Borin Un

Development Policies for Lake Settlements: Dynamics of the Water- and Migration-based Local Livelihoods, Tonle Sap

Lake, Cambodia

Structures:•Study objectives•Studied areas

•Main findings•Conclusion and recommendations

Research Objectives

The overarching objective of this study is to

identify how the government’s Lake

development policies impact water- and

migration-based local livelihoods and to

identify what policy gaps and opportunities

for the Lake settlements

Studied areas and target villages

Phtas Kor in Kandieng district

Kampong Thom

Prek Trob in Aek Phnom

district, Kampongkor

Krom, Kampong

Svay district

Battambang

Pursat

Challenges of the management of fishery around Tonle Sap

Fishery Management Policy and the Impacts on Local Livelihoods

• Decrease quality of fisheries to serve livelihoods of subsistent fishers and farmers (food insecurity, decreased income and increased risks)

• Fishing areas are dominated by illegal fishers( medium scale fishers)

• There is an increased tension in access to fisheries resources

The govt. fishery management policy has not led to sustainable management, conservation and development of fisheries resources

around TSL.

Challenges of the management of fishery around Tonle Sap

Agriculture policy, water management, and the Impacts on Local Livelihoods

• Lack of irrigation,• poor farming techniques due to no extension, • high input cost, low capitals, high interest rate, • low output price due to weak market• land encroachment to due land privatization • inappropriate water investment by private sector,• Tension access to water between large scale and

smallholder farmers

• Increase risks for doing agriculture for smallholder farmers• Increase debt in farmers due to failure or loss in doing

agriculture

The agriculture and water management policy of the govt. have not strengthened local livelihoods due to:

Challenges of the management of fishery around Tonle Sap

Emergence of migration-based livelihoods and government migration policy

The Migration of communities around Tonle Sap Lake is relatively little known, researched, and considered

by the government policies

In the studied villages, there are no concrete livelihoods development activities to address the

emergence of migration as a multi-local livelihoods strategy.

CONCLUSION

The development policies for the Lake settlements:•have not resolved vulnerabilities of fishing and farming livelihoods in studied communities such as fisheries decline and the impacts of agricultural intensification, soil degradation, and growing landlessness•have not empowered local communities to resolve the tension of fishing-farming livelihoods•have not measured migration-based local livelihoods

There is still an assumption by the govt. policies that livelihoods around the Lake could be sustained by a

single source of livelihoods: fishing, farming, or fishing-farming livelihoods

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Integrate policies on agriculture, fisheries, water management and migration and make it be better understood and be prioritized as a way to respond to emergence of multi-local livelihoods driven around Tonle Sap Lake

• Promote participatory development by integrating the environmental policies and livelihoods development policies into the CDP and the CIP.

Thank you for your attention!