Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved to provide 19 million U.S. dollars to Cambodia for conserving threatened forest in Cardamom Mountain and northeastern provinces, according to ADB press release on Monday.

ADB's board of directors approved a total package of 69 million U.S. dollars, of which 30 million dollars loan to Vietnam, the grants of 19 million U.S. dollars and 20 million dollars to Cambodia and Laos respectively, for the Greater Mekong Subregion ( GMS) Biodiversity Conservation Corridors Project.

For Cambodia, the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries will be the executing agencies for the project, which is due for completion in September 2019.

Ros Sothea, communication coordinator at ADB-Cambodia, told Xinhua on Monday that Cambodia's biodiversity conservation in Cardamom Mountain and northeastern provinces, will begin in April 2011 and complete in 2019.

She said the project will include the planting of native trees and other plants to restore habitats in the threatened forest areas.

The press release said that the whole project covers more than 1.9 million hectares of threatened forest land, home to over 170, 000 mostly poor, ethnic minority people in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos.