Dissemination workshop on data and updated information of community fisheries in Kampot and Kep provinces

On 24 November 2022, Open Development Cambodia (ODC), in collaboration with ActionAid Cambodia and the Children and Women Development Center in Cambodia – CWDCC, held a Dissemination Workshop on Data and Updated Information on Community Fisheries in Kampot and Kep Province on the ODC website, with the honor chaired by H.E. Sen Sabil, Deputy Governor of Kampot Province, and participation of 75 people (29 female) from the Provincial Department and Administration, Local authorities, NGO partners, Coastal Youth Ambassadors, and members of the community fisheries network in the provinces of Kep and Kampot. 

The workshop’s main agenda was to disseminate the most up-to-date information on fishing communities and coastal natural resources to provincial departments and administrations, civil society organizations, communities, and stakeholders in Kep and Kampot provinces via the ODC’s open data portal, as well as to hand over posters of community fisheries profiles to 12 communities.

Mrs. Siv Vatana, ODC Research and Web Content Manager gave a warm welcome. Throughout her address, she emphasized the need for public engagement in environmental and natural resource conservation by providing open access to the most trustworthy information and up-to-date data on key sectors. Taking this opportunity, she expressed her gratitude to the Provincial Board of Governors, Fisheries Administration, organization partners, such as ActionAid Cambodia, CWDCC, Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), and community fisheries members for their cooperation and support since the project’s beginning.

The following session is the keynote speech by Mr. Latt Ky, Project Manager of ActionAid Cambodia. After expressing gratitude to the participants for attending this workshop, he reflected on the project “Securing access to and control over land and natural resources for vulnerable community fisheries in the coastal areas of Cambodia,” which was funded by the European Union (EU) for three years. The project has involved various key actors, including the government at national and sub-national levels, CSOs, private sectors, provincial community fisheries networks, youths, and women. The project was originally intended for Kampot and Kep, but it has now been expanded to include some communities in Koh Kong. In addition, he highlighted various project results, including effective women’s inclusion through the community network, improved community livelihood, capacity building on human rights, law and regulation, social media outreach, and blogging. The 12 community fisheries information has been gathered and digitized with the assistance of ODC onto the ODC website, which is safe and easy to access online for all community members and stakeholders.

Mr. Sou Zotra, Deputy Head of the Department of Community​ Fisheries Development, who represented the Fisheries Administration, also gave a keynote speech. He stated that the government is working to decentralize authority so that local communities may use natural resources to improve livelihood and rights in managing the sustainability of their community. To this day, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries has established 516 community fisheries, with 437 communities registered. Seven fishing communities in Kampot and five in Kep were registered, while the Lok-Koh Krisna community in Kampot is in the process of registration. He added that the decentralization reform had been successful in Kampot and somewhat successful in Kep and would encourage all community fisheries members to manage their fishery resources and territorial management efficiently. Mr. Zotra praised ODC’s efforts to make community fisheries information and data accessible to researchers and communities. He stated that “data and information are the key power” in the digital era. To express his support for ODC, he committed to sending the shapefile data of the community fisheries to ODC for upload to its platform so that the public may view all community fisheries information on the ODC website. Before concluding, he encouraged ODC to develop a strategy to keep existing data and information up to date even after the project was completed. He would also like ODC to assist the FiA’s specialized officials in uploading and updating information on the platform.

Similarly to Mr. Zotra, Mr. Sor Sorin, Chief of the Kampot Fisheries Administration’s cantonment, stated his support for providing all required information to the community, including the legislation and rules governing community fisheries. He added that the Fishery Administration had a webpage about marine conservation and other subjects. He hoped that the website would be improved to make it more user-friendly. 

The opening remarks of H.E. Sen Sabil, Deputy Governor of Kampot Province, concluded the greeting sessions. He noted that Cambodia is a developing country, and the economic development activities​ will undoubtedly impact the environment and the people. The destruction to the environment and society cannot be hidden from public attention, especially in this day and age of sophisticated technology. People may use their smartphones to conveniently and quickly access and share information. The governor of Kampot province praised ODC’s efforts to digitize all relevant information on community fisheries, which is now publicly available on the internet. The Kampot provincial governor will promise to bring sustainable development to the province’s people and provide different types of support to the community.

This workshop is funded by the EU through ActionAid Cambodia under the project called Securing access to and control over land and natural resources for vulnerable community fisheries in the coastal areas of Cambodia. With financing assistance since late 2020, ODC has had an opportunity to expand its work to community fisheries around the coast and train them on finding reliable information and data on the mobile internet. ODC has also expanded online resources on marine community fisheries and development projects in Kampot and Kep provinces to the ODC website, all of which are easily accessible on a single page. In addition, we also produced posters of community fisheries with updated information on mandate registration and fisheries resources, with beautiful pictures of mangrove forests and community management areas for 12 communities in Kep and Kampot provinces. The community poster is bilingual, and you can download all the references by scanning the QR Code at the bottom.

ODC believes that inclusive public participation will lead to more active and better communication and understanding between government, citizens, and the private sector, resulting in more politically open and responsible environmental governance.