MFF welcomes Cambodia as 10th member country

Cambodia has been an MFF Outreach Country since 2010, after which it formed an Executive Board (equivalent to National Coordinating Bodies in other member countries) in 2012. In 2013, the National Strategy and Action Plan (NSAP) for MFF activities in Cambodia was endorsed by the EB-MFF-CAM and supported by the Ministry of Environment. 

Cambodia successfully completed the MFF membership process, which included a formal request on 10 July 2013 by H.E Dr. Vann Monyneath, the Chair of Executive Board for Mangroves for the Future initiative of Cambodia (EB-MFF-CAM). Welcoming Cambodia as the newest MFF member, Aban Marker Kabraji, IUCN Asia Regional Director and MFF Co-chair said, "The continued growth of the MFF partnership, is evident in terms of new countries joining the initiative as members. This is an important step towards ensuring that conservation efforts encompass political boundaries and correspond to the contiguity of natural landscapes across the region."  "Cambodia strengthens MFF's regional network. The MFF initiative will greatly benefit from Cambodia's valuable experience in coastal management", she added.

Following the formal induction of Cambodia as the 10th MFF Member country, H.E Dr. Vann Monyneath, Chair of the Executive board of Mangroves for the Future initiative of Cambodia said, "Cambodia will be able to share and learn more experiences and best practices related to coastal resilience, coastal ecosystem management and protection to and from other MFF member countries. Furthermore, its inclusion into MFF family will help Cambodia to promote cooperation among other MFF member countries and build more capacity and resources of Executive Board of MFF of Cambodia through regional MFF learning events”.

Inclusion of Cambodia as member country of Mangroves for the Future initiative will offer significant contributions to protecting and managing existing coastal ecosystems in the country. Access to MFF's small and medium grants facilities will help local communities and civil society in Cambodia to better manage and protect the coastal ecosystems in sustainable ways and improve their resource dependent livelihoods.

Cambodia has a 440 kilometer-long coastline scattered with mangrove forests (78,405ha), coral reefs (2,805.5ha), seagrass beds(33,814ha) and other coastal ecosystems which are fundamental to the livelihoods of millions of Cambodians. Not only do they perform an essential role in supplying people with fish, a staple food rich in protein, but are also vital to coastal protection, tourism and biodiversity. Three coastal provinces of Kep, Koh Kong and Kampot have been chosen as the geographical priority areas of work under MFF in Cambodia. 

The National Strategy and Action Plan (NSAP) of Cambodia has determined and classified priorities actions into 13 strategies, three of which are considered high priority: a) Building knowledge base for coastal resources management; b) Building community resilience to climate change and natural disasters and c) Promoting environmentally sustainable livelihoods.