Talk:Ratanakiri Province

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Good article Ratanakiri Province has been listed as one of the Geography and places good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can delist it, or ask for a reassessment.
June 2, 2008 Good article nominee Listed
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[edit] Additional links that may have good information

" During the 1997-98 dry season, it is estimated that between 200,000 and 400,000 cubic meters of logs were exported from Ratanakiri province to Vietnam." [2], ch.4

" In the north-eastern province of Ratanakiri the combined allocation of protected areas, and forestry and agricultural concessions is approximately 130% of the total land area of the province. In the province national and provincial land use decisions have not been co-ordinated and the exchange of information among the authorities preparing the decisions is non-existent. Even national level allocations cover 102% of the province’s land area."[3]

Illegal logging has been done by the Cambodian military and by Vietnamese loggers.[4]

"otal illegal exports of logs from Ratanakiri in 1997 are estimated at 300,000 cubic meters, while the legal limit is 36,000 cubic meters." logging amounts to a "human rights emergency". [5]

"Increasing demand for cash has resulted in big changes to the traditional agricultural system. Most villagers continue to increase their chamkar (burned farming field) every year in order to plant cashew for cash. The traditional rotation of their chamkar is most likely not possible because their cashew will grow within 3-4 years, therefore they will never cut those cashew trees to grow rice. This practice encourages villagers to clear new chamkar, threatening protected forest areas in their Community Forest Area." [6]

from fox book:

  • 116: “In the swidden agricultural system the perceived dichotomy between agriculture and forest is for the most part artificial. Swidden fields, secondary forests, and mature forests are all part of the same agroecosystem. … In many swidden systems a portion of the landscape is managed as a forest reserve for the production of materials not generally available in secondary forests….”
  • 120: Land cover in Poey, 1996: 50% forest, 46% secondary forest, 4% swidden, 0% paddy, <1% plantations, <1% village and other.
  • 121: Land cover in Banlung, 1996: 26% forest, 51% secondary forest, 14% swidden, <1% paddy, 4% plantation, 4% village and other.
  • 124-125: Between 1993, “when Cambodia opened up for international investment,” and 1999, “over a dozen coffee, rubber, cashew and other estate crop concessions of 100 to 20,000 hectares have been granted in Ratanakiri”
  • 125: “By one calculation (1997 cite), 130% of the province’s land area has either been granted as concessions or placed in protected status.…These developments are happening in an unplanned fashion and without reference to land zoning or customary land use. The process of approving contracts and concessions is not clear. Prior consultation with existing communities (or even with the Provincial Government in the case of concessions) is poor or non-existent.”

[edit] Good article nomination on hold

This article's Good Article promotion has been put on hold. During review, some issues were discovered that can be resolved without a major re-write. This is how the article, as of May 20, 2008, compares against the six good article criteria:

1. Well written?: Need minor corrections
  • Flooding occurs regularly - can be more appropriatelty written as Flooding occurs frequently since it is not a phenomenon bound by time.
  • Changed to flooding often occurs. Mangostar (talk) 04:47, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
  • For instance, a group of Ratanakiri villagers in 2001 were given salt and promises of development by military representatives in exchange for thumbprinting documents that—unbeknownst to them—transferred ownership of their ancestral lands to a military general. Nice information but can be put in a new article and only the mention of it in the article of province. Trivia information should not come in major provincial article and can merit their own small articles.
  • I think this was an all right example giving context to what exactly was meant by coercion in contracts, but I have removed it. Mangostar (talk) 04:47, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
  • Header needs some major statements informing Ratanakiri province overall standing with respect to Cambodia. Be it good standings or bad standings like province holds some x% of illiterates of Cambodia. Basically, the idea is to understand how important this province is to the country. For example Its geography ranges from rolling hills, mountains, and plateaus to lowland watersheds, crater lakes, and waterfalls. this statement is too generic and would draw little interest in the reader to go down and read more. Mention some major hills, rivers, other geographical features of Cambodia that lie in this province. Also Most residents live in villages of 100 to 300 people, though the provincial capital of Banlung (by far Ratanakiri's largest settlement) is home to 17,000 of the province's 118,000 residents. Use UA feature of Wikipedia to mention Urban Vs rural population in province. Try more internal links in header eg: Khmer Rouge is not linked.
  • I have reworked the intro, and think the most important comparisons are there: Khmer Loeu dominate in Ratanakiri, but not elsewhere; Ratanakiri is less developed than elsewhere; Ratanakiri is more sparsely populated than elsewhere. There aren't really good stats saying what's "rural" and what's "urban" but Banlung is the only major town, as indicated. (Everything else is a couple thousand or less, as discussed in the towns section.) Not sure what you mean by UA. More internal links are done. Better concrete example for geography. Mangostar (talk) 04:47, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
  • Can these statements be made less harsh? Health indicators in Ratanakiri are the worst in Cambodia. The province's road system is among the worst in the country. Also the first statement appears exactly twice in the article.
  • I've rephrased the former, so it is not repeated. I think these statements are helpful comparisons and don't need to be softened (the first especially)-- the health situation is pretty bleak.
2. Factually accurate?: Pass
3. Broad in coverage?: Pass
4. Neutral point of view?: Pass
5. Article stability? Pass
6. Images?: Pass


Please address these matters soon and then leave a note here showing how they have been resolved. After 48 hours the article should be reviewed again. If these issues are not addressed within 7 days, the article may be failed without further notice. Thank you for your work so far.== --gppande «talk» 15:43, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

GAR CommentaryArticle looks quite extensive, covers all aspects of province, has images where ever necessary. Professionally written good article. --gppande «talk» 08:26, 2 June 2008 (UTC)