Management Plan for Boeng Sneh Lake

Abstract

In 2024, WorldFish, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) working closely with the Inland Fisheries Research and Development Institute (IFReDI) through AMD and RAqFI have piloted an institutional innovation at district scale to implement the decision in 2019 by the Royal Government of Cambodia to delegate the management of water, land, agriculture, fisheries and the environment to the District level. This departure from a strongly sectoral approach to natural resources management represents a fundamental policy shift that can enable natural resources planning to better reflect the shared nature of water and land resources across multiple food production systems. This pilot District Technical Working Group (D-TWG) seeks to fill this institutional gap by bringing together, for the first time in Cambodia, representatives from all water use sectors (e.g. cultivation, fisheries, livestock, domestic, environment); local government (e.g. commune councils) and community-based institutions responsible for managing irrigation, Community Fisheries (CFis) and Community Based Eco-Tourism (CBE) along with other water user representatives. Under this pilot, the project has supported the D-TWG to facilitate the development of a comprehensive water resources Management Plan (MP) for Boeng Sneh Lake through collaboration between the TWG and the relevant community members. This MP covers all water uses including cultivation, fisheries, livestock, domestic and environment and ensure that the different gendered needs are represented as well how decision-making spaces over water resources can empower women to be active participants.