Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary. Photo by U.S. Embassy Phnom Penh on 09 June 2016. Licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.Cambodia had over 8 million hectares of forest resources in 2020, accounting for 44.7% of the country’s total land area. 1 The state owns the whole forest ...

There is no large industrial-scale extraction of minerals carried out in Cambodia yet, but many exploration licenses have been granted and some mining companies have reported promising finds of minerals such as gold. Today companies from China, Korea, Vietnam, Australia and elsewhere are exploring for ...

Construction of a laboratory funded by Chinese money. Photo by Michael Coghlan, taken on 10 January 2014. Licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0China, while once being at odds with the current government, is now Cambodia’s largest development partner. The two nations have grown increasingly close in recent ...

Construction on a Phnom Penh tower block. Photo by Axel Drainville, taken on 4 May 2011. Licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0The construction industry has boomed in Cambodia. From 2000 to November 2018, Cambodia’s Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction approved 43,136 construction projects representing ...

Deforestation has been one of the most significant changes the Cambodian landscape has undergone in recent decades. Key drivers of this process have been land concessions and subsequent land conversion, and large-scale illegal logging. ...

Defining and measuring forests is not an easy business. Definitions that initially sound very similar can turn out to have crucial differences. Understanding the terms is important for understanding forest use, forest cover, forest laws and policies and deforestation. ...

A Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is a defined area within a country that is subject to different laws and regulations than other areas of the country. These comprehensive industrial areas provide preferential incentives to investors and offer government import-export administrative support to facilitate trade. Though ...

Rice farmers working in the field, Kandal province, Cambodia. Photo by ILO/ Khem Sovannara, taken on 12 July 2007. Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.Agriculture continues to play an important role in Cambodia’s economy, but it provides a livelihood for a smaller proportion of today’s population ...

Growth in sugar production in Cambodia has created significant potential for sugarcane-based biofuel production. That potential has not yet been realized, though recent foreign investment may give rise to change. There are several types of sugar crop: sugarcane, sugar palm trees and sugar beets. Sugarcane ...

Cambodia is one of the countries most affected by land mines and explosive remnants of war as a result of its tumultuous history. The country is working with a variety of partners to demine the country by 2019. ...

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit global and Cambodia’s economies hard, having a spillover on the stability of the banking system. Banks and financial institutions have continued to provide services to customers, which can be seen through the rise in the number of depositors’ accounts to ...

As Cambodia emerged from years of conflict, pressures grew on natural resources and sensitive areas. In response, a number of protected areas were created by royal decree in 1993 to protect ecologically and culturally important places. More detailed guidelines on managing the country’s protected areas ...

Small-scale quarries producing construction materials are a key part of the mining industry in Cambodia. Clay for brick and tile manufacturing and sand and gravel are found in many locations.Under the Law on Mineral Resource Management and Exploitation (‘the mining law’) there are six types ...

Forest view. Photo by Open Development Cambodia, taken on 05 December 2021. Under license CC BY-SA 4.0.Cambodia is covered with forest, accounting for around 13.1 million hectares in 1973, and it is had fallen to 8.7 million hectares in 2014.222 However, based on the Ministry ...

Rice field in Cambodia’s countryside. Photo by fmpgoh, taken on 15 July 2009. Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0The main products from the agriculture sector are rice, rubber, corn, vegetables, cashews and cassava. Unprocessed agricultural exports were projected to be more than 90 percent of total agricultural ...

Environmental protection and conservation are given high priority in the Royal Government of Cambodia’s guiding strategy, the Rectangular Strategy Phase III (2014–2018). ...

Cambodian forest cover has reduced dramatically in recent decades. In 1973 there were 13.1 million hectares of total forest, but by 2014 the total cover had fallen to 8.7 million hectares. ...

Biofuel crops have a significant potential for contributing to future energy requirements worldwide. Agricultural lands offer energy farming as an alternative to their usual role of food production. Biofuel crops are an environmentally valuable means of sustainable energy production.305 The demand for transport fuels in ...

Although there is currently no commercial-scale production of gold carried out in Cambodia, exploration by many companies is underway, with some promising find reported. Subject to government approval, commercial production could begin in 2016 or 2017. Gold is found in a number of ...

Cassava farm in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Photo by CIAT, taken on 09 December 2014. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0The drought that Cambodia experiences is a shortage of water that is typically caused by:late onset of the rainy season (which normally occurs from May/June to October and ...