Living over Water - Restorative Redevelopment of Devastated Ecocultural Landscapes - page 248

located on the outer boundaries of the Angkor archaeological site. Here, just like in
many locations of Cambodia, although much foreign assistance was given to estab-
lish the reserve in association with the Ministry of the Environment, neither the
government nor the donors provided the level of political or financial support needed
to sustain management. As a result, boundaries were never legally demarcated and
many of those living within actually have no idea of the area's “protected” status.
Poole (2005) goes further when he states that better forest and healthier wildlife
populations in Cambodia are more often found in logging concessions than in adja-
cent protected areas as a result of the timber barons having the political and finan-
cial muscle necessary to protect their investments, whereas the various environment
ministries are marginalized and neutered in the corrupt centralized government.
Obviously, the situation is a complicated one. Poole (2005) offers the following
balanced synopsis about the benefits and challenges in ecotourism that is worth quot-
ing in its entirety:
“Ecotourism” represents a great hope, but also a great threat, to the future of the Prek
Toal Core Area. In a country like Cambodia, it is often offered as the solution to
a myriad of conservation problems. The belief is that wealthy foreign tourists will
provide long-term financial incentives to prevent short-term exploitation. In principle
this sounds great, in practice in Cambodia, as in many developing countries, it is very
difficult.
In the context of Prek Toal, how to ensure that the poorest—the former bird col-
lectors—benefit most? If bird collectors don't benefit, why should they stop hunting?
However, those who gain first from the tourists are the shop keepers, restaurateurs and
boat owners, already some of the wealthiest in the community. In situations where
levels of governance are often poor, how to be certain that taxes on tourists do not end
up in the wrong pockets? And in many areas of Cambodia, will foreign tourists ever
generate sufficient income for ecotourism to be a viable alternative to logging?
If ecotourism can work anywhere in Cambodia, it is in Prek Toal. Just a short boat
trip across the Tonle Sap from Angkor, hundreds of thousands of tourists a year are
only a day's excursion away from one of the world's most important waterbird colonies.
During December and January, the peak tourist season, the colonies are easily acces-
sible and represent an intense wildlife experience.
Within the local community, the success of the conservation project to date pro-
vides a great foundation. Bird collectors turned conservation rangers are now being
trained as guides. They may not be able to speak foreign languages, but who better to
lead people through the maze of the swamp forest? And which villagers know more
about the birds than those who used to live in the forest hunting them? …
There is a real potential for a tourism boom in Prek Toal but conservation manage-
ment systems are urgently required. Regulations need to define quotas for the number
of boats and tourists, strict no-access zones that change with the season and the loca-
tions of specific colonies, designated access routes for boats and appropriate observa-
tion sites. Without these minimum requirements, tourists risk inadvertently disturbing
and destroying the very thing they are coming to see.
Cambodia today, on the path of slow recovery from its volatile past (see epi-
logue, this volume), has another problem that one might imagine will also be part
of the future cultural landscape of Iraq: groups of armed military forces concerned