Overview
Grantees: Oxfam (lead), Banteay Srei, Culture and Environment Preservation Association (CEPA)
The project aims to embed gender-based violence (GBV) risk mitigation and promote women participation and leadership in community-led conservation and climate resilience initiatives in Stung Treng and Ratanakiri provinces in Cambodia, ensuring that indigenous women, people with disabilities (PWDs), LGBTQ+ individuals, and other marginalized groups can safely and equitably engage in natural resource governance. It aims to increase participation and leadership of women in natural resource management and climate actions, embed GBV risk mitigation strategies in community-led conservation landscapes, and strengthen social norms, peer solidarity, and collective engagement in communities to prevent GBV and promote gender-equitable participation in conservation landscapes.
Targeted outcome
Increased safety for and participation of women and people of diverse gender identities in conservation and climate action initiatives in Cambodia’s Stung Treng and Ratanakiri provinces.
Planned Reach
The project will directly reach 648 people (299 women and 349 men), including management committee members of Community Fisheries and Community-protected Areas, communities’ active members, local communities residents, local authorities and sub-national government representatives, and gender equality champions. They will be engaged in awareness raising and capacity building workshops, and they will be supported in conducting GBV risk mapping and developing safety risks mitigation plans. Indirectly, the project will benefit 5,000 individuals through safer villages and communities, more peaceful and harmonious households, and improved collective solidarity.
Situational background
In Cambodia, GBV is deeply connected to access, use, and control of natural resources, particularly in Indigenous and rural communities, where livelihoods depend heavily on forests, fisheries, and land. Women especially Indigenous women, women with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ individuals face heightened risks of violence due to entrenched patriarchal norms and inequitable power relations. Domestic and intimate partner violence often escalates when households experience economic stress from restricted access to forests and fisheries. Women’s voices are frequently silenced in land and forest governance processes, and this exclusion reinforces feelings of disempowerment and perpetuates gender hierarchies. Survivors of GBV also face significant barriers in seeking help due to the lack of confidential reporting mechanisms, and weak survivor-centered responses from local authorities
Project Approach
The project aims to embed gender-based violence (GBV) risk mitigation and promote women participation and leadership in community-led conservation and climate resilience initiatives in Stung Treng and Ratanakiri provinces in Cambodia, ensuring that indigenous women, people with disabilities (PWDs), LGBTQ+ individuals, and other marginalized groups can safely and equitably engage in natural resource governance. Guided by feminist principles, the project’s strategic approach is to support community members and leaders themselves, especially women, in building agency and sustainability into their own governance, development, and community safety plans. Implemented by Oxfam in Cambodia, Banteay Srei organization, and Culture and Environment Preservation Association (CEPA), the project aims to achieve three main results: 1) Participation and leadership of women in natural resource management and climate actions is increased and strengthened, 2) Communities adopt GBV risk mitigation strategies in conservation landscapes, and 3) Communities strengthen social norms, peer solidarity, and collective engagement to prevent GBV and promote gender-equitable participation in conservation landscapes.
