The exploitation versus conservation dilemma : preparative research towards a comprehensive and extensive environmental & social impact assessment : Koh Rong archipelago, Cambodia

Abstract

Following years of civil war and economic stagnation in the late twentieth century, Cambodia’s strong commitment to economic development today often collides with introduced measures of environmental protection, resulting in frequently occurring interest conflicts of exploitation versus conservation. By conducting a preparative research towards a comprehensive and extensive Environmental and Social Impact Assessment of a planned tourism development project within a proposed Marine Protected Area, the presented study provides evidence of a particularly distinct dilemma of exploitation versus conservation. By applying methods of qualitative data collection in combination with the review of documents, the researcher identified potential environmental and social impacts related to the planned development. A lack of communication between the stakeholders was found to be the main reason for the estimated unwanted consequences, presumably resulting in major implementation setbacks of both development and conservation project. The researcher found that a revision of the development plan and the conservation plan under the consideration of the study’s findings could lead to future mutual conservation-development benefits as well as to an improvement of the local population’s livelihood-situation. Furthermore, the study identified the tool of Environmental and Social Impact Assessment as a suitable instrument of linking the conservationists’ and the developers’ interests.