USAID GREENING PREY LANG Evaluation of Effectiveness of Activities For Supporting And Strengthening Protected Area Law Enforcement In the Prey Lang Extended Landscape

USAID Greening Prey Lang (GPL) conducted this Evaluation of Effectiveness of Activities for Supporting and Strengthening Protected Area Law Enforcement in the Prey Lang Extended Landscape (PLEL) (Law Enforcement Evaluation) to assess implementation of efforts to support and strengthen law enforcement in and around protected areas in the PLEL. This includes an analysis of how the Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) is working as an approach to adaptive management and a review of law enforcement implementation in the PLEL.

USAID GPL made field visits to project sites in the PLEL to assess of the implementation of SMART and other conservation technology tools in Preah Vihear, Stung Treng, Kampong Thom, and Kratie provinces, as well as to provide training and mentoring of both USAID GPL staff and government counterparts. This informed a situation analysis that identifies the major threats facing implementation of SMART as an adaptive management tool within Cambodia’s Protected Area Monitoring Platform (PAMP) and factors contributing to those threats, and highlights a set of strategies that can be used to increase government engagement in SMART processes and contribute to improved law enforcement outcomes. The results of the analysis includes a set of results chains for informing how strategies can lead to desired outcomes. As the underlying system of management in the PLEL under Provincial Departments of Environment (PDoE) and Ministry of Environment (MoE) is the same across protected areas throughout Cambodia, the results from this analysis may be applicable to other conservation landscapes and should be of interest to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and donor agencies supporting site-based conservation management.

In addition to the SMART evaluation, USAID GPL conducted a review of law enforcement support efforts in the PLEL to provide a status update on law enforcement systems and processes, conservation technology technical support, training and capacity building, and monitoring and evaluation.

Key Findings for SMART Implementation

Main threats to effective implementation of SMART as an adaptive management tool: SMART reports not used by managers, SMART patrol plans not followed by ranger teams, Critical results from patrols do not appear in SMART data, and Patrol data is low quality.

Strategies to address these threats: Build PDoE/MoE capacity for SMART data management; Align SMART outputs with PDoE/MoE information needs; Establish PAMP Command Centers in PDoE offices; Incentivize rangers to conduct and record quality patrols; Measure patrol performance using a range of indicators; Ensure effective use of smartphones and other patrol equipment; Improve engagement with government staff in SMART tasks and processes; Build capacity for effective SMART data recording; and Ensure SMART processes are understood by government and community rangers.