GOVERNMENT-DONOR COORDINATION COMMITTEE (GDCC)

Six Month Progress Report of the Joint Technical Working Groups
For the Period: December 2005 - May 2006

This questionnaire on progress made by each Joint Technical Working Group is requested by the Secretariat of the Government-Donor Coordination Committee (GDCC). It should be completed and submitted to the Secretariat of the GDCC before 29 May 2006. It will be used to prepare a summary progress report for the seventh GDCC Meeting scheduled to be held on 14 June 2006. Please return the completed questionnaire to H.E. Mr. Chhieng Yanara at CDC/CRDB in both soft and hard copies.

TWG: Forestry and Environment

A. Progress in Implementing TWG's Action Plans

Please list below activities in the Action Plans that were scheduled to be implemented during the last six months (December 2005 to May 2006) and provide an update on implementation status of these activities.

	Scheduled Activities	Implementation Status
	Scheduled Activities	On Schedule	Behind Schedule	If behind schedule, reasons for delay	TWG Recommendations for GDCC Consideration, if any
1.	Develop and implement National Forest Programme		ü	Support process initiation late 2006	Need further donor support than from Danida
2.	Practical implementation of forest demarcation and demarcation of protected areas		ü	The budget plan for this activity has been sent to MEF since January 2006	Need donor support
3.	Formulate National Forest Management Plans and manage the forests based on the plan	ü	ü	Task is big and takes time	- Upgrade quality of division plan - Develop Natural Resource Management Plan - Harmonize management with other sectors
4.	Develop Management Plans for protected areas	ü	ü	Completed in Virachey National Park (NP). Other 3 NPs are on going; and the rest no fund to implement	Need budget
5.	Forest cover assessment for 2005	ü		On-going	Need more budget than from Danida
6.	Studies domestic demand for forest products and potential export markets		ü	To finalize the previous works
7.	Continue Forest and Land Crime Monitoring and Reporting	ü		No fund for independent monitor (SGS)	Need budget
8.	Define management options for sustainable forest management in Cambodia		ü	Proposal made will be started in 2007
9.	Secure support and funding and implement the National Forest Gene Conservation Programs Action Plan 2006-2010	ü		Some funding secure for 2006 - 2008	Support for 2 years in process
10.	Implement National Community Forestry Program and develop community forestry	ü			Need more budget
11.	Assess and test out " Forest Partnership " in pilot communes as an alternative form of forest management and a mechanism for forest revenue to contribute to local development	ü		Pilot in high value forest in Mondulkiri and management model from medium to degraded forest of most importance and urgently needed.
12.	Small scale family business based on forest products promoted		ü	Some activities made by NGOs. No national progress	No fund for extension by FA
13.	Implement Overall Capacity Building Program	ü	ü	Capacity building project is on-going, but the rest no support to implement
14.	Install web site for TWG-F&E	ü		Completed and model adopted by other TWGs
15.	Tree planting for socio-economic purposes and environmental services by multiple stakeholders	ü		Not yet planting season. Producing 12.50 million seedlings
16.	Processing techniques for value added products and innovative products promoted		ü	No fund
17.	Capacity building project for forestry sector phase II	ü
18.	Capacity building tree seed sector and apply for funding and continuation	ü			Project terminates by 30 June 2006 and transfers to support TWG.

Are there any other issues affecting the implementation of TWG Action Plan that it would like to submit for GDCC's consideration?

Fund – TWG Work Plan is insufficient covered.
Information sharing form stakeholders to TWG Secretariat needs attention and improvement.
More donor back-up and attention for TWG meeting is required.
Alignment of financial support through the TWG mechanism is required. Still much technical assistance and information is by-passing the TWG.

B. Progress on Joint Monitoring Indicators

If there are any Joint Monitoring Indicator(s) agreed at the 8^th CG Meeting held in March 2006 that fall within the mandate of this TWG, please list the JMIs below and indicate progress that has been made toward achieving the JMI targets.

	Joint Monitoring Indicator	What is the current implementation status? What are the constraints that you are experiencing, if any? What recommendations do you have, for GDCC consideration to resolve the identified constraints?
1.	Strengthening the enforcement of the Forestry Law, especially combating forest land clearing and encroachment	- The RGC issued the order to provincial governors to take back the forest land - Lack of means and financial support for this activity for the FA
2.	Rationalizing and reclassify national forest lands to ensure sustainable use of these resources by further forest demarcation/demarcation of protected areas	The budget plan for this activity has been sent to MEF since January 2006
3.	Completing Forest Cover Assessment 2005/2006	On-going. No major problems
4.	Implementing Community Forestry program and develop Community Forestry	The Community Forestry (CF) Guideline has been sent to MAFF for review and approval. Now there is a new CF project to be implemented by FA and RECOFTC.
5.	Implementing capacity building for forestry sector program/tree planting for socio-economic purposes	- Capacity Building: On schedule - Tree Planting: Statistics will be available after planting season
6.	Independent Monitoring in the forestry sector (Subject to donor grant funding)	No fund for implementing.
7.	Strengthen transparency by disseminating all relevant sector information on the activities of government agencies, including information on mining concession and military development zones, as well as donors and NGOs by periodically posting on TWG-F&E website	- MIME has done the process (select a representative to be TWG-F&E member and will present a document on mining concession areas) - Ministry of National Defense: No response (GDCC should direct this ministry to support the general development by TWG) - NGOs still not fully providing information to TWG

C. Implementation Status of the Action Plan on Harmonization, Alignment and Results

What actions have you taken to implement the updated Harmonization, Alignment, and Results Action Plan? What are the constraints that you are experiencing, if any?

What recommendations do you have, for GDCC consideration to resolve the identified constraints?

	Action Taken	Update
1.	Development partners’ support is aligned with national development strategies, i.e. NSDP…	The NSDP is pointed out as the lead. In this regard we can only inform the forestry Administration as well as the TWG-F&E were unfortunately only to a limited extend given opportunity to involve in its formulation. So maybe a reflection on how the NSDP actually was produced, by-passing at least forestry and therefore probably also many other key institutions might be a relevant reflection before it is announced as the lead without the necessary reservations and safe guards.
2.	Development partners make increasing use of strengthened Cambodian institutions, systems and procedures as they attain mutually agreed standards.	The Action Plan refers to partnerships and local priorities. However, the terminology used indicates a lot of donor language, more than usual, in this process.
3.	RGC’s capacity to plan, manages, implement, and account for results of policies and programs strengthened with development partners’ support.	The Action Plan touches upon series of fundamentals of which have worked very efficient and productive. The Forestry Administration has good experiences with implementation of individual projects. A quick abandon PIU/PMU mechanisms entirely could result in that government agencies loose opportunities for attracting and implementing donor supported projects. It is recommended that real sector programme (with no parallel structures) through line agencies which will and can assist the government in its long term goals are promoted and that new methodologies are implemented in a controlled manner.

D. Resource Mobilization

Has the TWG been able to mobilize the resources to implement its Action Plan for 2006?

£ yes R no

If no, please answer the following questions:

What is the total amount of resources the TWG had estimated to implement its Action Plan for 2006? (in USD)................. 18.49 million
What is the minimum additional amount that the TWG needs to implement its Action Plan? (in USD) .................................. 5.33 million
Which development partners do you think would be able to provide the required resources? JICA, DANIDA, GTZ, FAO, UNDP, DFID, EU, AFD, USAID.

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