Cambodia Water Festival

The Cambodian Water Festival (variously spelled in the original Khmer as Bon Om Touk, or Bon Om Thook, or Bonn Om Teuk, or Bon Om Tuk) takes place once a year, on the full moon of the Buddhist month of Kadeuk (usually in November). It celebrates a major natural occurrence: the reversing flow between the Tonle Sap and the Mekong River.

For most of the year, the Tonle Sap empties into the Mekong River. However, when the rainy season arrives in June, the Mekong rises, reversing the flow to dump water into the lake, increasing its size ten-fold. When the rainy season ends in November, the Mekong drops once more, allowing the current to reverse again, emptying the excess waters of Tonle Sap back into the Mekong.

This natural occurrence is celebrated in Cambodia with three days of festivals, fluvial parades, boat races, fireworks, and general merriment.

An Ancient Thanks to the River

Then as now, Tonle Sap is a major focus of life for many Cambodians. It's a source of livelihood for fishermen and farmers alike - it's rich in fish stocks, and the silt deposits left by the floods fertilize the fields. No wonder Cambodians have celebrated Bon Om Touk for centuries - it's a way to give back to the river that's given them so much.

Bon Om Touk dates back to the 12th century, to the time of the Angkorian King Jayavarman VII. The Water Festival was celebrated by the King's Navy to kick off the Cambodian fishing season - the fluvial festivities are meant to keep the river divinities happy, ensuring a bountiful harvest of rice and fish for the year to come.

A competing story holds that Bon Om Touk was a way for the King to prepare his navy for battle. At Bayon near Siem Reap, naval battles have been carved into the stonework, depicting boats not that much different from the boats that race on Tonle Sap today.

Three ceremonies underpin the entire Bon Om Touk celebration:

Loy Pratip: an evening fluvial parade, featuring beautifully-illuminated boats lighting up the waterways. Government institutions sponsor each of the boats on parade.

Sampeas Preah Khe: the salutation to the moon. The full moon is supposed to be a good sign for the coming harvest, which is why Cambodians make sure to give thanks to it on Bon Om Touk, and pray for a bountiful harvest ahead.

Auk Ambok: at midnight, celebrants gather at temples to eat ambok ("flattened rice"), a holiday rice dish. Ambok is simply rice fried in the husk, pounded to remove the husk, and mixed with banana and coconut.

Three Day Celebration

People come from far and wide to join the celebrations. School is closed, and most workers go on vacation. Upwards of a million Cambodians gather at the river banks to celebrate; those who can't find hotel rooms often just camp out along the streets!

Certain roads near the river are blocked against motor traffic, allowing the thousands of celebrants to walk among the streets, sampling the festival's entertainments.

Bon Om Touk lasts three whole days. Many out-of-towners converge on Tonle Sap, whole communities going en masse to enter their boats in competition.

The colorful racing boats are arguably the main stars of the event. They have bright paint schemes, often with eyes painted on the prow to protect against evil. The biggest boats are over a hundred feet long, crewed with up to eighty oarsmen.

Unlike Western boat races, Cambodian boat crews face forward. Many boat crews are complemented with a colorfully-costumed lady at the prow dancing to the beat of the drums.

For the first two days, races are run with two boats each, with the big race happening on the last day, when all the boats take to the river to compete.

While the contestants pair off to compete in the middle of the river, the river's edge teems with boat crews practicing for their upcoming run, making for a brilliant display with their colorful shirts festooned with their sponsors' logos.

In the evenings, the festivities continue with carnival rides, traditional music performances, and dances.

A wholesome carnival atmosphere prevails for the Water Festival's duration - food and drink overflow in the streets, Khmer pop bands entertain the crowds, and the riversides are packed to capacity with punters cheering their favorite boats on.

Where to go

The festivities are at their most fun in the capital. In Phnom Penh, you can join the throngs at Sisowath Quay fronting the Mekong River, but watch out for petty thievery.

What's the next best thing to being in the thick of the action? Watching the boat races from the terrace bar at the Foreign Correspondents Club on 363 Sisowath Quay - you can have a relaxed drink while getting a full view of the river races.

For more information on the event, contact the Ministry of Tourism at +855 23 211593 or +855 23 213741, or visit their website, www.mot.gov.kh.

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Jolie rocks the boat with ad

Photo by: Annie Leibovitz/Louis Vuitton

Angelina Jolie poses on a traditional boat in a new Louis Vuitton advertisement, which was photographed in Cambodia earlier this year.

A new advertising campaign featuring Hollywood megastar Angelina Jolie posing on a wooden boat in Siem Reap province with a £7,000 (US$11,374) handbag was launched yesterday in the International Herald Tribune newspaper.

The adverts, shot by world- famous photographer Annie Leibovitz for the Louis Vuitton Core Values advertising campaign, feature Jolie “sitting barefoot in a traditional wooden boat in the luxuriant, watery landscape of Siem Reap province”, according to an official press release.

Matthew Robinson, founder of Khmer Mekong Films, said yesterday that regardless of how successful the campaign might prove, the sheer scale of the production alone had provided a valuable contribution to the Kingdom’s economy.

“Any production, whether it’s advertising, whether it’s TV spots or a movie or a drama coming from outside is going to boost the economy,” he said, adding that such jobs typically provided employment and valuable experience to Cambodians.

Louis Vuitton declined to comment on the amount of money spent on the production yesterday, but Robinson stressed that it had been an expensive campaign, pumping dollars into the Siem Reap tourist economy as well.

Western press outlets have reported that Jolie received US$10 million for the campaign, a figure Louis Vuitton yesterday declined to confirm.

They also declined to specify how much of the sum the star would donate to charity, though the wording of the official press release indicates she will donate her entire fee.

Jolie is no stranger to philanthropic activities in Cambodia, having established her own NGO, the Maddox Jolie-Pitt foundation, named after her adopted Cambodian son and set up in 2003 to tackle environmental degradation in Battambang’s Samlot district.

Her interest in the country may stem from a shoot here in 2000 for the action movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.

Jolie could be back  behind the camera in the Kingdom yet again  if producer Thomas Magyar gets his way. He announced in September that he was hoping to secure the actress for a US$70 million production to be filmed in Cambodia and tentatively titled The Great Khmer Empire. There is no word yet on whether Jolie is interested. according to ppp

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Revellers enjoy spirit festival

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Bands of revellers took to the streets of Boeung village in Sen Sok district in Phnom Penh yesterday as residents donned elaborate face paint, colourful clothing and large palm leaves in celebration of the annual Pring Ka-ek spirit festival.

According to local lore, the celebration is intended to bring good luck and drive off evil spirits for the upcoming rainy season, keeping cattle healthy and rice yields large.

Chhum Sien, aged 67 and a veteran member of the festival committee, claimed the holiday had always been celebrated on the fourth or fifth day of the seventh lunar month, heralding the beginning of the growing season.

Sien added that villagers believe strongly in the power of the Pring Ka-ek spirit to bring rain to facilitate the growing of rice and protect their oxen and buffalo from illness.

The celebration kicked off with a parade led by the Chhay Yam orchestra. Costumed celebrants wound in procession past the village towards the Pring Ka-ek shrine near the festival hall.

Grass skirts and curly wigs were in evidence, as were copious jugs of palm wine.

The ceremonial parade was to be followed by the start of three days of horse and bull racing.

Monks were invited to the festival as well, to preach, recite dharma and preside over food offerings for Pring Ka-ek.

Belief in spirits is widespread in Cambodia and is an integral part of traditional religious practices.

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Luxury wedding fair shines over the weekend

Photo by: REUTERS

Choose your dream wedding dress, photographic fantasy or catering at the Sofitel’s luxury wedding fair.

The party is coming to Phnom Penh for those planning their weddings in the Cambodian capital.

The city’s first four-day luxury wedding fair will be held at the Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra hotel from Thursday to Sunday. The fair will celebrate the art of weddings with workshops, one-on-one consultations and displays by local and regional creators.

The event is proof of the country’s growing appeal as a romance destination. Some of the most reputable names in the wedding industry, including Malaysian company The Wedding Planners, and couture wedding collection designers La Flaire, collaborated with Sofitel for the event.

“The wedding fair will be something new for Phnom Penh in terms of scale and attraction,” said Didier Lamoot, the hotel’s general manager. “For the first time, couples in the city will have their pick of creative ideas from the cream of local and international vendors. They’ll see how Sofitel celebrates weddings and experience its second-to-none service. On the last day of the fair, the hotel’s grand ballroom, gardens and poolside will be in full bloom with lots of fun activities.”

The fair is open to the public on Sunday, June 5, when the Sofitel grounds will be adorned in La Flaire signature themes, such as oriental chic and summer breeze, while cake decoration demonstrations, models in designer gowns and classical band strollers will entertain the crowd. Displays will be set up and vendors on hand for consultation with prospective brides and grooms. Aside from wedding design, the fair will also showcase themes for corporate events and parties. according to ppp

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Cambodian seer says 2011 good for corn, bean crops, bad for animals

Top: Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni greets people during the annual royal plowing ceremony in Phnom Penh. Cambodia's royal oxen have shunned rice grain during an ancient ceremony to predict the country's agricultural fortunes -- prompting fears of a poor rice harvest among superstitious farmers.
(AFP/null)
Bottom: Second deputy President of the Cambodia'a National Assembly acting as the Ploughing Festival king Say Chhum (C) uses the royal oxen to plow the land during the annual Ploughing Festival in Phnom Penh May 21, 2011. Cambodia host the annual ploughing festival during which royal oxen will have to choose between seven bowls including rice, corn, green beans, grass, sesame, water and wine to predict the future of the farming season. The tradition, which is hundreds of years old, is followed closely by people in Cambodia, the majority of whom are farmers. REUTERS/Samrang Pring.


PHNOM PENH, May 21 (AP) - (Kyodo)—Cambodia's royal astrologer predicted Saturday that the country's farmers will enjoy good corn and bean crops this year, but the health of farm animals might be threatened. At an annual ceremony marking the start of the rainy season, astrologer Korng Keng told a crowd of tens of thousands of people that "animals that are used for agricultural activities will face some kinds of diseases." At the ceremony, seven golden trays -- holding rice, corn, beans, sesame, grass, water and rice wine -- are laid out for a pair of royal oxen. Predictions for the coming season are made based on which trays the oxen choose. This year, the oxen ate most of the corn, some beans and grass, indicating Cambodian farmers will have good corn and bean crops in 2011. According to the royal astrologer, by eating the grass, it means disease may occur in animals or insects might attack crops. The ceremony is held annually near the royal palace in Phnom Penh at the start of the planting season. This year, the oxen ate no rice and sesame and drank no water or rice wine. If they drink the rice wine it means turmoil, fighting or robbery. Drinking water indicates lots of water for cropping, while eating sesame indicates a big harvest. Last year, the oxen ate mostly corn and beans. according to khmerization

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Cambodia's royal oxen fail to predict good harvest

The astrologer did not spell out to the crowd what it meant for the rice yield, sparking concern among farmers. Top: Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni greets during the annual Ploughing Festival in Phnom Penh May 21, 2011. Cambodia host the annual ploughing festival during which royal oxen will have to choose between seven bowls including rice, corn, green beans, grass, sesame, water and wine to predict the future of the farming season. The tradition, which is hundreds of years old, is followed closely by people in Cambodia, the majority of whom are farmers.

REUTERS/Samrang Pring. Bottom: Thousands watched as royal astrologers observed the animals' behaviour (AFP, Tang Chhin Sothy)


PHNOM PENH (AFP)— Cambodia's royal oxen shunned rice grain on Saturday during an ancient ceremony to predict the country's agricultural fortunes -- prompting fears of a poor rice harvest among superstitious farmers.


King Norodom Sihamoni presided over the ritual in a park outside the palace where thousands of people watched royal astrologers observing the animals' behaviour.


After a symbolic ploughing of a portion of the field, a pair of oxen were led to seven dishes -- rice, corn, beans, sesame, grass, water and alcohol -- laid out on trays.


They were seen eating only corn and beans, allowing the palace's chief astrologer Kang Ken to declare that this year's corn and beans harvests will be bountiful.


"I am very worried that we will not have a good rice harvest," farmer Ros Makara, 52, told AFP after the ceremony, which marks the start of Cambodia's rainy season, traditionally the time to plant rice.


"But I will try my best to grow rice. I do not totally rely on the prediction," he added.


While still taken seriously by many rural Cambodians in this deeply superstitious country, ploughing ceremony predictions have been called into question in recent years.

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Hope with Cambodian dance revival

After seeing the Cambodian classical dance troupe perform in France in 1906, sculptor Auguste Rodin announced: "These Cambodian women have given us everything antiquity could hold. It's impossible to see human nature reaching such perfection."


Seven decades later, Khmer Rouge dictator Pol Pot all but destroyed this ancient art form - eliminating dancers and musicians, along with tens of thousands of citizens who were led to the Killing Fields, later portrayed so graphically in the film of that name.


After Pol Pot's demise, efforts by the daughter of former King Norodom Sihanouk saw this art form enjoy a huge revival. It had always been linked to the royal court, which in turn was strongly tied to the French.


And if anything symbolises the twists and turns in the fortunes of Cambodia's French-built capital it must be Cambodian classical dance.


Performances for the court were staged at the Chan Chaya Pavilion in the Royal Palace, and today no visit is complete without a palace tour.


Here you can also see the Throne Hall - robbed of a number of treasures by the Khmer Rouge but still stunning.


The same goes for the Silver Pagoda which managed to retain a floor paved with silver tiles - 5000 all up, each one weighing 1kg. The Silver Pagoda also holds a 90kg gold Buddha encrusted with 9584 diamonds.


Wandering among the buildings of the Royal Palace, it's impossible to ignore a large grey-painted pavilion constructed in the French style with lace ironwork, which was shipped by Napoleon III in 1876.


Occupying such a prominent position, it illustrates Cambodia's ties to France after King Norodom I - caught between the flexing muscle of neighbouring Thailand and Vietnam - signed a treaty of protection with France in 1863. Soon, Cambodia became a virtual colony and Phnom Penh, with its boulevards and gardens laid out by the French, is now considered the prettiest of all the French capitals of Indochina.


The central-domed 1930s Deco-style New Market - great for gold and silver jewellery and souvenirs - also dates from the French era, as does the Hotel Le Royal (now Raffles Le Royal).


This featured in River of Time, journalist Jon Swain's account of the fall of Phnom Penh to the Khmer Rouge. At Le Royal today, the Elephant Bar remains a favourite haunt.


Though displaying delicate Khmer-style architecture, the striking rusty red-coloured National Museum was also built by the French. This is Cambodia's leading historical and archaeological museum and its highlights include artefacts from the classical Angkorian period. There is also an enormous funerary urn used to store the body of King Sisowath, who was cremated in 1927.


Two kings later, Norodom Sihanouk was congratulating himself Cambodia was no longer a French colony. But joy was short-lived as Cambodia was entangled in the Vietnam War.


When that ended, the Khmer Rouge rushed in to the capital, filling a power void, and the king was effectively locked in his palace.


Now, with peace restored and thanks to his daughter, Princess Bopha Devi, the dance that can be traced to the court of the Khmer Empire is again being taught.


Importantly it's accessible to everyone who visits Phnom Penh. We saw it performed on the sundeck of our river cruiser by a talented troupe of schoolchildren, the Khmer Angels. It's unlikely they're aware of the French sculptor who praised their predecessors.


They're busy moving on from an era when the Khmer Rouge all but destroyed Cambodia and its classical dance.


FACT FILE


• Travel Indochina has 15 Small Group Journey itineraries featuring Phnom Penh. The Jayavarman and Jahan Mekong River cruise itineraries also include a guided tour of Phnom Penh. For information, go to www.travelindochina.com.au. according to The West Australian, May 20, 2011

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Bright paintings recall black period

Lon Lao is philosophical about his current exhibition depicting the cruelty of the Khmer Rouge regime. “Being a human being, we must live meaningfully; young, old, male, female people should all do good for the sake of prosperity and peace,” writes the artist.

Called Black Sky, his exhibition of 25 collages and acrylics remains on show at the French Culture Centre (CCF) in Phnom Penh until June 18.

Lon Lao, who was born in 1975 at the start of the murderous regime, recalls his earliest memories were of starvation and forced labour.

“It seemed that my brain still remembers when my parents were forced to work in a cooperative, leaving me alone in a Child Unit with watery porridge and inadequate food to hardly survive,” he says.

“My paintings do not only describe the KR regime but also the prolonged civil war our country suffered for many years,” he adds.

With his parents and a brother losing their lives during that period, the artist is now keen to pass on his memories to the next generation of young Cambodians.

And his message is clear – love each other and unite.

“Life is a struggle. Although being under the hardship inflicted by the black regime of genocide and bloody civil war, many Cambodian people strived to live with struggle in time of the flame of civil war and mistreatment from Khmer Rouge soldiers in a bid to demand freedom,” he says.

Lon Lao was originally from Thmor Pouk district in Banteay Meanchey province, living in the Saythou refugee camp until he was 14.

He learned to paint through a French teacher who worked with children, until 1994, when th NGO Phare Ponleu Selapak began bringing arts classes to children in Battambang.

His latest series took nearly a year to complete, using collage techniques to attach found objects to his bright, geometric canvases, which use sinuous curves and bold hues. Black Sky, by Lon Lao, runs at the CCF, 218 Street 184, Phnom Penh daily until June 18. according to ppp

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Scales weigh in favour of Angkor art show

Despite scandalising some members of the audience, an end to free wine for guests at Hôtel de la Paix art show launches failed to dampen enthusiasm at the opening night of a joint exhibition featuring the work of Phnom Penh-based visual artist Chan Dany and sculptor and miniature maker Dy Proeung. Titled Scales of Angkor, the art by the duo is inspired by the architecture of Cambodia’s temples. It ranges from small inscriptions and religious symbols blown up into large mosaics by Chan Dany, to a replica model of Banteay Srei temple which Dy Proeung constructed over seven months in his Siem Reap workshop. Among the opening night crowd were officials from the Apsara Authority, including director general Bun Narith who congratulated Dy Proeung on the complexity of his Banteay Srei model, one of a series of eight he began working on in 1995 following his retirement from a career in temple conservation. Bun Narith said: “I feel very happy seeing what you’ve created. You know the temples very well and art like this can teach young Cambodians about the value of our heritage.” Chan Dany’s work features renderings of religious symbols inscribed on the walls of Angkorian temples which he constructed out of layered pencil shavings on canvas. Chan Dany told 7Days that he first hit upon the technique while completing an assignment at Reyum Art School which required students to create an artwork out of recycled materials. “The deadline was approaching and I had no idea what to give to my teacher so I went to look in the rubbish bin outside. I found a whole lot of pencil shavings which I laid out on a canvas and then started to assemble as shapes. I took a picture of what I was working on and my teacher loved it and ordered me to start making more like it.” This led him to create a series of paintings using the same technique which were featured in his 2007 exhibition In Transition, which was later shown internationally. Chan Dany said each painting takes, on average, between one and two weeks to complete, depending on the complexity of the symbols represented. Curator Sasha Constable said the exhibition brings together “the works of one of the few old masters to have survived the Khmer Rouge regime with those of one of the bright young artists of the burgeoning Cambodian art scene”. This is a view shared by Dy Proeung, who praised the work of his younger exhibition partner. Dy Proeung said he was continuing to work his series of temple models and was nine months into the construction of a 10-metre-squared replica of Bayon temple, which he estimates will cost $20,000 to complete. “I want to finish my series of models before I die,” he said. Dy Proeung’s scale model of Banteay Srei was dismantled at his workshop and transported to the Arts Lounge in three trucks, arriving at the same time an 18-metre wooden boat from a previous exhibition was leaving. Scales of Angkor is showing at the Hôtel de la Paix Arts Lounge from May 5 to July 5. Phnom Penh Post, 13 May 2011

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Celebrating Visak Bochea day

About 10,000 people, including roughly 2,600 monks, gathered to celebrate the annual Visak Bochea festival on Diamond Island in Phnom Penh yesterday, commemorating the Buddha’s enlightenment after 49 days of meditation under a Bodhi tree in northern India. Holding incense sticks and lotus flowers, a procession of laymen and clergy alike marched onto the island to offer their blessings to the Buddha. Deputy Prime Minister Men Sam An said the festival was a time to pay gratitude to Buddha, who had enlightened followers around the world though his wisdom and teachings of Dharma.  “To develop and promote Buddhism in Cambodia, the Royal Government of Cambodia is strongly committed to supporting and building more temples to reach villagers’ homes,” she said. “I would like to appeal to all people to do only good things and follow our Buddha’s Dharma and his teachings in order that they may make peace in their minds and their communities, which can contribute to the government’s development in the future.”  Min Khin, Minister of Cults and Religions, reminded attendees of the Khmer Rouge regime’s near-total decimation of religious organisations, which he said had now returned to strength in Cambodia through some 4,649 present-day temples and 56,304 practicing monks.  Laywoman Keo Vanak said she celebrated the holiday every year as a chance to meet people from around the country and connect with fellow Buddhists. “It is a day to remind people about my practice of the Lord Buddha’s Dharma and his teachings,” she said. according to ppp

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Cambodian Buddhists march to mark Buddha's day

Cambodian monks carry flags as they march during Vesak Day ceremony at the Udong mountain in Kandal province May 17, 2011. Buddhists in Cambodia celebrate Vesak Day on Tuesday to honour the birth, enlightenment and death of Buddha. REUTERS/Samrang Pring ) PHNOM PENH, May 17 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of Buddhists and Buddhist monks on Tuesday morning marched around Preah Reach Trap Mountain, where the relics of Buddha are housed, in order to mark Visak Bochea's day, or Buddha's day. In Cambodia, the Buddha's relics are housed at the cliff of Preah Reach Trap Mountain, located in Kampong Speu province's Oddong district, some 40 kilometers north of Phnom Penh. The event was also attended by the President of the National Assembly Heng Samrin and Deputy Prime Minister Kong Sam Ol, minister of the royal palace. Visak Bochea day is the anniversary of the Buddha's birth, enlightenment and death; it's a religious holiday in Cambodia. During the event, participants had brought praying stuff such as candles, incense sticks, flowers to pray to the Lord Buddha and offered foods and cash donations to about 800 Buddhist monks in order to dedicate to their ancestors. In a related event later in the day, 2,600 Buddhist monks marched in Phnom Penh to mark the day. The procession had been participated by Deputy Prime Ministers Yim Chhay Ly and Man Sam An as well as thousands of Buddhists. Buddhism is the state religion in Cambodia. About 90 percent of the country's 14.3 million people are Buddhists. According to the figure of the Ministry of Cults and Religion, the country has approximately 4,400 Buddhist pagodas with more than 50,000 monks. Editor: Bi Mingxin

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Monks Fight to Get Cambodian Forests on the Carbon Market

For years, the guardians of Sorng Rukavorn forest have drifted through the muted greens and grays of the underbrush in their saffron robes. In the far north of Cambodia, the monks live in what should be peaceful isolation, but all too often they have had to fend off incursions on this land. Using their authority as holy figures, they've turned away illegal loggers — among them, they say, armed police and soldiers — as well as local officials who have tried to wrestle control of the public land to parcel it out for their own profit. Now the monks are looking for backup. They plan to institutionalize their communal ownership of the forest and shared profit from its 44,479-acre bounty by demarcating it an international ecological asset. Sorng Rukavorn is one of 13 community forests spreading over 168,032 acres in Oddar Meanchey province that is being registered as a bank of carbon credits. Under this nascent international tool of climate change mitigation referred to as Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD), governments and companies in industrialized nations can pay developing countries to cut carbon emissions on their behalf by not cutting trees. Deforestation accounts for roughly a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity, according to the UN. Trees and plants absorb the gas — produced by a number of natural and manmade processes, from the combustion of fossil fuels by factories, cars and volcanic eruptions, to the flatulence of livestock — and are therefore essential to balancing its levels in the atmosphere. (Read more about how REDD works.) Though the science of climate change is mostly new to the monks of Sorng Rukavorn, the importance of preserving nature is fundamental. Forests have always figured prominently in the imagination of Buddhists. "It was under a tree that Buddha was born, meditated, achieved enlightenment and passed away," says Tha Soun, a 42-year-old monk who has modeled his lifestyle after his deity, spending much of his time in ritualized performances under Rukavorn's canopy. Tha recalls times several years ago when Sorng Rukavorn would receive regular visits from police and soldiers who were engaged in illegal-logging rackets. "We have had success in protecting this land because we are monks," says Tha, adding that lay Cambodians are much more vulnerable to harsh retaliation for confronting authorities. "If they wouldn't stop, I would jut take their chainsaws and weapons."

Most of Cambodia's forests have not been quite so blessed. Cambodia's forest cover has declined 22% over the past two decades, according to the UN. The destruction would have been much worse if the government hadn't cancelled most logging concessions at the turn of the century. At one point during the 1990s, nearly 40% of Cambodia's total land mass was signed over to loggers, according to the London-based NGO Global Witness, which the government banned from working in Cambodia after it published a detailed report in 2007 linking high-ranking politicians as well as members of the military and business community with illegal logging. The government has vehemently denied that report's findings, but its commitment to maintain protected areas continues to be called into question. The English language newspaper the Cambodia Daily recently reported that from February 1 to April 1, Prime Minister Hun Sen approved 17 concessions granting agro-businesses rights to exploit some 1,100 square kilometers in 10 protected areas across the country.
For the residents of Somraong district in Oddar Meanchey, the illicit auction of public resources has left them ever-shrinking space to take their livestock to graze and harvest forest products, including fruit, honey and traditional medicine. As that has happened around the country, the value of a forest like Sorng Rukavorn, which is accessible to all, has become clearer, says Choun Chun, a resident who volunteers for a village committee that oversees the forest in cooperation with the monks. "If we cut down the trees, there will be nothing for the next generation and we will have ruined ourselves."
Much devastation has been visited upon the area already. Oddar Meanchey became a stronghold of the Khmer Rouge after a Vietnamese invasion ousted the fanatical revolutionaries in 1979. Khmer Rouge leaders and their depleted militia held out here against the new regime until the late 90s, funding their campaign by selling timber to dealers in neighboring Thailand. The area has since opened up to the outside world but remains depressed, with poor infrastructure and few economic opportunities. Pact, the NGO that has facilitated the carbon credit application process for the province's community forests, says the revenues will fund development initiatives, including the building of roads, schools and hospitals, and support local employment.
(See pictures of the rise and fall of the Khmer Rouge.)
Leslie Durschinger, managing director of Terra Global Capital, the San Francisco-based company that is marketing Oddar Meanchey's carbon assets, anticipates the forests could garner as much as $50 million over the course of 30 years (a typical duration for a REDD contract). First, however, Oddar Meanchey's carbon assets must be jointly validated by the Verified Carbon Standard and the Climate Community and Biodiversity Standard, both third-party carbon auditors, as well as attract a buyer. For now, the revenue remains theoretical: clean technologies, renewable energy and technology transfers earn credit as offsets in legislated carbon markets but REDD has yet to gain official currency.
The European Union Emission Trading System — which, with tens of billions of dollars in annual trade, is the largest mandatory carbon market — has placed a moratorium on considering REDD credits until 2020. The fledgling California Compliance Market, one of a handful of American state bodies to regulate carbon emissions in the absence of federal laws on the matter, is the only public compliance body in the world that has committed to accepting REDD credits. The UN's proposed international REDD system was outlined in Cancun last December during an annual climate change summit, but disagreements about how it should be funded prevented the mechanism from being implemented. Member states will meet again in December, in Durban, South Africa, to try to push through a binding REDD program. Critics of REDD argue that forest fires and illegal loggers make avoided deforestation credits an easy bank to rob. "We've had so many credibility questions with the carbon market [in general] ... so something like REDD needs time to get off the ground before it should be included" in carbon compliance markets says Sanjeev Kumar, a climate and energy policy specialist based in Brussels for E3G, a sustainable development non-profit group. There are also significant and legitimate concerns about the allocation of REDD revenues in a country like Cambodia, which Transparency International routinely ranks among the most corrupt governments in the world. Cambodia, like many countries, requires that revenues earned from state land be funneled through the government.
For now, Oddar Meanchey's carbon credits will be offered on a voluntary market driven by governments and companies hoping to establish themselves as ecologically conscious or anticipating future compliance requirements. Vann Sophanna, a high-ranking official in the government's Forestry Administration, says state-sanctioned REDD contracts for the forests will empower residents to confront loggers by putting the full weight of the state's authority on their side. "Villagers can have those who try to destroy the forest — even if they are police, soldiers or forestry administration officials — arrested," he says. "We will enforce the law." But it's precisely the role of the government that leaves residents in doubt. "The money might go to the people, or it might go to corrupt officials," said 58-year-old Kuy Thourn, a village leader. "We will find out." According to time.com

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