ABSTRACT
The rainy season in Cambodia is from May through October, with much of the country gradually and naturally becoming covered in floodwater, in particular the regions adjacent to the landscape’s defining waterbodies and waterways. The confluence of the two rivers lies just north of the capital and largest city Phnom Penh and it is there that the unique phenomenon occurs of the Tonle Sap River reversing direction with the seasons, flowing north into the Mekong River during the dry months. Everyone arrived by boat on the shores of the seasonal island that had been identified as a neutral place, but the members of each constituency congregated at different spots around the shady perimeter rather than progressing to an open-sided pagoda that was the meeting venue at the center of the small island. The community fisheries development office, now a hive of activity, had, it seemed, emerged as a facilitator of community-focused advocacy within a national government department.
