Ms. Sao Mom was born and lives in Veal village, Samrong commune, Phnom Kravanh District, Pursat Province. She is 32 years old and has dropped out of ninth grade. She is married to Ang Chan, and they have a 10-year-old son. Her family consists of four members, including her biological mother. She currently works as a farmer and banana chip seller. She serves as secretary of the business group for Anakot Kumar’s above-mentioned initiative.
In fact, Ms. Sao Mom attended a training course with a project on banana chips, which is now supported by clients in and out of the village, both wholesale and retail, resulting in decent earnings and profits. Do you want to know when she started her business? What factors contribute to the success of this business? And now you want to know about her family’s living situations, which will be discussed below.
A. Project Background
The project “Management of Community Forest Biodiversity to contribute to the improvement of sustainable community livelihoods in the Cardamom Biodiversity Area”, spans 18 months (September 6, 2022-February 29, 2024). The project is located at Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary, near the Central Cardamom Mountain National Park, in Veal village, Samrong commune, Phnom Kravanh district, Pursat province. This project is supported by the Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme through UNDP, implemented by Anakot Kumar with the communities. The goal of the project is to “increase people’s livelihoods to be more efficient and sustainable by encouraging and promoting the full participation of local communities in implementing the model community forest management plan for Pursat province.”
This project also has three major goals. First, Veal Village community forestry members have a greater awareness of sustainable forest and natural resource management, and they actively participate in implementing community forest management plans. Second, the Veal village community forestry committee has a finance management system to cover the cost of long-term conservation efforts. Third, the lessons learned and best practices achieved from project implementation are gathered and distributed to communities and stakeholders for further implementation.
The project provides financing to the community through Anakat Komar to fund patrol activities, capacity-building training on food processing techniques, loans, and assistance to the community’s small businesses.