USAID GREENING PREY LANG Impact Assessment on Conservation Wellbeing Impacts in the Prey Lang Extended Landscape

This evaluation builds upon long-term research that has been conducted in Preah Vihear on the environmental and social impacts of protected areas and payment for ecosystem services on local communities. The evaluation findings note that the management of two protected areas (Kulen Promtep and Chhaeb Wildlife Sanctuaries) has not disadvantaged households living within protected areas, who have steadily improved their economic status with each round of the evaluation since 2008.

For the IBIS Rice program, the evaluation showed that the program continues to benefit participant farmers. Over the latest evaluation period, from 2017 to 2021, the average annual earnings of surveyed participant farmers increased by 98% and the average number of years in which participants received benefits between surveys rose from 1.9 to 2.4 years. The principal recommendations for the IBIS Rice program from the evaluation are to 1) develop ways to integrate poorer farmers into IBIS Rice and 2) increase farmer uptake of the IBIS Rice program in existing villages.