Environmental rights as a matter of survival

Abstract

When Ning Savat laid down his arms at the end of Cambodia’s civil war, he returned to what he hoped would be a simple, peaceful life as a fisherman. What he did not know was that he was stepping into one of the country’s most prominent popular struggles of the post-war period. Shocked by the violence, intimidation, and corruption that threatened the livelihoods of his fellow fisherfolk throughout the country, he became a human rights advocate. Working on behalf of the poor to secure access to fishing grounds, to protect them from the abuses of fishing lot owners and their armed guards, and to have their grievances heard before local authorities and the courts has now become his daily battle.