Protected areas of Cambodia

Rainforest and a winding river in the Cardamom Mountains

The protected areas of Cambodia are the national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and other areas that the state sets aside to conserve nature. The Ministry of Environment manages them under a royal decree of 1993 and the Protected Area Law of 2008.

The decree of 1993

A royal decree of November 1, 1993 created the first system. It named 23 protected areas, about 18 percent of the country's land at some 3,273,300 hectares, and placed them under the Ministry of Environment. The decree set out four kinds of area: national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, protected landscapes and multiple-use areas.

Its seven national parks were Kirirom, Bokor, Kep, Ream, Botum Sakor, Phnom Kulen and Virachey. The largest, Virachey in Stung Treng and Ratanakiri, covered 332,500 hectares. The decree also created nine wildlife sanctuaries; Koulen Prum Tep in Siem Reap and Preah Vihear was the biggest, at 402,500 hectares. Peam Krasop, in Koh Kong, was among the smallest. A sanctuary can also be dissolved by royal decree, as happened to Snuol and Roneam Daun Sam in February 2018.

The law of 2008

The Protected Area Law, dated January 4, 2008, keeps the protected areas under the Ministry of Environment. It recognizes eight categories: the four kinds of the 1993 decree, plus marine parks, Ramsar sites, natural heritage sites and biosphere reserves.

The law splits every protected area into four zones:

• a core zone of threatened species and fragile ecosystems, closed to all but officials and researchers with the ministry's permission;
• a conservation zone next to the core, where local minorities may gather forest products other than timber under strict control;
• a sustainable use zone, where the government may allow development and investment after consulting ministries, local authorities and communities;
• a community zone for the homes, rice fields and farm plots of local and Indigenous communities.

The ministry may also set aside part of a sustainable use zone as a community protected area, run by the community under an agreement of up to fifteen years with the ministry's Nature Conservation and Protection Administration.

Wetlands

In June 1999 Cambodia named its first three wetlands of international importance under the Ramsar Convention. By November 2018 there were five: a 37-kilometer stretch of the Mekong in Stung Treng, Boeng Chhmar in Kampong Thom and Siem Reap, Koh Kapik in Koh Kong, the Prek Toal bird colony and Stung Sen.

Growth since 2016

In April 2016 a sub-decree moved the country's protected forests from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to the Ministry of Environment. In May of that year all but one of them, Ta Moa in Takeo province, became natural protected areas. A sub-decree of May 9, 2016 added 18 protected areas covering 2,674,503 hectares, which brought the ministry's total to 41 areas and 5,874,503 hectares. In 2017 a further sub-decree set aside almost 1.5 million hectares of land between the parks as corridors for wildlife.

In July and August 2023 more than 40 sub-decrees added about 1.06 million hectares to the system, much of it from the corridors, and removed about 34,000 hectares from four existing areas. The Central and Southern Cardamom national parks were joined, with part of a corridor, into a single Cardamom National Park of 926,123 hectares in the Cardamom Mountains. Ministry documents from that August, as reported by Mongabay, counted 73 protected areas covering 7.05 million hectares. The World Database on Protected Areas lists 69 protected areas in Cambodia, 63 of them national designations.

Civil society groups questioned the 2023 expansion. Mongabay reported their doubts about the lack of consultation and the state's ability to enforce protection, and concerns that land already holding homes and farms could bring disputes with Indigenous communities.