Resource Management and Environmental Security in South East Asia

Tonle Sap is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia and key to Cambodia’s economy. Yet the lake and its surrounding ecosystem have come under increasing pressure from over-exploitation, illegal fishing, poaching and deforestation. Today it forms a valuable arena of global significance in which to examine the opposing forces of conservation, sustainable development and resource management, versus the illegal and rapacious exploitation of a rich and vital environment. In this pioneering work, the authors explore the environmental, cultural and political geographies at play, exposing the competing perceptions of Tonle Sap, both from within the country and externally. They do so across a range of scales – from local, regional and national to its global importance as a biosphere reserve.