Cambodia’s deciduous dipterocarp forests are some of the most important conservation areas in southeast Asia, home to many mammals and water birds, including the threatened Giant and White-shouldered Ibises. Deforestation, hunting and the advance of settlers into forest areas have endangered the survival of these species.
Initial conservation measures which focused on establish- ing various protected areas were unsuccessful, mainly due to a lack of supporting infrastructure. In 2002 a series of pilot PES schemes, supported by the Government and the Wildlife Con- servation Society (WCS), were set up in the protected areas. Te PES schemes are packaged to include various ecosystem serv- ices, including ecotourism, payment for bird nest protection and the production of wildlife friendly products.
Under the community-based ecotourism scheme bird watching tourists are charged for their experience – US$30 per person if all key species are viewed and US$15 if a bird watcher views one particular species. Communities thus have a vested interest in protecting bird populations. Alongside this programme, WCS pays US$5 for reports of nests of threatened species and employs local people to monitor and protect chicks. Te nesting scheme is considered to have been successful: more than 1 900 nests were protected between 2002 and 2010. Meanwhile an agricul- tural product scheme includes measures to give local farmers greater access to markets for wildlife-friendly products in return for protecting threatened species and for limiting expansion of agricultural lands into forestry areas.
Tough there are concerns about certain aspects of these
schemes, including the reliance on continued outside funding for the bird nesting programme, it is felt that the packaging and combining of PES programmes has helped conservation efforts and has also provided much needed additional income to local communities (Clements et al. 2010).
58 VITAL GRAPHICS ON PAYMENT FOR ECOSYSTEM SERVICES