Stakeholder mapping and analysis

Marine fisherfolk in Cambodia are generally from poor communities, operating on a subsistence level or as small-scale. In the late 1970s, the Cambodian population was moved from the larger metropolitan areas into the provinces. Under the Khmer Rouge rule period (from 1975 to 1979), government was likewise moved from the big cities to the rural areas. Farming rice and clearing forests for the development of rice fields were the main priorities of the government, whereas fisheries had low priority and very little fishing or aquaculture was conducted. Political instability and lack of resources in the following years resulted in only small amounts of marine production and management by government. Today, the marine fishery remains largely open access. Middle to large-scale participants require a licence, which provides them with a 1-year access right to the resource (within the conditions of their licence). However, subsistence and small-scale operators are not required to be licensed and have no defined resource access rights. These fisherfolk mostly use traditional methods, although more are adopting modern methods to maximise their catches. There are increasing numbers of migrants from poorer rural areas moving to coastal areas to start new livelihoods in the fishing sector. These people have very few traditional ties to marine fisheries and the Fisheries Administration has initiated works with other agencies to find alternative employment for these people to ease the pressure on fisheries resources.

There are a wide range of participants and interested stakeholders in Cambodia’s marine fisheries. Community members, large and middle scale fisherfolk, processors, traders, transporters, provincial and national government staff, local and international NGOs, and scientists are increasingly being involved in government decision-making processes. However, it will be important to include the participation of small-scale commercial fisherfolk as well as subsistence fishers in the future. It appears that most private sector stakeholders, including large and middle-scale fishers, are mostly interested in getting maximum profits in a short time, even if they know that this will damage the environment and eliminate their future possibilities of utilising these resources. Marine fishers in Cambodia do not form fisherfolk associations, and so it is up to each individual to make decisions about when and how often to fish, as well as appropriate times to take up loans for investing in improved technology.

The mandate of Cambodia’s Fisheries Administration is to be responsible for aquatic fauna and flora. This means that the FiA is responsible for managing Cambodia’s marine and inland fisheries resources, including management of fisherfolk, information, and operations. The FiA employs more than 1,500 staff throughout Cambodia with around half of holding a qualification. Given the significance of Cambodia’s freshwater fisheries, much research attention is directed inland, with little emphasis on coastal areas. There presently exists very little capacity within the FiA to assist in the management and research of marine fisheries, although this has improved over the past decade via support of initiatives including the UNEP/GEF South China Sea project. There are also very few institutional resources, particularly in provincial offices, to assist in resource management and research. The staff of provincial offices are responsible for all fisheries activities although most have little formal training, however the FiA has recently increased educational opportunities for provincial staff. There have been several projects conducted that have assisted in building human resource capacity. These projects have focused on community fisheries development (capacity building within government and communities), marine living resources or marine biodiversity, mangrove rehabilitation, coral and seagrass research, marine mammal and turtle research. All of these projects have received financial assistance from donor agencies and have been implemented in collaboration with either the FiA or the Ministry of Environment.