Heavy Use of Cambodia’s Natural Resources Has Climate Effects, Experts Say

Cambodia may not be an industrialized nation, and therefore not putting as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as other countries, but it nevertheless is contributing to climate change through deforestation, experts say.

Cambodia is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change, because of its reliance on agriculture and fisheries in a changing hydrological system.

Meanwhile, only about half of its forest cover remains, thanks to rampant logging in recent decades. That takes away a potential carbon sink, and contributes to global warming in its own way, even as Cambodia remains vulnerable.

Pech Sokhem, a Canadian climate adaptation specialist, said Cambodia is considered one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change because of its reliance on natural resources. “Eighty percent of the population lives in a rural area,” he said. “People rely on water resources, fisheries. People are mostly poor.”

Cambodians are also especially vulnerable to disasters, like flooding, drought and disease, he said.

Shannon Siyao Wang, environmental planning coordinator for the Great Mekong Subregion at the Asian Development Bank, told VOA Khmer that Cambodia can improve its environmental management through carbon and energy taxes, to push private investment in renewable energy.

“So it’s very important that through the formulation of the national environmental strategy we look at how we could potentially mitigate some of the environmental degradation, by introducing environment policy legislation, as well as deploying financial options to address this issue,” she said. “The current environmental status in Cambodia is quite well known; we are facing deforestation, water pollution. The land pollution rate is also quite high, due to agricultural production, as well as due to the impacts of climate change.”

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