Cambodia’s Indigenous peoples have a deep relationship to forests, land and natural resources, which they traditionally manage in their cultural practices and everyday lives. There are 22 distinct Indigenous communities with an estimated 172,980 people, accounting for 1.11% of Cambodia’s total population. Indigenous peoples are well-known for being forest caretakers and passing down forest care from generation to generation through ancestral heritage. Forests, lands and natural resources are at the very heart of Indigenous culture and spiritual practices. Even though there are small portions of Indigenous peoples in Cambodia and across the globe, their ways of living have made significant contributions to the protection of forests and maintaining rich biodiversity and ecological systems, which contributes to the lessening of the impact of climate change. As much as 80% of the world’s biodiversity is conserved and cared for by Indigenous peoples worldwide. In Cambodia, Indigenous peoples are assumed to have traditionally maintained and relied on around 4 million hectares (about 10 million acres) of forestland. However, as of 2025, I personally believe that there will be a major shift in this customary management as economic land concessions continue to be granted to private companies within Indigenous communities. Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary is one of the largest remaining lowland evergreen forests in mainland Southeast Asia and is home to many Indigenous communities, but it is threatened by logging, mining and land grabbing. Image by Andy Ball for Mongabay. There is no doubt that Indigenous peoples play an important role in the conservation…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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