectares of primary forest in which can be found the Indochinese tiger along with other similarly threatened species, such as the Asian elephant, the clouded leopard and the Siam crocodile.

Illegal hunting to serve the Chinese markets exists in this area, but its biggest problems come from the trafficking of precious wood. The traffickers, if they don’t help themselves directly from the forests, pay a pittance to the villagers to buy the wood on which they then make a huge margin.

Although a large area of forest still remains, a large majority of the local populations want to defend their rights and be able to continue living on ancestral lands. Largely illiterate and without any financial resources, these people have no practical means to this end. The commitment of the NGO Poh Kao has been remarkable. Standing alongside these local populations, it has created an extraordinary partnership that has given the communities back their rights and ensured the sustainable management of the forests.

The first steps have been taken in order to:

• help the local communities to defend their rights to their forest and be able to manage it sustainably;

• provide support for improving the local populations’ living conditions by improving agricultural production and sustainable forestry;

• support sustainable development by providing education about the environment.

Even getting to the site is an adventure in itself. You have to take a bus to the North of the country, and then go by motorcycle from the NGO Poh Kao’s base to the site itself. The roads are dusty and slippery, but it’s a fascinating adventure. The area’s inhabitants know the forest perfectly. Chantal RAKOTOARISON, a biochemist from Madagascar who is conducting research on active cosmetic ingredients accompanied Olivier to the site in 2012 as part of the program they promoted with Man & Nature. Both of them were fascinated by the richness of the local flora and its potential. The forest is so remote that there are many challenges to its protection, but Véronique’s dedication, the founder of Poh Kao, to the local communities is exemplary and is allowing these challenged to be faced in the best way possible.

There is still a lot of hard work to be done. It was evident to the Net Positive Impact Program that there is a real need to support these communities over the long term. If things continue as they are, without adequate measures being taken, the most likely scenario is that one day we will tell future generations: “Long ago there were people in Cambodia who lived among the tigers and the elephants in the forests. They were very poor. We had the internet, but because they were far away we let their languages and cultures disappear and let the last refuges of these incredible animals disappear too, which they could have preserved with a little bit of help”.

At present, Poh Kao has done some incredible work centred around market gardening and small-scale breeding: 1.800 kg of vegetable seeds have been distributed to 320 families, 800 jasmine rice seeds to 125 beneficiaries and almost 5.000 animals have been vaccinated. These actions have proved crucial to the everyday lives of the local communities. In addition, more than 600 villagers have been made aware of the environment through a specific children’s program run in the village schools. In the face of serious and immediate problems, Poh Kao has managed not only to get this zone recognised as a conservation area but also to make massive contributions to the fight against wood trafficking (see the article published in Le Monde).

Now, it remains to fully harness the benefits of the local plants. A first step has been taken: in order to ensure that the local communities can defend their rights to their resources, preliminary reconnaissance work was undertaken to uncover the knowledge of medicinal plants held by local communities. This wisdom was then compiled in a book edited with the support of Man & Nature, so that the communities can defend themselves, if necessary, against any attempt to misappropriate any proprietary right to the plants that their ancestors had already discovered.

A specific variety of local resin has been identified as having potential in this respect: Dipterocarpus alatus. This resin is already used locally, but work must be continued to organise this trade sector so that the local communities can defend these incredible, majestic trees.