Rhythms Of Resilience: Fighting For Indigenous Identities Published: 24 June 2025 The Cambodian state has failed to put in place concrete legal protections for Indigenous groups in the country and instead wiped out their mention in laws and regulations around environmental governance and land management.
The Boulevard Of Broken Dreams Published: 24 June 2025 Kruy Phal sits at a small store on a dusty road right next to a massive condominium development in southern Phnom Penh, selling snacks, groceries and bright colored ice cream popsicles. Village residents stop at her store, buy a pink or purple or bean filled popsicle, not far from the boulevard that dissects the fast-disappearing Boeung Tompun lake.
A Bittersweet Victory Published: 23 June 2025 Teng Kao sits at a stilted house in Koh Kong province’s Sre Ambel district. A thunderstorm passes through the village, dousing the area in Monsoon rain. Three police officers sit just outside the meeting room, recording and monitoring the village residents — an unfortunately routine occurrence for the community.
Making Documents Accessible: Empowering Indigenous Advocacy Published: 20 June 2025 Phnom Luong lies in the center of a community of Indigenous majority villages in Preah Vihear province. Kuy people in these villages have had a symbiotic relationship with the mountain and forest surrounding it, using it for agriculture and forestry products.
Phnom Penh’s White Building Published: 2 May 2017 Image credits When I heard Phnom Penh wasn’t a walking city, I bought a good pair of shoes. The evidence on my feet at the day’s end—after dodging motorbikes, piles of trash, street meat smoke, tuktuk offers—was par for the course.
Large-Scale Land Grabbing in Cambodia: Failure of International and National Policies to Secure the Indigenous Peoples' Rights to Access Land and Resources Published: 25 March 2015 Indigenous communities in Cambodia are legally recognized and should thus have been protected by the Land Law and the Forestry Law, entitling them to communal land titles. A number of national and international instruments including the Cambodian Land Law of 2001, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the ILO Convention no. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples and the World Bank Safeguard Policy recognize both collective and individual Indigenous Peoples’ rights. By Phalla Chea
A Home No More (Stories From Boeung Kok Lake) Published: 10 November 2014 In February 2007, the Municipality of Phnom Penh granted a 99-year lease to the private developer Shukaku Inc. for 133 hectares of prime city-centre real estate in the capital’s Daun Penh district. The area included Boeung Kok lake, one of the few remaining natural lakes in the city, and home to some 20,000 people. Shukaku Inc. reportedly paid US$79 million for the land.
The Disappearance of Boeung Kak Lake: Whose Sacrifice, For Whom Published: 10 November 2014 Boeung Kak used to be a beautiful lake in Phnom Penh. In 2007, the Cambodian government made an agreement with a company to lease the land to the company for 99 years. This agreement has resulted in the filling of the lake with sand in order for the company to build on the land. The Lake was 328 acres in size, which can support tens thousands of citizens if it is transformed to land. It seemed to be a reasonable sacrifice for the city in landscape. By Fu Tianxin（Andy Fu）
