ABSTRACT
For over 1.7 million people within the floodplain of Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia, living with floods is both a way of and a source of life. Tonle Sap Lake is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, located in Cambodia's central plains. This chapter presents empirical research on the mobile political ecologies of fishing and farming in two villages located in the Tonle Sap Lake's floodplains. It explores the social dynamics and asymmetrical power relations that mediate between flooding, access to natural resources, and migration. The chapter argues that among smallholder farming and family-scale fishing households, although they are relatively resilient to the seasonal flooding of Tonle Sap Lake, vulnerability is significant and growing. The main livelihoods in the two villages studied are wild-capture fishing and rice farming, with migration increasingly a significant livelihood strategy. Both villages are located on major rivers and are connected to the commune centers via dirt-track roads.
