Learning and Adapting with Change: An Examination of Two Cambodian Village-Level Resource Management Institutions

Abstract

"This paper, based on research findings from a sixteen-month field study into rural livelihoods and community-based management strategies at the household and community level, seeks to explore the conditions under which resource management strategies have developed in two rural Cambodian fishing communities. Koh Sralao is a coastal village of 297 households that became actively involved in community-based management as their resources became depleted. Kompong Phluk is a commune (a commune is several villages combined as an administrativeunit) of 434 households on the Tonle Sap Lake that has been practicing community-based management since the 1940s, perhaps one of the oldest examples of resource management(forestry and fisheries) known in the region. How, then, is management knowledge developed and transmitted in each area? After providing a brief overview of each committee, the history of resource management in Kompong Phluk is explored. More specifically, how local resource management institutions are able to adapt to, and learn from, an ever-changing resourcemanagement context is examined, highlighting how learning has evolved in Koh Sralao."