Ministry promoting eco-tourism to award winning communities

• Published date: 23 February 2023
• Publication title: The Phnom Penh Post

A state agency and partner NGOs are working to promote eco-tourism community targets in the Upper Mekong and Tbeng Meanchey Mountain area, with a workshop is one of their latest activities held early this week and attended by tour operators and stakeholders as well as Minister of Tourism Thong Khon.

The workshop was conducted in collaboration with the National Committee for Management and Development of Community-Based Tourism and Ecotourism, USAID Greening Prey Lang (GPL) Project and Non-Timber Forest Products Exchange Programme (NTFP-EP Cambodia).

'The minister instructed the Secretariat of the National Committee to continue to work with the USAID and NTFP-EP Cambodia working groups, together with the Preah Vihear, Stung Treng and Kratie provincial Departments of Tourism and the five target communities to prepare promotional materials, especially in collaboration with relevant partners and promote the above community targets widely,' tourism ministry said in a press statement.

The five tourism communities targeted are the Tangyu Waterfall, Dataveuk and Chak Angre Waterfall tourism communities located at Tbeng Meanchey mountain of Preah Vihear province, Koh Samsep eco-tourism community in Kratie province and Samros Koh Han eco-tourism community in Stung Treng province.

'In fact, we have more [ecotourism] communities. But what we do is under the auspices of USAID through the Greening Prey Lang Project and the NTFP-EP. Our organisation has four communities in the Mekong River area: Koh Samsep, Samros Koh Han, Borey O'Svay and Phnom Chamrok,' said Sim Bunthoeurn, NTFP-EP's programme manager.

He said that the GPL project is based in the Tbeng Meanchey communities of Chak Angre, Tangyu and Dataveuk.

With a tour package planned called Farm Trip, there are plans to arrange for guests to visit all three destinations at Tbeng Meanchey Mountain and two in the Mekong River, such as Samros Koh Han and Koh Samsep.

NTFP-EP Cambodia has cooperated with the tourism and environment ministries and departments as well as the agriculture departments to organise these ecotourism communities along the Upper Mekong River by helping them with legal documents and standards as required.

'We have documents to support the organisation and management of an ecotourism community, and it is the first document that NTFP-EP Cambodia has done with the ministry. We worked together to develop a five-year master plan for ecotourism communities along the Upper Mekong,' Bunthoeurn told The Post.

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