Questions the evidence can answer

Is Cambodia’s seagrass declining?

The regional review reported no Cambodian seagrass-bed time series. The atlas contains local surveys and a carbon campaign, but those do not by themselves establish a national trend.

• Southeast Asian seagrass distribution and change synthesis
• Diversity, abundance and distribution of seagrasses in three community fisheries
• Chrouy Pros Bay seagrass soil carbon and biomass dataset

Do the reef surveys show recovery?

The 91-site reef dataset describes one visit per site during 2021–2023. It supports comparisons among sampled places, not before-and-after recovery. Separate Kep research reports repeated reef surveys, with differences in sampling that need consideration.

• Through murky waters: Cambodian reef communities
• Kep coral reef and seagrass status assessment

Can we compare mangroves through time?

Annual GMW maps provide a consistent product series for 1985–2025. Use the year comparison tool; classification uncertainty and early-year infilling still matter. Map-pixel differences and accuracy-corrected national estimates are different quantities.

• Global Mangrove Watch v4.1.12 annual extent

Does carbon stock mean annual carbon capture?

No. The available carbon measurements describe stocks, sediment-depth sections and biomass samples from one May 2024 campaign. They do not measure annual sequestration.

• Chrouy Pros Bay seagrass soil carbon and biomass dataset

Are nearby studies repeated sampling?

Not necessarily. Check site identifiers, dates, methods and effort. The eDNA and carbon campaigns differ in date and method; nearby locations alone cannot establish change.

• Cambodian coastal fish eDNA study
• Chrouy Pros Bay seagrass soil carbon and biomass dataset

Does a species record have a research paper?

Some records are museum specimens, observations or archive contributions without an associated paper. The original provider record remains evidence; a missing publication link does not make one exist.

• OBIS Cambodia

Additional report findings

• Social and natural resources mapping for Koh Rong Marine National Park

  The 2023 tables report 57 ha of seagrass, 278.23 ha of coral reef and 203.58 ha of mangroves for Koh Rong; the corresponding Samloem entries are 0.66 ha, 288.66 ha and 19.39 ha.

• Assessing the influence of four years of Marine Protected Area status in the Koh Rong Marine National Park

  The April 2019 expedition surveyed 20 Koh Rong monitoring sites and five outer-island sites.

More research and original maps

• Community fisheries and coastal development: the 2022 interviews

  The 2022 interview round covered seven community fisheries; it did not include Kampong Tralach, whose representatives were unavailable.

• Plastic waste on Cambodia’s islands, beaches and reefs

  In the Koh Sdach waste sample, plastic made up 27% of household waste by weight. This came from 24 participating households over a 24-hour collection, not a national waste estimate.

• What Cambodia’s turtle action plan records about historical sightings

  The action plan reports 233 recalled turtle-sighting events from 120 participants across the four coastal provinces, covering 2005–2015. These are not 233 independently confirmed turtles.

• Koh Seh’s coral survey: field measurements from 2019

  Although published in 2025, this study measured reefs in June–September 2019. It is a local historical baseline, not a 2025 reef-health survey.