A study on deforestation in Cambodia has found that forests are better protected when local communities are given the responsibility to manage them locally.

Cambodia has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world, losing 1.2 per cent each year from 2005-2010. The loss of forests due to illegal logging, commercial agriculture, and other factors can have a devastating impact on local communities, as well as contributing to global climate change. In a country beset by corruption and ineffectual state forest management, alternative models of forest protection are clearly needed.

Research by the Universities of Exeter and Oxford looked at how effective community forestry is in reducing deforestation and supporting livelihoods in the Prey Long forest area of Cambodia. Prey Long forest is one of the last lowland evergreen forests of mainland Southeast Asia. Banteng – wild Cambodian cattle – roam the grassy clearings, and pangolin hide in the shadows. Prey Long is home to an endemic forest type – deciduous swamp forest – and to many rare tree species including krunueng, targeted by loggers for it's high value on the illegal timber market.

One of Cambodia's foremost environmental activists, Chut Wutty, was a keen proponent of community forest patrols and law enforcement. Chut Wutty spearheaded the Prey Long Network an activist group that aims to protect the whole of Prey Long forest. Tragically in 2012, Wutty was killed by armed guards at an illegal logging site he was investigating in the Cardamom mountains. People living in Prey Long continue to actively defend the forest – both through officially recognized community forestry and through the work of the Prey Long Network.

Community forestry aims to reduce illegal logging and deforestation by creating local village institutions. Local people patrol the forest looking for loggers or signs of damage. They benefit from the right to use forest products and increased tenure security over forest resources. This paradigm of forest management has developed since the early 1980’s as part of a wider movement toward participatory development. Elinor Ostrom, the late scholar of community forestry, received the Nobel Prize for Economics for her work on community resource management.

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