Last year, the Ministry of Environment installed 1,000 boundary posts to demarcate protected natural resource areas. It intends to match the number in 2026, as part of ongoing efforts to register all protected state land.
The ministry manages 73 protected areas across the Kingdom. They cover more than 7 million hectares, or 41 per cent of Cambodia’s total land area. They include nine national parks, two marine national parks, 18 wildlife sanctuaries, 14 protected landscape areas, 11 multiple-use areas, five Ramsar sites and 14 natural heritage areas.
A January 13 ministry statement explained that demarking the Kingdom’s protected areas will eventually require a total of 15,759 boundary posts. To date, the ministry has installed a total of 3,600 boundary posts, leaving 12,119 to be placed in the coming years.
The second pillar of the ministry’s Environmental Sector Circular Strategy is “Greenness”, which focuses on increasing national forest cover and moving toward carbon neutrality for Cambodia by 2050. Under this pillar, the ministry has implemented measures to strengthen the management of protected natural areas, expand national forest cover and improve the livelihoods of local communities by enforcing the Environmental and Natural Resources Code and other relevant regulations.
In 2025, environmental park rangers conducted 16,261 patrols within their jurisdictions and suppressed 2,152 natural resource offenses.
Recently, rangers from the Sambor Wildlife Sanctuary under the Kratie Provincial Department of Environment, busted a forest crime operation in the sanctuary, including illegal logging, tree felling, land encroachment, forest destruction and unlawful land ownership.
One suspect was detained and evidence was seized. The suspect is being held in Kratie province for further legal proceedings.
