The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will fund total $69 million for forest conservation projects in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, the bank said Dec 13. The fund aims to protect more than 1.9 million hectares of threatened forest land which is home to over 170,000 people who are mostly poor and from ethnic minorities, the ADB said in a statement. The funds will be allocated to the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) Biodiversity Conservation Corridors Project, which follows a series of successful pilot conservation activities carried out earlier by GMS countries, ADB said. “It marks the first investment to emerge from the pilot phase and provides a model for expanded and sustained local community participation in the management of these vital natural resources,” Pavit Ramachandran, environment specialist (regional cooperation) in ADB’s Southeast Asia Department, said in a statement. Of the total, Vietnam will receive $30 million in a 32-year loan including eight years of grace period with an annual interest rate of 1% per annum and 1.5% for the balance of the term from ADB’s concessional Asian Development Fund. The project will include planting native trees and other plants to restore habitats in an area of over 19,000 hectares of degraded forest land, raising capacity of local authorities in forest management and supporting poor households and ethnic minority groups who depend on forest resources. (www.saigon-gpdaily.com.vn [1] Dec 14)
