Centre for Natural Resources and Environment

The Centre for Natural Resources and Environment (CNRE) conducts policy-oriented and academic researches, focusing on climate change, resource governance, energy, and environmental sustainability. The centre generates evidence-based knowledge through rigorous researches using various methods including integrated modelling techniques, social-ecological system analyses, economic experiments, surveys and in-depth qualitative analysis. The research findings are shared widely among local and international partners, practitioners, and policy makers through publications, policy dialogues, and dissemination workshops. Our researches provide reliable information and scientific evidence for decision makers to make relevant policies, especially contributing to the Royal Government of Cambodia’s rectangle strategies on Angle 4: inclusive sustainable development, sustainable management of natural resources and culture, ensuring environmental sustainability, and primitive response to climate change.


Gender, Livelihood and Climate Change in Cambodia

The World Bank

Cambodia’s susceptibility to climate change is heightened by its limited ability to adapt. Women experience more pronounced consequences from climate change than men. As Cambodia strives to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 amidst...

Opportunity Case 1: Climate Change, Livelihood and Migration

The Asia Foundation | Ponlok Chammes | Australia Aid

The Ponlok Chomnes II program is a four-year program funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade through The Asia Foundation's Ponlok Chomnes: Data and Dialogue for Development in Cambodia that aims to promote...

Impacts of Climate Change on Displacement Patterns in Kratie, Mondulkiri and Stung Treng Provinces, Cambodia

International Organization for Migration

Links between climate change and migration in Cambodia need to be empirically substantiated. It is known that climate change poses a threat to agricultural production and impacts men and women in different ways in terms of a shift...

Green Industry and SME Development in Cambodia

AEM-METI Economic and Industrial Cooperation Committee

Green SMEs are small and medium-sized enterprises that operate environmentally and sustainably. In Cambodia, MSMEs (Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) are the backbone of the economy and constitute more than 90 percent of...

Strengthening Water Resources Management Planning Systems for Inclusive Climate Resilient WASH Services

Water for Women Fund

Climate resilient water safety planning (WSP) has commenced in Cambodia, and new guidelines have been developed by government agencies to inform and guide climate-resilient water resources management and water security. These two...

Survey on LPG Consumption Situation in Cambodia

The Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia

In Cambodia, the source of fuel for households from liquefied petroleum gas (LGP) accounts for 56 per cent of urban settlements and 11 percent of rural residents, and it ranks second after firewood and charcoal. The source of elec...

Mekong Thought Leadership and Think Tanks Network

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

The Mekong Thought Leadership and Think Tanks Network Program will address the challenges related to water and energy in the context of climate change impacting the most vulnerable and marginalised in society in Mekong countries....

Asian Mega Deltas (AMD) Working Package 4 and Resilient Aquatic Foods in Food, Land and Water Systems (RAqFS) Working Pa...

International Water Management Institute (IWMI)

The Asian Mega Deltas (AMD) program is one of the new OneCG initiatives that commenced in April 2022 and will run till at least 31 December 2024 (Phase 1). The One CG involves closer working modalities amongst the numerous CG Cent...

Renewable Energy and Climate Change Perceptions in Cambodia

The Economy and Environment Partnership for Southeast Asia

This study hypothesizes that the reason for Cambodia’s moving toward a more fossil fuel-based energy could be due to the misperceptions or underestimated co-benefits of renewable energy in relation to the associated costs. If the...


Barriers to Nutritious Food Production and Consumption: Insights from Two Case Studies

Cambodia has made notable paces in reducing poverty and advancing human development. However, a significant portion of the population remains susceptible to poverty, food insecurity, malnutrition, and various shocks. The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, coupled with the global food and fuel crisis and recent climate-related events, has exacerbated the already fragile conditions for many, especia...


Enhancing Rural Resilience for Climate-Induced Migration Responses

Key MessagesMigrants were mainly young adults, with men doing high-risk jobs like construction and women doing less risky jobs such as factory work. Migrant households’ livelihoods are affected by unpredictable weather conditions, reduced water availability, and extreme events like heatwaves, droughts and floods, which lowered crop yields and fish stocks. This led to income loss and financial inst...


Climate‑related Loss and Damage in Contexts of Agrarian Change: Differentiated Sense of Loss from Extreme Weather Events in Northeast Cambodia

The uneven burden of climate-related losses and damages and its implications for equity and social justice are receiving growing attention in science and policy. Smallholder farmers, indigenous groups, and ethnic minorities are often identifed as particularly vulnerable and likely to experience a greater burden of climate-related loss and damage. However, limited attention has been paid to ex...

Derek Richardson   (2024)

Expertise and Immigrant Status: A Bourdieuisan Analysis of How Citizen-led Aid Organisations Provide Health Care Transnationally

The transnational mobility of people, information, and resources is critical to the success of nonprofit international development projects. Ensuring effective transnational flows arguably takes on greater salience for grassroots international nongovernmental organisations (GINGOs), as these organisations and their leaders are unlikely to have a full-time presence in their intervention sites, inst...


Empowering Women for Climate Resilience in Cambodia

Cambodia has experienced significant economic growth and improved living standards over the last two decades, and gender equality has also improved, especially on outcomes such as girls and women’s human capital accumulation in education. However, the impacts of climate change could put the hard-earned economic development gains including those of women, at risk. Climate change impacts are profoun...


Climate Change and Migration Patterns: Findings at the Commune Level in Rural Provinces of Cambodia

Migration forces rural people to find more and better jobs, which is key in generating incomes to sustain livelihoods and ensure food security in times of environmental change. In addition to agricultural production, climate change affects health, water, and energy resources and causes migration and conflict. The impacts of climate change on men and women can also differ in terms of employmen...


The Political Economy of Land-Water Resource Governance in the Context of Food Security in Cambodia

Water is central for a variety of livelihoods, development, economic growth, and food production. It is also very important in the large deltas of South and Southeast Asia. Yet, water is turning into a scare resource and global climate change is making its availability more unpredictable. Commercial interests and infrastructure development are also competing for water resources, sometimes at the e...


Contract Farming in Mekong Countries: Best Practices and Lessons Learned

This flagship publication is the result of a regional two-year research project entitled: “Enhancing Research and Dialogue on Contract Farming in the Mekong-Lancang Countries”. It represents a close collaboration between CDRI and project partners - the China Agricultural University (CAU), Kasetsart University (Thailand), and the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Developmen...


Water scarcity and support for costly institutions in public goods: Experimental evidence from Cambodia

Voluntary contributions to public goods are vulnerable to free riding. A potential solution is the implementation of a costly institutional arrangement that deters free riding behavior. In this paper, we analyze to what extent resource users are willing to bear those costs and vote in favor of costly institutions. We carried out lab-in-the-field experiments with Cambodian farmers in the Kampong Ch...


Deepening Inclusive Water Diplomacy Through Water Data Sharing on the Mekong-Lancang River

In the Mekong-Lancang basin, intergovernmental scientific water data sharing has progressively expanded between governments since the early 1990s as an outcome of water diplomacy efforts. Much of this scientific water data has been made public via online platforms.Water data underpins water diplomacy, including through trust building and providing evidence. It is crucial in the Mek...

Joint Field Work on Climate Resilient Water Safety Planning

20 February 2024

Cambodia remains highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to its heavy reliance on climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, water resources, forestry, fisheries, and tourism. These sectors form the critical foundation of Cambodia’s economic growth and support the livelihoods of a significant majority of its population. In response to this vulnerability, CDRI’s Environment Centre is actively engaged in research to strengthen wa...

In-depth Fieldwork on "Grounded Case Studies of Asian Mega Delta Project Work Package 4 on The Resilient Aquatic Food in Food, Land, and Water Systems"

19 January 2024

From 09 -18 January 2024, CDRI’s Environment Centre conducted an in-depth fieldwork project named "Grounded Case Studies of Asian Mega Delta Project Work Package 4 on The Resilient Aquatic Food in Food, Land, and Water Systems,” which focuses on the Mekong Delta provinces of Takeo and Kompong Thom to explore how formal and informal institutions manage land and water resources, ultimately impacting the multifunctionality of the landscape and its a...

Panel Discussion on Addressing the Gender Dimension in Clean Energy Sector 

20 November 2023

Dr Ngin Chanrith, a Senior Research Fellow and Director of CDRI's Environment Centre, participated as a panelist in a discussion titled “Addressing the Gender Dimension in the Clean Energy Sector” during Clean Energy Week on November 20, 2023. The discussion highlighted the pivotal role women play in energy consumption and decision-making within their households, and their potential to significantly influence family energy expenditure.The discuss...

Kick-off Workshop for the Preparation of the State of Gender Equality and Climate Change

15 July 2020

On July 15, 2020, the Center for Environment and Natural Resources hosted a kick-off workshop for the preparation of the State of Gender Equality and Climate Change Report. It was attended by 25 participants from UN Women, CDRI, Ministries of Environment, Agriculture, Rural Development, Women's Affairs, and Mines and Energy, and NCDD Secretariat, and Action Aids (CSO). The expected outcome is the national report would become “a tool” to raise awa...

10 Nov

Research Seminar

“I had no education. I had no experience. I had nothing.”: Understanding Non-expert, Citizen-led INGOs through Realist and Relational Lenses

10 Nov 2023
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

“How do the absent forms of expertise of citizen-led INGO leaders affect their rationales and modes of providing international aid?” This question will be addressed in our monthly research seminar on Friday 10 November 2023, from 11am to 12pm at CDRI Library and Zoom. This month, we will explore the topic “Understanding Non-expert, Citizen-led INGOs through Realist and Relational Lenses” and will combine realist and relationship approaches to pr...

31 Jul

Research Seminar

Impact of Human Capital on Global Value Chains in Asia and Southeast Asian Region

31 Jul 2023
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

We are pleased to invite you to join our Monthly Research Seminar on the Impact of Human Capital on Global Value Chains in Asia and Southeast Asian Region which takes place on July 31st, 2023, from 10 AM - 11 AM (GMT+7) via Zoom. This seminar examines the relationship between human capital development and global value-chain (GVC) activities in East Asia and seeks to examine the impact of human capital development on domestic firm participation in...

24 Aug

National Dissemination and Knowledge Sharing Workshop

State of Gender Equality and Climate Change in Cambodia

24 Aug 2021
08:30 AM - 12:00 PM

Virutal

The purpose of this  workshop is to i) disseminate result the study. ii) to  present more evidence of the links between gender equality and climate change and analysing gendered impacts in the key adaptation and mitigation sectors; and iii) to provide country-specific recommendations about how to enhance gender responsive policy implementation and further bolster the integration of gender equality in climate-relevant policy areas.