the citizen-viewer

It's been a while since I posted specifically on Cambodia. Luckily, along came the ecology site Monga Bay, which picked up the little-noticed release of some important new numbers by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on November 12.

Monga Bay's Rhett Butler (really) provides some analysis of the figures, which won't be released in a full FAO report until next year. Here's the part where Cambodia features:

The regions with the highest tropical deforestation rate were Central America -- which lost 1.3% or 285,000 hectares of its forests each year -- and tropical Asia. Tropical Asia ... lost about 1% of its forests each year. According to FAO, Vietnam lost a staggering 51% of its primary forests between 2000 and 2005, while Cambodia lost 29% of its primary forests between 2000 and 2005 ... Illegal logging, combined with rapid development, is blamed for much of Cambodia's forest loss.

In terms of percentage, Cambodia now ranks third in the world for primary forest loss. Not only that, but it has lost forest at a faster percentage rate in the past five years than during the previous ten. This, of course, while it's been under steady pressure to preserve and protect its forests. Steady, yes. Effective, no.

(A cautionary note: The figures are apparently derived, at least in part, from Cambodian government sources.)

Since 2000, more than a quarter of Cambodia's remaining primary forest has disappeared, going by the FAO's figures. In the same period, only Nigeria and Vietnam lost a larger portion of their natural forest.

Where did it go, one might wonder. It seems we will have to wait until 2006 for the full report from FAO. But the short answer is logging and plantation development. Much of the valuable tropical hardwood has already been removed from Cambodia's forests, leaving a smaller and smaller area of primary forest to feed the beast -- that is, the system of corruption that keeps the current government in power. For the last few years they've been branching out, um, so to speak -- handing out large concessions to private interest to develop plantations that are even more harmful to the ecology than hardwood exploitation. For more, see Global Witness or Cambodia from the air.

From 2000 to 2005, Cambodia's annual rate of primary forest loss increased to 6.7%. Over the previous ten years, from 1990 to 2000, it lost forest at an annualized rate of 5.1% per year. Even if the rate remains at 6.7% per year, Cambodia's primary forests will be reduced to half of their current area by 2015, ten years from now.

From 1990 to 2000, Cambodia's primary forest cover declined from 766,000 to 456,000 hectares according to FAO's figures, a rate of 5.1% per year.

But over the last five years, Cambodia's primary forest cover declined from 456,000 to 322,000 hectares, a rate of 6.7% per year.

Primary forest cover is defined as "wooded land of native species, where there are no clearly visible indications of human activities and the ecological processes are not significantly disturbed." The FAO supplies figures for 1990, 2000, and 2005.

The ecology site Monga Bay points out some criticism of the FAO's figures:

The London-based Rainforest Foundation notes that "the UN figure is based on a definition of forest as being an area with as little as 10% actual tree cover, which would therefore include areas that are actually savannah-like ecosystems and badly damaged forests." Further, says a press release from the organization, "areas of land that presently have no trees on them at all, but that are 'expected' to regenerate, are also counted as forests."

Most of that would be not primary but "modified natural" forest. Cambodia's total for both categories together declined from 12,946,000 ha in 1990 to 11,541,000 in 2000. In 2005 it was 10,447,000 in 2005, a loss of nearly ten percent in five years.

The results have been disastrous. Besides the loss of livelihood for people who live in or near forests, and the lost of habitat for native species and plants, loss of forest leads to erosion. Silt runs off deforested areas and clogs waterways that both drain and irrigate Cambodia's rice fields, and rice crops are damaged and lost.

It ends up in lakes, especially the Tonle Sap lake that provides, or used to provide, a large portion of the protein in Cambodians' diet. Heavy silt in the lake has already caused a dramatic reduction in fish catches there.

Rice and freshwater fish are the two pillars of Cambodian food security. Deforestion is destroying them both.