Lom's story

Name: Say Lom
Location: Koh Preah, Cambodia

About: Lom is in charge of an eco-tourism resort in an area facing increasingly extreme conditions

Photo: Lucy Aitken-Read

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Lom is chief of an eco-tourism community on the island of Koh Preah, Cambodia, home to 1,400 people.

Cambodia's coastline is prone to typhoons. Communities here say that the weather is getting more extreme with hotter seasons. Their focus is local eco-tourism, which provides a diverse form of income to the islanders.

Lom says: "We promote environmental education amongst visitors and champion sustainable living through all of our activities. My community is committed to conserving our land for the upcoming generation of villagers."

Koh Preah, a small village with a population of 1,410 is on an island in the middle of the Mekong river, in the Stung Treng province of Cambodia. Two years ago Community Chief Say Lom, and other villagers began work with Oxfam and a local NGO to make the most of the island's rich natural resources.

Like many Cambodian villages, the traditional source of income comes through rice farming, but due to changing weather patterns is becoming increasingly vulnerable. Communities are now diversifying their income streams so they can optimises their natural environment using sustainable means.

For Koh Preah this means eco-tourism where community members provide visitors with accommodation and food in their homes, boat trips to visit the rare fresh water Irawaddy dolphins and education on sustainable living.

The Cambodian economy has been growing rapidly for the last decade. Although this has improved lives and has enabled some people to escape poverty, the richest fifth of the population have benefited most. There is a growing gap in wealth between rich and poor and between rural and urban populations. Economic and political power rests in the hands of small number of elites with little political will for equality.

Cambodia is currently ranked 136 out of 179 in UNDP’s Human Development Index (2008), the lowest among East Asian countries. Over 33% of Cambodia’s 14 million people live on less than US$1 per day. The vast majority of the population live in rural areas and depend on small-scale agriculture, fishery and forestry for their livelihoods.

Access to fisheries and forests becomes more difficult as members of the elite take control of state assets. Growing numbers of poor farmers have become landless by selling their land to cope with financial shocks. While land grab is a big issue in Cambodia, there is lack of implementation of pro-poor laws due to weak governance. Many women, men, and ethnic minorities struggle to make their voices held by decision-makers.

Only a small minority of the population have access to adequate sanitation and less than half have access to clean water. People in 22 out of the 24 provinces in Cambodia still struggle to meet their nutrition needs. Seasonal floods and droughts appear to be worsening due to climate change. Floods may increase the incidence of disease and they endanger lives, homes and livelihoods, particularly for vulnerable families.

Through small community based ventures such as the eco-tourism project on Koh Preah, Oxfam and partners are working to grant communities legal rights to their land, access to local decision makers as well as helping them respond in practical ways to the effects of climate change.

Country climate reference: Cambodia’s Initial Climate Communication, Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, October 2002. Ministry of Environment, Kingdom of Cambodia.

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