Physiographic

Natural Resources

Land

The geographic area of Cambodia is estimated at 18.1 million hectares (or 181,035 square km). The state owns 14.5 million hectares (80 percent) while 3.6 million hectares (20 percent) are with private entities. State land falls into two categories: state public lands and state private lands. Available data suggest that forests occupy about 58 percent of the area; grasslands, shrubs and inundated lands 15 percent; agricultural land 22 percent; and urban lands, water bodies, etc., about five percent (UNDP, 2007).

Figure 7.1: Overview of major legal categories of lands and waters in Cambodia

Source: GTZ (2006)

Much of the land in the southern provinces of Kampong Cham, Kandal, Takeo, and Prey Veng is used for agriculture. More than 50 percent of the land area is under cultivation in all these provinces, except Kampong Cham, which has 48 percent of its land area under cultivation. The major forested areas are the northeastern provinces of Preah Vihear, Stung Treng, and Mondul Kiri, as well as the western province of Pailin, where forests form more than 90% of the land area. The provinces of Koh Kong, Kratie, Ratanak Kiri, Sihanoukville and Oddar Meanchey have 70-80% of land area under forests. Phnom Penh and Kandal have a comparatively larger area under water bodies. This is because of the presence of the Mekong River and the Tonle Bassac River (WFP, 2005).

Map 7.1: Land Use

Forestry

There are significant and valuable economic benefits from forests. Timber has been a major source of revenue in terms of foreign exchange to the government. Cambodia’s forests officially cover about 58 percent of its area (Map 7.2). However, recent satellite imagery suggests that large portions are not really dense forests; on the contrary, more than three-fourths are now termed as ‘disturbed evergreen,’ ‘mixed’ or ‘mosaic’ (UNDP, 2007).

Rural people’s livelihoods in many provinces have traditionally been closely associated with the forest, especially for firewood, building material and timber. Cambodia uses a lot of fuel-wood for energy with ninety-two per cent of the population dependent on fuel-wood as the major source of energy (WFP, 2005). Populations in the northeast, parts of the west and mountain areas perennially depend on the forest for their livelihoods. In some areas rural households market forest products as well, and selling minor forest produce fetched up to 1,500 to 2,000 riels per day (data for early 2000s). It is estimated that about a third of total households in forest villages (mainly in provinces in the northeast and northwest) gather and forage at some time during the year (UNDP, 2007).

Map 7.2: Percentage of Forest Cover

Forests are unevenly distributed in the country. The northern, northwestern and central parts of the country are better endowed with forests than the southern parts. Forests in the north and northwest parts of the country, which include the provinces of Oddar Meanchey, Preah Vihear, Banteay Meanchey and Battambang, are evergreen. Those that occur in the northeast in the provinces of Ratanak Kiri, Mondul Kiri are more deciduous forests. The provinces of Pursat, Kampong Thom and Kampong Chhnang come within the flood zone of the Tonle Sap-Mekong hydrological system. Forests in these parts are typically flood forests. The coastal provinces of Koh Kong and Kep are rich in coastal mangrove forests. Mangroves cover about 0.4% of the total forest cover. They are present along the 435 kms of coastline (Pruett et al. 2000) and cover a total area of 851 sq km (Spalding et al. 1997). Flooded forests can also be seen along the Tonle Sap Lake. Along with mangroves they form what are called the “edaphic forests” (Narith 1997).

Statistics very clearly reveal a decline in the forest cover in the country (Figure 7.2). Whereas, in the 1960s, forest cover was more than 70 percent of the total land area, this has drastically come down to about 58 percent in 2004. The forest cover has reduced by over 16 percent since 1961 (Earth Trends Country Profiles 2003), and declined drastically from the 1980s onwards. Flooded forests (apart from mangroves) and evergreen forests have registered the maximum decline of -3.0 percent and -1.5 percent respectively, from 1973 to 1993. The edaphic forests are particularly threatened (WFP, 2005).

Figure 7.2: Decadal Change in Forest Cover, 1964 - 2004

Source: Earth Trend Country Profile

About 3 million hectares of forests are currently leased out by the government as forest concessions to private interests. They face a threat of degradation unless effectively managed. Communities report loss of incomes and products from the forest over time, both because of privatization and natural degradation. In poorly endowed villages, excessive degradation has resulted in a decline of firewood, which is now purchased. The consequences of forest destruction and degradation are well chronicled in the literature. However, due to the lack of data the full extent of ill effects cannot be stated in quantitative terms.

Water Resources

Rainfall

Cambodia receives most of its rainfall from the South- West monsoon, which occurs during the period between mid-May and November. The coastal regions receive the highest rainfall of about 3,000 mm/year, while the highlands and lowlands receive 2,500 mm/year and 1,400 mm/year, respectively. The monthly distribution of rainfall results in a wet season extending from April/May to November/ December and a dry season from December/January to April.

The 2005 WFP World Food Atlas estimated that agricultural production instability in Cambodia was a result of not only rainfall fluctuations but also due to a combination of other factors, such as poor moisture-retaining capacity of soils, soil degradation, floods unrelated to rainfall fluctuations etc.

Figure 7.3: Year to Year Change in Rainfall and Yield (1992 - 2003)

Source: WFP Atlas 2005

Surface Water

The major water bodies are the Tonle Sap Lake and the Mekong and Bassac Rivers. The Mekong River flows across the country over a distance of 486 kms, providing an annual flow of 500 billion cubic meters. The Tonle Sap Lake encompasses an area of 2,600 sq km (250,000-300,000 hectares) in the dry season and is estimated to have a capacity of 72,000 BCM. However, during the rainy season, the water flow from the Mekong and Bassac Rivers increases the size of the lake to up to 15,000 sq km (1.0-1.6 million hectares) (WFP Atlas, 2005).

The provinces of Kampong Thom, Siemreap, Banteay Meanchey, Battambang, Pursat and Kampong Chhnang are the major beneficiaries of the Tonle Sap Lake. Phnom Penh, being the point of convergence of the Mekong and Bassac Rivers, possesses considerable surface water resources. Kandal too has almost 17 percent of its land area comprising water bodies. The eastern provinces of Mondul Kiri, and Ratanak Kiri, as well as Oddar Meanchey and Preah Vihear in the north, have very little or no water bodies. The coastal provinces of Sihanoukville and Kep also have few water bodies (WFP Atlas, 2005).

Groundwater

Cambodia is estimated to have 17.6 BCM in groundwater resources. Extensive shallow groundwater reserves are known to exist around the Tonle Sap Lake and beside the Bassac and Mekong rivers. Farmers in the provinces of Kandal, Takeo, Svay Rieng and Prey Veng have taken advantage of these reserves by installing cheap shallow tube wells to irrigate 1-2 hectares of the dry season crop (WFP Atlas, 2005) While the groundwater resource is the most important resource being used, there is very little data on its distribution, quantity and quality.

Irrigation

About 75.6 percent of the total cultivated area is fully dependent on rainwater, but given the temporal variability of rainfall patterns crop production is often threatened by drought, so that the production of supplementary crops is not possible.

The area recognized as receiving irrigation is estimated to be only about 19.5 percent of the cultivated area in Cambodia. This is land irrigated in the classic sense of canals or pumps conveying water directly to fields from the sources. It is estimated that there is the physical potential to approximately double this area (CSD, 2002). The irrigation can be classified in three types: (1) wet season supplementary irrigation for rained lowland rice (12.5%), (2) supplementary irrigation for dry season flood recession rice (5.8%), and (3) irrigation of dry season lowland rice (1.2%). These irrigated areas (19.5%) currently produce approximately 31.4% of the total rice production of Cambodia. This shows the importance of irrigation and the effect on yield and crop security that is provided where there is water available for farming. The area of dry season irrigated rice cultivation is low and most existing irrigation occurs during the wet season to provide supplementary water either at the start or end of the rainy season or during periods of drought (CDS, 2002).

Map 7.3: Total Irrigated Area (in Ha)

Fisheries

A very large number of people’s livelihoods in Cambodia depend upon fishing. The Tonle Sap and Mekong basins, along with other rivers and lakes, are the main sources of inland fish. Tonle Sap Lake (or the Great Lake), fed by freshwaters from the Mekong each year, expands to four times its size in the rainy season, filling up a large number of lakes, water catchments and floodplains. It then reverses directions and drains into the Mekong for the rest of the year. This unique feature makes it among the richest inland ecosystems in the world (UNDP, 2007). The Great Lake plays a vital role in the production of fish with around 60% of the country’s freshwater fish being produced in this region. Fishing is practiced in two seasons in the Great Lake: the closed season (June to September) and the open season (October to May). In the case of the open season, there is no limit to the number of operators who can fish. The closed season refers to a period when hunting or fishing for a particular kind of fish is prohibited by law.

Inland fisheries are based on capture techniques in the Great Lake, its adjoining river systems and to a lesser extent, in flooded rice fields. The 450,000 hectares of flooded forests and shrubs growing in the Tonle Sap Lake shores are closely associated with fisheries (WFP Atlas 2005). Great scope also exists for aquaculture because most people reside by the waterside and fish and fish products constitute about 75 percent of the total animal protein diet of Cambodians. Furthermore, demand for access to fish resources has been rising as the population grows, since other employment avenues have been slow to expand. One million people currently earn a living out of fishing and this could rise further, owing to both population increase and in-migration of those who have lost access to agricultural land (UNDP, 2007).

Figure 7.4: Fish catch in Cambodia, 1980-2004

Source: MAFF

Government statistics place the contribution of fisheries to GDP at about 10 to 12 percent and employment. The total inland fish catch in the country is estimated at 0.35 to 0.40 million tonnes annually, valued at US$300 million-$400 million. In addition, shrimps, crabs, frogs, insects, snakes and so on provide another 60,000 tonnes. Another 55,000 tonnes of fish products are yielded from the sea (Figure 7.4) (UNDP, 2007).

The challenges adversely affecting fisheries in the various regions are:

1) Tonle Sap region and flood plains: Shrinking flood plains due to lower Mekong flood levels, degradation and removal of flooded forests, increasing fishing pressure on flood plains and the Great Lake resources, infrastructure development in the Great Lake area, conflicts in and around fishing lots;

2) Mekong Basin: Planned dams on the Sesan and Srepok rivers blocking off spawning areas of migratory fish species and the planned Sambor dam on the main fish migration channel;

3) Mekong-Bassac system: Deforestation of flood plains in Takeo, Kandal and Prey Veng provinces. Other problems include lack of inputs for aquaculture, lack of fish seed and feed, low levels of technology, arriving at optimal feed formulations, management of cages and lack of capital (WFP, 2005).

Physical Assets

Productive Assets

An obvious cause of poverty is the inadequate endowment of, or access to, productive assets. Most rural households have little capital, either in the form of money or physical assets. Furthermore, there appears to be a strong correlation between lack of capital and lack of animals. The same is also true for transport equipment, machinery and other durables.

Although rice production is a major base of the Cambodian economy, it is largely dependent on weather changes because only about 25 percent of the total area cultivated is irrigated[1]. Farm power, most of which is draft animals, is a major capital investment of farmers. Most Cambodian farmers rely heavily on draught animals to cultivate their land. Buffalo are usually used in pairs for ploughing. Cattle (and horses) are preferred for pulling carts. The level of farm mechanization is very low and most forms of mechanization are uneconomic for many producers. It is estimated, however, that about 30 percent of Cambodian farming households do not have a pair of draught animals and have to hire them, as they do not have access to sufficient assets or credit to purchase them[2]. A study in Kampong Thom suggested that this percentage was nearer 10-20 percent according to different villages (MRD/GTZ, 1995). The 1995 MAFF study, however, indicated that 44 percent of households in Takeo, 49 percent in Kandal and 58 percent in Prey Veng either had no cattle or only one animal (MAFF, 1995). In Prey Veng this was somewhat compensated for by the greater number of buffalo. The lack of draught animals or access to them at a reasonable price at the time when they are required can be one of the greatest constraints on farming households. If a household loses its draught animals through accident, theft, landmine, disease or financial difficulties, they may have difficulty in accumulating sufficient funds for replacement animals. With high hiring costs, this can lead households into longer-term food insecurity[3].

One important aspect of the ways in which individuals and households sustain themselves through periods of food insecurity is through the disposal of certain types of assets, particularly savings and disposable assets that were specifically acquired for such purposes (e.g., gold, jewellery, pigs, etc.). Most Cambodians try to accumulate such assets to help them through difficult periods. Chickens and piglets, in particular, are raised as liquid assets.

In an emergency involving more substantial sums, such as a serious illness, many Cambodians appear to prefer selling off some assets rather than getting into serious debt. Poorer people with fewer liquid assets often cannot do this and accordingly often become acutely indebted.

Non-Productive Assets

Housing

Housing conditions in Cambodia have been extensively reported on in the Cambodia Inter-Censal Population Survey 2004 (CIPS 2004). According to CIPS 2004 data, the estimated number of buildings in which people reside is 2.3 million, of which 2.03 million are located in rural areas. CIPS 2004 data show that about 47 percent of housing structures are built of permanent material, such as wood/plywood, concrete/brick/stone, galvanized iron/aluminium/other metal sheets, asbestos cement sheets and roof and wall tiles. Approximately 27 percent of buildings are made of temporary material, such as bamboo/thatch/grass or plastic/synthetic sheets for the roof and bamboo/thatch/grass/reeds or earth or salvaged/improvised materials for the walls. About 26 percent are built of semi-permanent materials that consist of a combination of permanent wall and temporary roof materials or a combination of temporary wall and permanent roof materials (Table 7.1).

Table 7.1 Percentage of Housing Conditions

Source: CIPS 2004

According to the data collected by the 2005 NIS survey, with respect to household possessions:

Over one-half of all households in Cambodia own a television, an increase from one-third of all households in 2000.
One in five households owns a mobile telephone, up from four percent in 2000.
Ownership of mobile telephones is far more common among urban households (55 %), but not unknown in rural households (14 %).
Ownership of transportation has increased since 2000 as well. Fifteen percent of urban households now own a car or truck, having increased from 10 percent in 2000.
One-third of all households own a motorcycle, an increase from one-quarter of households in 2000.
Percentage of households owning a boat remains unchanged from 2000, at nine percent.

Note: The 2005 CDHS found that nearly three-quarters of all households own some land, and that three-quarters of all households own at least one farm animal. This indicates that there has been relatively little improvement in animal ownership over the last decade since as per various assessments in 1995 and 2000 draught animal ownership was between 70 – 80 percent. It should be noted that the 2005 NIS survey clubs all farm animals together thus a comparison is not possible. More recent data will need to be collected to gauge the actual growth rate of farm animal and draught animal possession in rural households in Cambodia.

Household Amenities

Main Source of Drinking Water

According to CIPS 2004 data, approximately 44 percent of Cambodian households have access to safe drinking water, compared to 29 percent in the 1998 census. Only 40 percent of rural households have access to safe drinking water. As per NIS 2005 data sources of drinking water were the same during the dry and rainy seasons for three-quarters of urban households and over 60 percent of rural households.

The source of drinking water is an indicator of whether it is suitable for drinking. Sources which are considered likely to be of suitable quality are listed under improved source and those which may not be of suitable quality are listed under non-improved source (WHO, UNICEF). Piped water, water from a tube/piped well, a protected dug well and water bought from the market are considered safer than other sources of water (Table 7.2).

The main source of drinking water during the rainy season is rainwater for one-third of households. Rainwater is the most common source of drinking water during the rainy season for rural households and for urban households that do not have water piped into their dwelling or property. Much of the increase in use of non-improved water sources during the dry season is due to an increased reliance on surface water.

Table 7.2 Percentage of Household Access to Main Source of Drinking Water

source: CIPS 2004

Toilet Facility

According to CIPS 2004 data, approximately 22 percent of Cambodian households nationwide have a toilet facility in their premises, compared to 14.5 percent in the 1998 census. CIPS 2004 data reveal a large disparity between urban and rural households: 55 percent of urban households have a toilet facility compared to only 16 percent of rural households (Table 7.3).

Table 7.3 Percentage of Household with Toilet

Source: CIPS 2004

A household’s toilet facility is classified as hygienic if it is used only by households members (is not shared by other households) and if the type of toilet effectively separates human waste from human contact. The types of facilities most likely to accomplish this are flush or pour flush into a piped sewer system/septic tank/pit latrine, ventilated, improved pit (VIP) latrine, pit latrine with a slab and a composting toilet. A household’s sanitation facility is classified as unhygienic if it is shared with other households or if it does not effectively separate human waste from human contact (WHO classification).

The NIS survey on health and demography in Cambodia conducted in 2005 provides further details on the type of toilet facility households have access to. The majority of households in rural areas have no toilet facility, with three out of four households reporting no toilet facility and making use of fields or bush areas. In urban areas, one in three households have no toilet facility; however, one-half of urban households does use a flush or pour toilet.

Table 7.4: Household sanitation facilities

Source: NIS 2005

Fuel Used for Cooking

According to CPIS 2004 data, firewood is the most commonly used source of fuel for cooking. At the national level, about 86 percent of Cambodian households use firewood as their main source of energy for cooking, compared to 90 percent in the 1998 census. Approximately 91 percent of rural households use firewood as their main source of fuel for cooking.

While firewood or straw is also the most common source of fuel for cooking in urban areas, there is more variability in urban areas as to what is used for cooking fuel. From the NIS 2005 survey figures (Table 7.5) it can be seen that forty-four percent of urban households use firewood or straw, 30 percent use liquid petroleum or natural gas, and 25 percent use charcoal. One-half of urban households and one-third of rural households report that they do their cooking in the house.

Table 7.5: housing characteristics