On February 8, 2010, H.E. Chan Sarun, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries declared five Bengal Florican Conservation Areas (initially formed as provincial Integrated Farming and Biodiversity Areas) to be protected and managed for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use by local communities. The conservation areas mainly contain grassland dominant landscapes, which are now extremely rare in South-East Asia and which have been disappearing rapidly in Cambodia in recent years. Such landscapes are essentially man-made, having formed over long periods of low intensity use and they continue to be play an important role in sustaining local livelihoods. The associated biodiversity of such grasslands is both unique and highly threatened. The total area covered by the six sites is 31,159 ha. The sites are: Chikraeng (4,636 ha) in Siem Reap province, and Stoung (2,812 ha), Baray (7,314 ha), Chong Doung (2,569 ha), Trea-Samaki (11,138 ha) and Toul Kreul-Phan Nheum (2,690 ha) in Kampong Thom province.
The Forestry and Fisheries Administrations are the main government agencies involved in the management of the conservation areas, with participation of local government and community stakeholders. Five Non-Governmental Organizations are collaborating in the effort to strengthen natural resource management in the protected areas: the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the Centre d'Etude et de Développement Agricole Cambodgien (CEDAC), the Sam Veasna Center (SVC), BirdLife International in Indochina and the Angkor Center for Conservation of Biodiversity (ACCB). The collaborative project is being supported by grants from the IUCN Netherlands Ecosystem Grants Program, the US Fish and Wildlife Service's Wildlife Without Borders - Critically Endangered Animal Conservation Fund, the UNDP/GEF funded Tonle Sap Conservation Project, a private donor and the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, administered through BirdLife International in Indochina and which is a joint initiative of l'Agence Française de Développement, Conservation International, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, the MacArthur Foundation and the World Bank.
The recognition of the importance of these sites as a part of Cambodia's unique natural heritage by the national government shows great commitment to the preservation of some of the country's most threatened landscapes.