The 1^st meeting of the project steering committee of the “Improving Ecosystem Management for Sustainable Livelihoods in Cambodia and China within the Framework of Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Project”, financed by the UNEP-China Trust Fund Phase 2, was organized virtually on 26 April 2022. It was participated by the steering committee members from Ministry of Environment (Cambodia), Department of Ecology and Environment of Yunnan Province (China), UNEP Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (UNEP ROAP), UNEP-International Ecosystem Management Partnership (UNEP-IEMP), Lancang-Mekong Environmental Cooperation Center (LMEC), and Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) with donor representative from the Foreign Environmental Cooperation Center (China) as observer. 

This 1^st steering committee meeting had an overall objective to obtain strategic guidance of project implementation progress and recommendations to the project team and implementing partners on the project activities. The project implementation team (consisting of UNEP ROAP, UNEP-IEMP and LMEC) as well as the extended partners from Cambodia and China, gave presentation about the project overview, work plan, budget, progress so far, next steps and challenges. Ms. Tatirose Vijitpan, Focal Point of the Greater Mekong Sub-region Portfolio, gave presentation from UNEP-IEMP, particularly in relation to the pilot activities on ecosystem management and sustainable livelihoods at the Phnom Kulen National Park in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment of Cambodia. 

Afterwards, the steering committee members and observer provided their valuable feedback. Dr. Linxiu Zhang, Director of UNEP-IEMP as part of the project steering committee, congratulated the team for the overall fast moving of the project implementation and particularly expressed appreciation to the colleagues from Cambodia for the patience, collaboration and willingness to accommodate the shortened duration of the project. Everyone is dedicated and committed to implement the project. However, she also encouraged the team’s efforts to accelerate the progress and make it a success within the rest of project duration and under the challenges, including the COVID-19. Her remarks ended with UNEP-IEMP’s support on mobiling experts from China and beyond for knowledge transfer and capacity building for Cambodia. This is a way for South-South cooperation on ecosystem management and UNEP-IEMP would explore options to further sustain the South-South cooperation in future collaboration. 

At the end of the meeting, it was agreed that a written progress would be submitted to the steering committee for guidance and recommendations at the end of June. The 2^nd steering committee meeting will be organized in the latter half of 2022.