KOH KONG, CAMBODIA – Communities and activists have called for Koh Kong Krao, a pristine island off Cambodia’s western coast, to be declared a marine national park, citing the benefits of sustainable tourism and local livelihoods. For many, declaring the island a national park can’t come soon enough.
As the early morning waves rock Chan Sieve Yong’s fishing boat, he and his partner fire up the engine and set a course for Koh Kong Krao, one of the most untouched islands on the western coast of Cambodia.
His boat carries more than a dozen of tourists, who planned a hideaway holiday in crystal clear waters and lush forests.
“Five years ago, we could only deliver one round-trip in a month. But now there are quite a lot of tourists coming, especially during the weekends,” he said while piloting his boat.
“This is the digital age. People share stories, and that results in the island getting more attention. My boat service is reserved for one to two trips a week.”
Sieve Yong comes from Alatang village, a floating fishing community with 80 families on the fringe of Koh Kong Krao.
With more tourists coming, more villagers have switched from fishing to tourism services, including boat transportation and selling food, to earn extra income.
They have seen a surge in the number of visitors since Mother Nature Cambodia’s activists embarked on the island in 2022 to promote its biodiversity value.
Despite facing repression by authorities, their trip and follow-up campaign resonated with the call for the Cambodian government to keep its earlier promise of establishing a marine national park in the area.
The activists’ movement also responded to local news reports indicating the government had granted the island’s development rights to a company owned by powerful tycoon Ly Yong Phat, who has been linked to developments associated with forced evictions and illegal logging in Koh Kong province.
Local media dubbed Ly Yong Phat “the king of Koh Kong” because of the large number of business projects he has in the area.
Many Alatang villagers said the designation of Koh Kong Krao as a marine national park would help preserve its unique ecosystems and biodiversity in the long term.
It would prevent devastating development and exploitation that could damage the island’s natural resources, as well as restrict the community’s access to the island for tourism activities.
The drawback of not having protected status has been seen through a decline in the fish population as a result of rampant and destructive fishing.
Designation in deadlock
The Cambodian government first announced plans to designate Koh Kong Krao as a marine national park by 2021, but progress has been delayed and there has been silence on the issue.
The Ministry of Environment (MoE) issued a press release in 2020, stating that it has paid “close attention to the protection and conservation of Koh Kong Krao” by assigning experts to study relevant documents and data since 2016.
MoE spokesperson Khvay Atitya said the Cambodian government had established the Koh Kong Development Monitoring Committee, reflecting its commitment to protecting the island. However, he declined to explain the ministry’s further plans or the timeframe to achieve this goal.
Koh Kong Krao is Cambodia’s largest island and hosts the Cardamom’s evergreen tropical rainforest, which spans along the western coast of Cambodia to its borders with Thailand and Vietnam.
The island connects to the complex ecosystem of the country’s largest expanse of mangrove forest and wetland areas near its northern tip, where the Peam Krasop Wildlife Sanctuary was declared more than two decades ago and now faces extensive deforestation.
Only 10 kilometers from the island’s southern tip is the Botum Sakor National Park, home to numerous wildlife species, including endangered pangolins, gibbons and Asian elephants.
Released in 2021, the fishery assessment conducted by Cambodia’s Department of Fisheries highlighted Koh Kong province’s abundant marine biodiversity, which provides a home to 21% of the country’s coral reefs and 13% of its seagrasses.
Species, such as dolphins, dugongs and sea turtles, have been spotted off the coast of the province.
Pablo Sinovas, Cambodia program director for the non-governmental organization Fauna & Flora, said his team had been conducting surveys of Koh Kong Krao’s biodiversity in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment.
The surveys, not yet released to the public, will outline the potential of the island as a marine national park.
This was confirmed by MoE spokesperson Khvay Atitya, who stated that the ministry was now collecting data on demographics, land use and natural resources on the island.
With very few studies on Koh Kong Krao available, communities and environmental activists fear the island will be given to a tycoon to develop before the marine national park declaration materializes.
“As we have seen over more than two decades, any development that involves forests and the LYP Group is bound to end up in large-scale logging, environmental destruction, and loss of protected land,” said Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, the founder of Mother Nature Cambodia.
“And if there happen to be local communities living in or near the land concession, then we can expect these people to be forcibly evicted, harassed, thrown into abject poverty. This can no longer be denied.”
Gonzalez-Davidson was deported from Cambodia and banned from re-entering the country due to his environmental activism.
More can be done
The latest call to establish a marine national park in Koh Kong Krao is not the first, and Cambodia’s past successes show it is also possible with political will.
In 2018, after many years of studies and scrutiny, the Cambodian government established the 52,000-hectare Koh Rong National Marine Park only 50 kilometers south of Koh Kong Krao. It became the country’s first national marine park.
The IUCN highlighted this major progress as part of Cambodia’s commitment as a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Cambodia committed to designating protected status to at least 17% of terrestrial and inland water areas, and it exceeded this target to 40% in 2018.
It also doubled marine, coastal and freshwater protected area coverage from 0.2% to 1.08%, mainly through Koh Rong National Marine Park – although the signatory shall commit to increasing coastal and marine protected areas to 10% coverage, reflecting that more can be done to protect Cambodia’s coastline.
Hang Ly Hor, 38, a mother of three living in Alatang village, is one of many who see the benefits of protecting Koh Kong Krao’s rich natural resources.
She runs a small business selling dried fish to tourists who come to visit and camp on the island. Her husband goes fishing far from the village.
As the number of tourists has increased over the course of three years, sellers in the community are able to sell a variety of fish for a better livelihood.
“Once I sell all the fish, I can afford to put my children through school and even provide some money for my parents,” she said.
“It’s good to keep the island accessible for the community to do [tourism] business. If the island is handed over for development, the community may not gain the full benefit here.”
While the designation of Koh Kong Krao as a marine national park has not yet happened, Ly Hor and many of her villagers say the sustainable future of the island is uncertain.
This story was supported by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network.
