The central cardamom project is located within the boundaries of the 3 provinces of Cambodia known as Koh Kong, Pursat and Kompong Speu and the whole region covers around 400,000 hectare land area.
Cardamom is obtained from the word ‘cardamomum’ which is considered to be a Latin word and is regarded to be a spice plant from India. In India, these plants are widely grown in Malabar (Kerala) and Mysore. The core of this research study in Cambodia was to unveil all the treasures of the entire central Cardamom project and how these treasures could be protected.
Apart from that, this project also includes conservation efforts of the following –
1- In the year 2002, the Prime Minister of Cambodia Mr. Samdech Hun Sen assigned a sub-decree which declared the area as a safeguarded biodiversity area.
2- During the year January 2011, the Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture passed a decree for suspending all the timber deals in the Cardamom Forest.
3- In the same year, in March 2011, the conversation program started its operations with 3 main activities such as community development, research and monitoring and law enforcement.
4- A M.O.U. (Memorandum of Understanding) was agreed upon with CI (Conservation International) for providing budgetary as well as technical support for the forestry administration for protecting the Central Cardamom forest.
The above mentioned were the various steps taken by the Cambodian Government to protect the forest biodiversity. Apart from the above, the government had also established a bear research effort in the year 2006 which focused on 3 main activities.
1- Research in the Bokor national park, Mondulkiri province, Sre Park Zone, Battambang province, Central Cardamom protected forest, Cardamom mountains etc.
2- Provision to train in schools located nearby the Central Cardamom Forest.
3- Provision to protect bears in the Cambodian Forests.