Abstract: The Prek Thnot Watershed is in danger of losing its protective role and ability to alleviate poverty due to the harmful activities it is facing. This paper was conducted to determine the link between poverty incidence, Forest Factors, and Non-Forest Factors, which could be a basis for policy implementation. All 49 communes in the Prek Thnot Watershed within Kompong Speu were involved. The Commune Database, Open Development Cambodia, and Google Earth were used to collect data for computing poverty incidence using a modified multidimensional poverty index; conducting a Sign Test; determining the spatial autocorrelation of poverty incidence, and the condition of communes in terms of Forest and Non-Forest Factors; and producing an OLS regression model. Interestingly, results showed that forest area reduces poverty incidence by 0.08 counts, whereas community-based natural resource management and infrastructure density raises poverty incidence by 0.38 and 0.51 counts, respectively. The effects of: forest area was attributed to the behavior that forest-based enterprises are situated in the Southeast but acquire their resources from the West; CBNRM indicates a problem on policy-implementation; and infrastructure density denotes that the abundant infrastructures in the East and Southeast failed to offset poverty due to the presence of several landless migrants situated in the same area. In conclusion, there is a need to properly implement forestry, land concession, and CBNRM policies; and provide training to farmers, business-owners, and prospecting entrepreneurs. However, applying these suggestions does not guarantee full effectiveness due to the presence of strong spatial autocorrelation of poverty incidence.
Keywords: Cambodia, OLS regression, poverty incidence, Prek Thnot Watershed, spatial autocorrelation.
Title: The Link between Poverty Incidence, Forest Factors, and Non-Forest Factors in the Prek Thnot Watershed within Kompong Speu, Cambodia
Author: Lauannah E. Maningo, Kum Veasna , Thin Kouland
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
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