Cambodia’s Coast in Crisis: Illegal Fishing and Development Threaten Marine Life

Cambodia’s coastline is facing an environmental emergency as a perfect storm of illegal fishing, unregulated development, and inadequate government oversight pushes marine ecosystems toward collapse. Traditional fishing communities that have depended on these waters for generations are watching their livelihoods disappear as industrial trawlers illegally harvest fish in protected areas while authorities fail to enforce existing regulations.

A comprehensive 2024 investigation reveals how billion-dollar development projects backed by political elites are transforming Cambodia’s coastal landscape, often at the expense of small-scale fishers who are being forced from their ancestral waters. These massive land deals are reshaping entire stretches of coastline, prioritizing tourism and industrial development over marine conservation and the rights of local communities.

The series exposes a troubling pattern of institutional failure, where marine protected areas exist on paper but receive little to no effective patrol or enforcement. Meanwhile, illegal trawling operations continue to devastate fish populations and destroy critical marine habitats with apparent impunity. This breakdown in governance has created a situation where short-term economic interests consistently override long-term environmental protection.

As Cambodia’s coastal transformation accelerates, the window for preserving what remains of its marine ecosystems is rapidly closing. The investigation highlights the urgent need for stronger enforcement mechanisms, more inclusive coastal planning that considers local communities, and a fundamental shift in how Cambodia balances development with environmental conservation. Without immediate action, both the country’s marine biodiversity and the coastal communities that depend on it face an uncertain future.