Dr LONN Pichdara

Former External Researcher

Dr Pichdara was Director of the Centre for Natural Resources and Environment at CDRI. Currently, he is an independent senior researcher in the field of natural resource and environment policy, particularly in community-based natural resource management (community forestry, community-based ecotourism, climate change and gender). Dr Pichdara recently conducted a three-year impact evaluation study on climate change programmes relating to poverty, vulnerability and gender with Cambodia’s Ministry of Rural Development and the UNDP Bangkok regional hub.  

Dr Pichdara obtained his Master's and PhD degrees in Forest Management from Kyushu University, Japan, in 2012 and 2018. His areas of research interest are mainly agriculture, forests, community-based natural resource management, forest dependents, fishery resource dependents, water governance, climate change, clean energy, green development, and other environmental and natural resource issues in Cambodia and the wider region. He has published research articles in many international journals covering ecological economics, forests, water and sustainability.  

Email : N/A


LONN Pichdara


Edited Books

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...

International Publications

The escalating climate change-related disasters around the world are a serious threat to human existence and human livelihoods. Rural people living in developing countries, especially those of the poorest, are believed to be particularly vulnerable to climate change. As the number of climate change programs designed to help the poorer households ha...

Policy Briefs 7

To address the vulnerability to floods of five Mekong islands in Kampong Cham and Tboung Khmum provinces, the Ministry of Rural Development (MRD) implemented the Strategic Program for Climate Resilience (SPCR) – The Five-Year Mekong River Island Connectivity Project (2016–2020) in Kampong Cham and Tboung Khmum provinces. This program involved the c...

Research Reports

Community-based ecotourism (CBET) has long been considered an effective natural resource governance policy for both forest conservation and livelihood improvement in developing countries around the world. Cambodia is no exception. The Cambodian government has been promoting and establishing CBET sites countrywide. Preah Nimith CBET, located in a re...

Research Reports

The purpose of this assessment report on gender equality and climate change is to analyse the gendered impacts of climate change and to raise awareness about the benefits of, and need for gender-responsive climate action. The study has two main objectives: i) to strengthen country-driven processes by presenting more evidence of the links betwe...

Cambodia Development Review 24 - 4

In this article, we introduce the MRC water diplomacy framework and provide an overview of its governance structure, present three case studies of hydropower dam projects illustrating implementation of the MRC water diplomacy framework, and discuss the challenges affecting the MRC’s ability to implement water diplomacy effectively. The insights gai...

Cambodia Development Review 24 - 2

This article draws on a qualitative study conducted to assess the impact of climate change programs in Cambodia, including the MRD’s pilot program in Kampong Svay district (CDRI, MRD and UNDP 2019). It summarises the main lessons learned and discusses the main factors hindering poor and vulnerable program beneficiaries from replicating demonstr...


CDRI research team works together with national universities, governmental institutions and NGO/CSOs in both Cambodia and Lao PDR to develop a research proposal applying for EXPLORE Research grant on forest landscape governance.​ The proposed research title is “Co-adaptive forest management through climate-smart technology and communal social capit...


The Cambodia water scarcity profile is a stock-taking exercise designed to understand what water scarcity challenges exist in the country and what is the current approach of government to managing water scarcity. The focus is on understanding the policy instruments available and how effective planning and management measures have been in addressing...


Under technical and financial support of UNEP and UNWOMEN, the assessment report is “a tool” to raise awareness about the benefits, advantages and need for gender-responsive climate action, analyse gendered impacts of climate change, and suggest ways to enhance and mainstream gender equality into climate-relevant sectoral policies. Besides, th...


Community based ecotourism has been considered as an effective natural resource governance policy for both forest conservation and livelihood improvement, and increasing trend worldwide. The Royal Government of Cambodia has been promoting and establishing community based ecotourism sites (CBET) across the countries. Preah Nimith CBET is locate...


Working to support Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), CNRE contributes to developing a comprehensive report on the status of climate change in the ASEAN region, which provides an overall outlook on the state of play of climate change in the context of the ASEAN region and can support ASEAN member state (AMS) and join the pro...


Climate change programs have been implemented in the affected countries to reduce the negative impacts and to make the communities resilient to climate change. The Ministry of Rural Development of Cambodia has been running two climate change programs: 1.) Strategic Program for Climate Resilience (SPCR) - The five-year Mekong River Island Connec...