Political participation and small-scale fishery management in the Tonlé Sap, Cambodia

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates fishery governance in Tonlé Sap, Cambodia, with a specific focus on fishery management since 1963 and recent determinants of political participation. The research suggests that the policy reforms leading to the implementation of open-access fisheries have not produced satisfactory outcomes due to inequitable access to fishery resources. The results of statistical analyses reveal: the dependency of small-scale fisherfolk on fishery resources; the level of institutional support available to small-scale fisherfolk; the capacity of the local community; and the important roles fishery management initiatives play in determining the level of political participation in fishery governance.

KEYWORDS:

• Fishery management
• institutional reform
• political participation
• community fisheries
• water governance
• Tonlé Sap

Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate the valuable comments and suggestions from the editorial board of International Journal of Water Resources Development, the two anonymous reviewers, Dr Raymond Yu Wang and Mr Simon Ross. We thank the Royal University of Phnom Penh for providing institutional support to the research, and Mr Kanharith Samath, Mr Boromey Samath and Mr Sok Sela for assisting in the fieldwork and data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) research program on Water, Land and Ecosystems [MK32 Mekong Fellowship]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [42171225]; Institute for Innovation and Strategic Studies in East China Normal University [2021-03].