NO More Economic Land Concession Offers: Env’t Minister said

Posted by weekly on March 29, 2012 in Climate Change & Envt | 0 Comment

forest in Kirirom, biggest pine tree plantation on the top of kirirom mountains, and it is a national park of the cambodia

The Government confirms no more economic land concession will be provided to investors, said Environment Minister H.E. Mok Mareth.
“ Government will not be provided more economic land concession and the government has already planned to take back the economic land, but no concessional lands will be cancelled to any projects which already licensed by the environment ministry,” he told reporters after the national dialogue towards Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) on March 27.
According to the Cambodia Millennium Development Goals (CMDGs), the country has to maintain at least 60 percent of the territory covered by forest, even though so far the government licensed many economic and social land concessions, mining, power dump; it is still ensure the country remains 60 percent of the forest.
“But the government limits the protected forest area to 10-15 percent of the nation’s territory,” he said.
The development without refining natural stock also can’t ensure macro-economic balance, national development and poverty cut while sustainable development also means to share benefits from national resources equally among those the raw materials owners and the extractors, according to him.
‘We don’t mean the rich nations have to share benefits to the poorer nations, but they should also help sustain that natural resource in the poor worlds as it also benefits them,” Minister asserts. “We don’t extract the natural resources for the benefits of this reign of government or other government, but we also care the benefits for our next generations.”
Anyway, the preparation for the national sustainable development report to be submitted to the United Nations as part of the World Earth Summit on Sustainable Development Rio+20 in Brazil on 20-22 June 2012 was also discussed that day.
The Rio World Earth summit was established since 1992 to protect the earth from human’ destruction, then the version is updated to Rio+10 (2002), and Rio+20 (2012). Rio’s climate change will review and assess the effort made by each country to fight against climate change.
At Rio+20 Summit this year, Cambodia will raise the main outcomes it harvests so far, ways to cut poverty rate at least 1 per cent per year as now the country’s poverty rate remains 26-27 per cent, social safety angle to the poor, Environment Minister told.
Selva Ramanchandran, Division Chief, Lower Mekong Countries, UNDP said the Rio+20 Summit stands out as key opportunity for all UN member countries to review their political commitment to the sustainable development agenda as well as to agree on new targets and timeline to tackle the resource that will be critical to mankind wellbeing in the coming years.
“The national Rio+20 preparatory process is timely for the government of Cambodia to showcase its commitment and political will to engage in the post-CMDG debate and a preliminary discussion about a future set of goals will have sustainability at their core,” said the UNDP Division Chief.
“Rio+20 should be the beginning of the end of a fragmented approached to development. It is time to bring the three pillars [social, economic, and environmental) of sustainable development together at all levels, said Ramanchandran. “Let us all work together to ensure that Rio+20 helps provide the basis for a global transition towards pro-poor, pro-growth low-emission and climate resilient production and consumption patterns.”
It also provides great opportunities to review the commitment to Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and to accelerate poverty reduction post 2015. UNDP also urge Cambodia to reap its set MDGs in 2015, in a sustainable way.
“UNDP will do all it can to help Cambodia accelerate progress towards its CMDGs, and we must deliver on the MDGs, while moving towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and we must sustain the progress already made towards the CMDGs and accelerate action to bridge the remaining CMDG gaps.
At the same time we must prepare the transition to post-2015 sustainable development goals, by building on the lessons learned from the MDG process, he added.
Currently, Cambodia is implementing the National Adaptation Program of Action to Climate Change (NAPA) since 2006 and subsequently mainstreaming simultaneous climate change mitigation and adaptation measures and action plan into the relevant sectors of the national strategic development plan (NSDP) update 2009-2013.
Importantly, the 2010 approved green grown roadmap is a green economic statecraft of Cambodia which provides a supportive framework for sustainable development, including social, environmental, economic and cultural dimensions.
“the roadmap works out a green growth policy through short-term, medium-term and long-term goals greatly contributing to the achievements of the implementation for Millennium Development Goals, NSDP, in line with Rectangular Strategic policy of Cambodia.” H.E. Mok Mareth impressed. ( By Tim Vutha)