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The import of living modified organisms (LMOs)/genetically modified organisms (GMOs) into the Kingdom of Cambodia is through the National Steering Committee for LMO/GMOs and Technical Working Group for Risk Assessment consisting of officials from relevant Ministries. The Steering Committee must submit the result of the risk assessment to the Ministry of Environment, which makes the decision to import or not. The Law and the Sub-decree address LMOs and/or GMOs. Cambodia was one of more than 100 countries to sign the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety at the 2000 Convention of Biological Diversity. (...)

Testing and diagnostic capacity in Cambodia continues to be rudimentary and inadequate to meet modern demands. Currently, there are six laboratories with food testing capacity: (...) the MoE (Ministry of Environment) lab centre for biodiversity analysis, (...)

Under its National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP) 2014-2018, which implements Phase III of the Rectangular Strategy and succeeded the NSDP 2009-2013 (Section 2.2), Cambodia, inter alia, aims at transforming the sector from one primarily depending on expanded use of available resources and traditional agricultural inputs into one driven by new technologies, mechanization and irrigation for improving the yield rate, and diversifying activities into high value crops, livestock, and aquaculture in an environmentally sustainable manner (Section 2.2). Its action areas include: improvement of productivity, diversification and commercialization; promotion of livestock farming and aquaculture; land reform and clearance of mines; and sustainable management of national resources. (...)

(...) Import licensing procedures apply to live animals and animal products and agricultural materials, forestry products, and fish and fishery products in order to protect human and animal health and the environment, as well as to ensure bio-diversity protection, and protect human health, national safety and security. (...)

(...) The Government sees its role in increasing the sustainable use of fertilizers through extension, quality and safety controls as well as investments in infrastructure rather than as a subsidies provider. (...)

(...) To sustain the growth of rice production, the Government has devised and implemented a programme that uses the sustainable rice cluster (SRC) method, which increased rice cultivation by some 40% over conventional methods, whereas at the same time, it encouraged the use of the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) (a less resource-intensive irrigation method) which cut the cost of rice cultivation and delivered yields that are nearly 100% higher than those of conventional methods. (...)

Cambodia's forests remain state-owned and managed. According to FAO data, in 2015 the total forest area of Cambodia constituted 9.45 million hectares covering 53% of the country's total territory, compared to 10.8 million hectares or approximately 60% in 2006. This decrease was mainly due to land conversion to economic land concessions (ELCs) and expansion of agriculture (Sections 2.5, 4.1.2 and 4.1.5.2). Since 2013, 2.6 million hectares of land, 14% of the country, remain allocated to ELCs for agro-industrial plantations, social land and other types of land concessions. The decline in forest area, the implementation of the National Forest Programme 2010-2029 (see below), the shift to alternative sources of energy (including electricity), and export restrictions on roundwood led to a 6% reduction in the production of roundwood and wood fuel in the period 2011-15.

The Forestry Administration (FA) of MAFF continues to implement the National Forest Programme (NFP) 2010-2029 which remains unchanged and includes initiatives in: forest demarcation, classification and registration; conservation and development of forest resources and biodiversity; forest law enforcement and governance; community forestry; and capacity and R&D. Under the NFP, a range of support measures include: research and training services (research and educational projects in support of conservation and rehabilitation of wildlife); monitoring and assessment (development of systems and forest databases); and marketing and promotion services (development of eco-tourism and integrated community livelihood) in protected areas. Its implementation cost for the period 2010-14 stood at US$38.8 million, of which donors contributed US$27 million; its cost for the period 2015-20 was estimated at the same level. Forestry's regulatory framework remains unchanged.

In line with the NSDP 2014-2018 guidelines (Section 2.2), the MoE established four protected zones (i.e. core, conservation, sustainable development, and community development) to prevent encroachment on the protected areas through the development of agro-industry and ecotourism projects and the establishment of protected area communities. Under the 2016 MoE reform (Section 4.1.2), the MAFF transferred forest land to MoE, thus increasing total protected areas from 23 to 46 sites including biodiversity corridor conservations of protected area systems with a surface equivalent to 40.9% of Cambodia's territory. In 2016, a national committee was established to prevent and suppress forest offences in north-eastern Cambodia and as a result forest offensives on a large scale decreased; the Forestry Administration prevented and suppressed illegal logging and land encroachment in 1,490 cases, which is 699 cases less than in 2015.

Illegal timber trade persists in Cambodia. Despite the 1996 log export ban, the cross-border trade continues to grow. Between 2011 and 2015, exports of roundwood, industrial roundwood, wood charcoal and veneer sheets have more than doubled whereas those of total fibre furnish, recovered paper and wood chips and particles dropped considerably; in 2015, exports of Siamese rosewood attained US$35 million despite the ban on exports of endangered species. The 2005 Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan, an EU initiative, provides a framework for the development of Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) to ensure that timber and timber products exported come from legal sources. In 2013, Cambodia completed a study with a view to acceding to the VPA but no action seems to have been taken so far.