Wednesday September 24, 2025
CGIAR —
Cambodia’s floodplains host vital wetlands that support food security, biodiversity, and livelihoods. Across these landscapes, community-led initiatives show how local stewardship can protect ecosystems while supporting the people who rely on them.
Boeng Ream Community Fish Refuge (CFR) Sustains Fisheries and Livelihoods
Boeng Ream Community Fish Refuge (CFR) in Kakoh Commune is a vital community-managed wetland that sustains rice-field fisheries and strengthens hydrological connectivity across Cambodia’s floodplains. Benefiting 3,325 households through rice farming and fisheries, it operates within a Farmer Water User Community (FWUC) under the Taing Krasaing Irrigation Scheme, part of a larger water management system. Introduced as part of Cambodia’s rice-fish system enhancement, CFRs like Boeng Ream function as dry-season sanctuaries for brood fish, replenishing stocks when floodwaters recede. Its hydrological role as a migration route between the Tonle Sap and local wetlands further supports fish movement and biodiversity, making it critical for both livelihoods and ecological resilience.
The Diverse Ecosystem of Boeng Sneh Lake Under Strain
Similarly, Boeng Sneh Lake (BSL) in Prey Veng Province is one of Cambodia’s largest freshwater wetlands, spanning 3,924 hectares, storing 80 million cubic meters of floodwater and sustaining over 10,900 households. The lake’s rich ecosystem provides habitat for indigenous fish species, migratory waterbirds, while its Multiple Use Area and bird sanctuary serves as a hub for community-based ecotourism. However, the absence of a formal institutional mechanism for cross-sector coordination at BSL has led to overexploitation, rising water-use conflicts, and threats to biodiversity. These challenges are being exacerbated by climate-induced droughts, intensified rice cropping (up to three times annually), growing agro-chemical use, illegal fishing, and speculative land encroachment, placing increasing pressure on the lake’s ecological balance and long-term sustainability.
Building Bridges for Inclusive Resource Governance through District Technical Working Groups (DTWGs)
In line with Cambodia’s 2019 policy shift toward decentralized and integrated natural resource management, WorldFish and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), together with the Inland Fisheries Research and Development Institute (IFReDI), established District Technical Working Groups (DTWGs) in 2024 under CGIAR’s Asian Mega Deltas (AMD) and Resilient Aquatic Food Systems (RAqFS) Initiatives. The pilot DTWGs were set up at Boeng Sneh Lake in Prey Veng Province and the Boeng Ream Community Fish Refuge (CFR) in Santuk District, Kompong Thom Province. The DTWG model is now advancing through the CGIAR Scaling for Impact (S4I) Program.
This innovation model fosters inclusive multi-stakeholder collaboration by bringing together district and provincial officials, representatives from the water, agriculture, fisheries, environment, and local governance sectors, alongside community organizations such as Community Fisheries (CFis), Community Fish Refuges (CFRs), Farmer Water User Communities (FWUCs), and Community-Based Ecotourism (CBE). Together with local authorities and community members, they jointly diagnose problems, co-develop and implement comprehensive resource management plans covering irrigation, fisheries, livestock, domestic water, and biodiversity, and address water-related conflicts.
Along with cross-scale coordination, this institutional innovation also prioritizes equitable participation, with a strong emphasis on strengthening women’s roles in water-related decision-making. Notably, elevating voices of women, ensuring their perspectives actively shape planning and governance processes.
Telegram as a Digital Hub for Collaboration
To translate this collaborative model into practice and maintain momentum between meetings, DTWG members adopted a Telegram group as a central communication platform.
- Through this digital space, stakeholders shared ideas, field data, updates, work plans, photos, and real-time challenges/solutions, reinforcing transparency and continuity between in-person meetings. Voice notes, water-level data, and intervention photos created a dynamic information flow accessible to all partners-including IFReDI, WorldFish, IWMI, and community actors-enabling quicker, collective responses to emerging issues.
- The Telegram group also served as a digital memory archive, preserving reports, discussions, and decisions, while tools like pinned messages and labeled conversations improved clarity and retrieval.
This demonstrates how simple digital tools can spark new ways of governing shared resources
DTWGs Advancing Integration Across CGIAR Science Programs
Beyond this, District Technical Working Groups (DTWGs) have evolved into vital coordination hubs for CGIAR science programs. Through the CGIAR Scaling for Impact (S4I) Program DTWGs are organizing meetings, trainings, field visits, data collection, and stakeholder consultations. At the same time, they are playing a key role in facilitating fish–livestock integration under the Sustainable Animal and Aquatic Foods (SAAF) Program. Most recently, their involvement in scoping activities in Ba Phnom district (Prey Veng province) and Santuk district (Kompong Thom province) across both the SAAF and Multi-Functional Landscape (MFL) science Programs highlights their pivotal role in cross-scale coordination and their capacity to bridge science, policy, and community action.
As Cambodia continues to face complex environmental and resource management challenges, DTWGs offer a scalable and inclusive model for building resilience and sustainability across its wetland ecosystems, effectively connecting scientific research, policy development, and community engagement.