Heritage site

Sorng Rukhavorn Wildlife Sanctuary

Sorng Rukhavorn Wildlife Sanctuary is a protected area of 30,254 hectares (about 74,760 acres) in Oddar Meanchey province, in northwestern Cambodia.[1][2] It covers parts of Samraong town and of the Anlong Veng and Chong Kal districts.[1][2] The government created it by a sub-decree of April 5, 2018, around the Monks' Community Forest, which the Venerable Bun Saluth and the monks of Samraong Pagoda had guarded since the early 2000s.[2][3][4] The name is also spelled Sang Rukhavoan, Sangrukhavorn and Sorng Rokavorn.[2][3][5]

Monks' Community Forest

Bun Saluth, a monk who served as chief of monks for Oddar Meanchey province, had seen Cambodia's forests cut down for economic land concessions, illegal logging and land grabbing.[4][3] He set out to protect a stretch of evergreen forest near Samraong in 2000[3] or 2001.[4][5] Volunteers from his Wat and from nearby villages were soon patrolling it to stop illegal cutting.[4] Khmer Times dated his fight against illegal logging and poaching there from 2002.[2] The area's first name was Forest Protection and Wildlife Conservation Area,[2] and people in the province called it Prey Lok, "Monk Forest".[3]

Provincial authorities recognized the forest in 2002. The monks asked the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries for national recognition in 2007 and were turned down, but on November 19, 2008, the ministry recognized it as a community forest.[3][5] Its area is given as 18,261 hectares (about 45,120 acres)[4][3] or 18,164 hectares (about 44,880 acres).[5] With little money, the monks secured legal protection, marked the boundaries, formed patrol teams and taught nearby villages why the forest mattered.[4] The United Nations Development Programme, which gave the forest its Equator Prize in 2012, called it the largest community forest in Cambodia.[4]

The forest was the largest of 13 community forests in the Oddar Meanchey project for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), the first such project in Cambodia. REDD+ pays for forest protection through the sale of carbon credits.[4][5] The Forestry Administration developed the project with Pact and Terra Global Capital, and the prime minister endorsed it by Government Decision No. 699 on May 26, 2008.[5] The forest land itself belongs to the Forestry Administration, while the communities hold rights to use and manage it.[5]

Protection in practice

The monks treat forest protection as part of the Buddhist path, teaching that no living being should be harmed.[4] Their patrols go unarmed, treat offenders without anger, give a person three chances before further action and photograph offenders to deter them.[4] In tree ordination ceremonies, monks bless the oldest and largest trees and wrap their trunks in saffron robes. Felling an ordained tree, or hunting in the ordained forest, is regarded as being as grave as harming a monk, with consequences for the next rebirth.[4]

As of 2012, more than 3,700 people in six villages took part in the forest's work and drew on its resources. A committee of nine, five monks and four villagers, oversaw the forest with Bun Saluth as its leader, and 44 elected villagers sat on village subcommittees; 86 monks of the Wat joined regular patrols.[4] Logging and hunting were banned, but villagers could fish by traditional methods, gather fallen wood for their houses, and collect bamboo, wild ginger, fruit and mushrooms. Mushrooms alone could earn a family US$150 to US$200 a month.[4] Buddhism for Development, Community Forestry International, Pact Cambodia and a group of nuns in the United States supported the work.[4] The development program credited the patrols and outreach with sharply reducing logging, hunting and land clearing in the forest.[4]

The sanctuary

The provincial environment department and other provincial authorities asked for the forest and its neighbor to become a wildlife sanctuary. Phuong Lina, the department's director, called the area a hot spot for forest and wildlife crime and said that 10 forest crime cases from it went to court in 2017.[6] In November 2017, Bun Saluth and community members found illegally felled timber in the forest.[6] Prime Minister Hun Sen signed the sub-decree on April 5, 2018.[6][1] The sanctuary joined the Sorng Rukhavorn community forest with the Rattanak Rokha community forest,[6][3] and with land in Anlong Veng that the Stung Treng II hydroelectric dam flooded.[6] It was set up to protect the environment and ecosystems, to keep the use of its resources sustainable and to protect the culture of local communities; private land and land set aside for public use are excluded.[1] The Ministry of Environment manages it with other ministries and institutions, the provincial administration and the armed forces.[2]

Bun Saluth welcomed the sanctuary: "The establishment of a wildlife sanctuary is good for the protection of the forest for hundreds of more years as has been my intention."[6] Sao Sopheap, a spokesman for the Ministry of Environment, said in April 2018 that the ministry had assigned rangers to patrol it.[2] Phuong Lina said at the time that the sanctuary had no permanent rangers for lack of resources. Over the year before, eight rangers from the Kulen Promtep Wildlife Sanctuary and the Banteay Chhmar Nature Protection Area, with two provincial officials, had taken turns patrolling the area.[6]

In 2022, the Venerable Tho Thoross, chief monk of the community forest, named rosewood logging, illegal trapping and fishing, hunting and fires set to seize land as ongoing threats, and said that patrols went out every day.[3] About 1,600 seedlings of rosewood and other valuable trees planted in August 2020 were lost to flooding. On July 17, 2022, about 1,000 monks, residents, young people, officials and members of aid groups and forest communities planted 6,000 seedlings of endangered tree species, 500 of them fruit trees, on degraded land in the sanctuary.[3]

Wildlife

Threatened species recorded in the forest by 2012 include the sun bear, gibbons, gaur, slow lorises, leopards, the green peafowl, the greater and lesser adjutant storks, pangolins and dholes.[4] The forest has dense evergreen and semi-evergreen cover rich in plant species.[4] Phuong Lina described it in 2018 as home to rare and valuable timber trees and endangered animals.[6]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Open Development Cambodia, Sub-decree No. 49 on the establishment of Sorng Rukhavorn Wildlife Sanctuary (April 5, 2018)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Khmer Times, Pech Sotheary, New wildlife sanctuary established (April 11, 2018)
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 Cambodianess, Teng Yalirozy, Massive Tree-Planting Ceremony to Preserve Forest Sanctuary in Oddar Meanchey (July 18, 2022)
  4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 United Nations Development Programme, Monks Community Forest, Cambodia (2012)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 ASEAS, Donal Yeang, Community Tenure Rights and REDD+: A Review of the Oddar Meanchey Community Forestry REDD+ Project in Cambodia (2012)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 The Phnom Penh Post, Phak Seangly, Struggling forests to become sanctuaries (April 11, 2018)
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This page was last edited on 12 October 2026, at 07:34.