ABSTRACT
After the end of the Khmer Rouge communist regime of 1975-1979 that killed more than 2 million innocent people, the Cambodian people were rescued, but fell into dictatorship from 1979 to the present. Although the new regime brought stability and no killings, and the people started to have private ownership, in contrast to the old communist regime, the confiscation of natural resources to rebuild the economy created controversial issues such as human rights abuses and land rights violations, and natural resources have been destroyed by unsustainable and no-accountability projects. How can environmental activists living under a dictatorship for more than 30 years exercise their rights to protect natural resources?
