Opportunities and Challenges for Participatory Management of Mangrove Resource (PMMR) in Cambodia

Abstract

Mangrove forest plays a crucial role in protecting coastal areas, maintaining marine ecosystems, and retaining local community livelihoods. Over the last few decades, however, mangrove resource has gradually declined in conjunction with human activities and climate pressure. In response to the problem, Cambodian government has promoted Participatory Management of Mangrove Resource (PMMR) through increasing involvement of relevant stakeholders. This chapter analyzes both opportunities and challenges for PMMR in Cambodia. It is found that the supports from government and development agencies, commitment and participation of local communities, and connectivity of mangrove resources to the sustainable marine resource management are the key opportunities for promoting effective PMMR. Unbalancing between coastal development and costal resource conservation, lack of policy/law to support community-based mangrove resource management, insufficient resources, limited community empowerment, limited mechanism for monitoring and evaluation of the impacts, poor knowledge on importance of mangrove and managerial skills, and limited coordination remains the key barriers for enhancing the effectiveness of PMMR. It was recommended that the effective PMMR can be realized through (1) establishing specific policy legislation focusing particularly on mangrove resources protection, (2) enhancing coordination and collaboration between all relevant actors, (3) empowering local community, and (4) continuing raising awareness among communities on the importance of mangrove forest and involving to actively engage in the process and activities of sustainable marine resources management and conservation. By fulfilling these key strategic interventions, the pragmatic system and institutional setup are more feasible in order to drive reform for the betterment of PMMR in Cambodia.