29TS.18 24PS

 

18. Road project inside the Phnom Kulen National Park (PKNP) :

1. Welcomes with appreciation the four bypasses proposed by the APSARA National Authority to minimize impact on the archaeological structures; confirm, for the Sema Pean Kre-Banteay site, that the second option, located in the north and avoiding the forested area, was chosen; recommends a heightening of the road on the “ancient road’ bypass in order not to destroy remains;

2. Suggests to the APSARA National Authority and the Ministry of Environment to present a road design map including all the archaeological protected areas (APA) as well as the community protected areas (CPA);

3. Recommends a 6 meter-width road within the park as a bigger width is not justified considering the expected traffic and would cause a major impact on the remaining trees and on the ecosystem in general. This aims at discouraging the increase of motor vehicles traffic that comes together with potential threats within the highly sensitive PKNP whose archaeological areas could be considered for inscription on the World Heritage List as an extension to Angkor.