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Local communities in three villages have received approvals from the provincial authority and Ministry of Environment (MoE) to establish Community Protected Areas (CPAs) inside the Chhep Wildlife Sanctuary (CWS), aiming at improving local forest resources management and use.
These new CPAs - Prey Pei Lveng, Trapeang Pong, and Baray Khamkert - are situated in Kampong Sralov Muy Commune, Chhep District of Preah Vihear Province. Consisting of over 260 families and covering nearly 3,000 hectares, these CPAs will give communities the right to directly manage and use forest resources in sustainable way.

“This is welcome news for local communities and critical step toward official establishment of the CPAs inside the CWS. WCS, in collaboration with Preah Vihear Provincial Department of Environment, will work closely with local communities in these three villages to organize community committees, CPA management plans and boundary demarcation to fulfill CPA regulation and guidance requirements,” said Keo Sovanna, WCS’s Community Outreach Team Leader in CWS.

WCS in collaboration with MoE has been working in the Chhep and Kulen Promtep Wildlife Sanctuaries in the Northern Plains of Cambodia for almost twenty years through various conservation activities by empowering communities and supporting government agencies to protect natural habitat and globally threatened wildlife. Our partners Ibis Rice and the Sam Veasna Centre, improve the livelihoods of the communities that we work with through agriculture and ecotourism in a way that is beneficial to biodiversity.