“Since 90% of people destroy natural resources, we are among the 10% who love and protect them. If we don’t take care of the last remaining resources, we will leave the children of the future with nothing, not even the knowledge of what types of fish once existed.”

– Choum Vanna, Deputy Director of Natural Resources Protection and community leader

At 62 years old, Choum Vanna has spent more than three decades defending Tonle Sap’s fragile fishery ecosystems, building community resilience, and proving that local leadership is the most powerful force for environmental and social change.

A Defender of the Tonle Sap Lake

Choum Vanna lives in Prek Khpob Village, Khpob commune, Ek-Phnom District, Battambang Province. On September 29, 2003, she joined the local fishery community and soon became Deputy Director of Natural Resources Protection. Her role involves reporting environmental crimes to village/commune chief and justice authorities. During the rainy season, she and her committees patrol by boat; during the dry season, they use motorbikes to manage 1,915 hectares of conservation land, including a 4 hectares conservation lake. Her work also includes restoring lakes and planting flooded forest trees and edible wild plants so that the next generation can benefit. In 2018, she became chairperson of the community, a role she continues to hold.

As she puts it: “If we join the community, it is as if we are born again. Because we have learned from one place to another and from province to province. I have joined with this community so that when I die I will not have regrets. It will be like meeting the sun and seeing the world as it truly is.”

Building Economic Alternatives Through Fish Processing

On October 17, 2008, Vanna joined a fish processing cooperative originally created to support widows. The cooperative started with seven members, and she served as chairperson in charge of production. A Fisheries Officer supported the project by providing buildings and production equipment for five years. Through the cooperative, Vanna helped create local jobs, connected community members to NGO support, and provided materials and capital to launch a small Khmer cake business for six families.

In 2016, after the initial project period ended, a private sector partner continued supporting the cooperative. However, many community members preferred faster income over the slower returns of fish processing, and despite five meetings with authorities, the majority voted to discontinue. The donor chose to keep supporting those who remained committed, and Vanna continued her work with them.

The experience reflects a broader tension in rural Cambodia between immediate survival needs and long-term environmental and economic sustainability — a tension Vanna has navigated throughout her career.

Social Activism and Community Care

Vanna’s commitment to her community extends well beyond natural resource protection. Over the years, she has provided cows to three families for livelihood support, helped a young woman learn sewing and start her own business, and distributed food, money; and blankets to hundreds of families in her commune and beyond. She has also promoted natural crop cultivation and chicken raising, speaking at community meetings and visiting families directly to share knowledge.

She has also intervened in domestic violence cases, mediating disputes and connecting survivors with support. In one case, after a husband falsely accused his wife and subjected her to violence, Vanna helped enrol him in a gender awareness course — a process that ultimately enabled the woman to pursue legal action. Her approach combines practical support with a firm belief that community dignity depends on justice within the home as much as in the fields.

Supporting Refugees During the Border Conflict

During the Thailand-Cambodia border conflict, Vanna felt deep sympathy for displaced families who arrived in her community. While others held back, she opened her home to refugees, providing shelter, cooking spaces, mattresses, blankets, water, electricity, and food. She also coordinated with organisations to bring additional support.

Many of the refugee families had only grown cashews and foraged wild vegetables, so Vanna taught them food growing and storage techniques. She described the experience simply: “People eat three meals a day. Various communities came to stay, and I was happy to receive them. I bought blankets and other items to help them, like doing the 7-pagodas festival,” a traditional Cambodian ceremony of communal gathering and giving.

Challenges

• Facing political accusations. One of the most serious challenges Vanna has faced was being accused by local authorities of mobilising people in support of a political party. She attended a party meeting to clarify her position directly, and her community was eventually cleared. The incident underscores the risks that community leaders, particularly women, face when their organising is perceived as threatening by local power structures.
• Community skepticism toward long-term solutions. Vanna has often encountered resistance from community members who prioritise immediate income over sustainable livelihoods. The fish processing cooperative’s decline is one example. This is not a failure of vision, but a reflection of the real economic pressures facing rural families, pressures that long-term solutions alone cannot address without accompanying support.
• Losing traditional knowledge. Vanna worries about younger generations losing traditional skills, particularly the knowledge of how to make natural fertilisers without cost. “I love the knowledge of traditional methods like making natural fertilizers, which don’t cost money,” she says. “If the resources in the community don’t disappear, we will save money, be healthy, and live as long as the old people did before.”

A Defender of Future Generations

Choum Vanna’s life and work offer a powerful model of locally led natural resource management and community activism. For over three decades, she has protected 1,915 hectares of Tonle Sap’s fragile ecosystem, built community enterprises, supported refugees, intervened in cases of domestic violence, and worked to preserve traditional farming knowledge.

Her story demonstrates that those who love and protect the remaining natural resources are not merely environmentalists, they are defenders of future generations, cultural memory, and community dignity. In a context where development pressures and short-term thinking erode both ecosystems and social bonds, leaders like Vanna show what is possible when local knowledge, trust, and commitment are put at the centre.

As she says of her decades of work: “What I consider a success in the fishing community is that when I speak, people listen. I have spoken out about crime and made progress and they have taken action to stop it.”

This blog was originally published by Focus on the Global South, a Participatory Action in Agroecology (IPA-Global) grantee partner.