Book Outlines Best of Both Worlds for Cardamom Mountains
The protectionist bent of conservation groups and the development agenda of the government can come together in Cambodia to create a green economy. That is the message of a new book Conservation International (C.I.) launched yesterday in Phnom Penh, outlining practical options for saving the environment in the greater Cardamom region. “It shows us a way how we can resolve some of our problems instead of arguing about them,” said Timothy Killeen, a senior research scientist at C.I. and the book’s author. In the works for the past four years, “The Cardamom Conundrum” comes out at a time when the government is giving away land to mining, hydropower and agri-business operations faster than ever—and when those concessions are sparking increasingly violent protests among the local communities they are dispossessing. …
