Manila, Jan 3, 2006 AEST (ABN Newswire) - A US$15 million Asia Development Bank (ASX: ATB) grant will help improve livelihoods and reduce poverty in the five provinces that adjoin the Tonle Sap in Cambodia.
Despite the richness of its natural resources, the Tonle Sap, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, provides an inadequate living for most people living on or near it. Many communities own no land and depend entirely on fishing and foraging.
"Tackling poverty in Cambodia means working with the rural poor, initially where livelihood assets are being fundamentally affected by unfavorable trends," says Rajat M. Nag, Director General, Mekong Department. "Such trends are obvious in the Tonle Sap region; its indicators of poverty are even more negative than for the country as a whole."
The project will help increase access to assets by establishing a livelihood fund to finance small-scale community-driven activities relating to social infrastructure, income-generation, and community fisheries.
It will help form special interest groups, assist organizations in formulating proposals for funding, and familiarize government institutions at the central, provincial, and commune levels with the livelihood fund. The project covers 37 communes surrounding the lake, in which there are 316 villages with a population of 287,430.
"The asset base of the rural poor must be enhanced and developed. Without improvements, investments in the Tonle Sap region will become progressively less productive," adds Olivier Serrat, an ADB Senior Project Economist.
At the same time, the project will ensure that the Tonle Sap's core areas are protected by establishing a management system that is compatible with biodiversity conservation. Core areas are securely protected sites for conserving biodiversity, monitoring disturbed ecosystems, and undertaking research and other low-impact uses such as education.
High population growth in Cambodia is increasing the number of people who depend on the natural resources of the Tonle Sap. Pressing threats to the great lake include overexploitation of fisheries and wildlife resources, conversion of the flooded forest to agriculture, collection of fuel wood from the flooded forest, and widespread deforestation in the watersheds.
The project is part of ADB's Tonle Sap Initiative, a partnership of organizations and people working to meet the poverty and environment challenges of the Tonle Sap. This involves a suite of highly integrated loan, grant, and technical assistance projects to promote pro-poor and sustainable economic growth, access to assets, and management of natural resources and the environment.
ADB's grant, which covers 74% of the project's total estimated cost of $20.3 million, comes from its Asian Development Fund. The Government of Finland will provide a $4.7 million grant, and the Government of Cambodia will shoulder the balance of $600,000.
The Ministry of Interior is the executing agency for the project, which is due for completion in December 2009.
Contact
Floyd Whaley
Email: fwhaley@adb.org
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