The ADB is promoting management and conservation of the natural resources of Cambodia’s Tonle Sap basin and has launched the Tonle Sap Environmental Management Project as the first milestone of the Tonle Sap Initiative. The Tonle Sap Initiative is a partnership of organizations and people working to meet the poverty and environment challenges of the Tonle Sap. The Tonle Sap Initiative was announced in 2002 with the start of the TSEMP project.

Objective
The Tonle Sap Environmental Management Project aims to enhance systems and develop the capacity for natural resource management coordination and planning, community-based natural resource management, and biodiversity conservation in the TSBR. Without such investments, the Tonle Sap region would become progressively less productive.

The aims of the Tonle Sap Environmental Management Project are to

1. strengthen natural resource management coordination and planning,
2. organize communities for natural resource management, and
3. build management capacity for biodiversity conservation.

The focal activities under each component are:
Component 1. Strengthening natural resource management coordination and planning for the TSBR entails:

• Establishing a coordination framework and information dissemination mechanisms.
• Mapping the TSBR.
• Improving regulation and management planning.

Component 2. Organizing communities for natural resource management in the TSBR entails:

• Formulating an implementation structure.
• Empowering communities.
• Evaluating technical packages in support of sustainable livelihoods

Component 3. Building management capacity for biodiversity conservation in the TSBR entails:

• Enhancing management capacity.
• Developing systems for monitoring and management.
• Promoting biodiversity conservation awareness, education, and outreach.

The Project is aiming at strengthening the self-reliance of the area’s most poor and vulnerable groups, including ethnic minorities, by giving them a voice in community development and natural resource management.

Project Area
The project area encompasses the TSBR and parts of the five provinces that adjoin it: Battambang, Kompong Chhnang, Kompong Thom, Pursat, and Siem Reap. This comprises the core areas, the buffer zone, and the transition area that extends to and is ultimately bounded by Highways No. 5 and No.6.

Project Funding
The Tonle Sap Environmental Management Project is financed by means of a loan providing

• $10.9 million equivalent from ADB's Special Funds resources
• a Global Environment Facility grant of $3.9 million
• a UNDP Capacity 21 grant for $623,000

An additional $3.9 million equivalent in local currency will be provided by the Cambodian Government.
Executing Agency
The executing agency for the Project, which will be carried out over 5 years, is the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries.