Background
Nature-based solutions in watershed management combine ecosystem protection, restoration and community-based activities to reduce environmental degradation and support rural livelihoods in floodplain and watershed landscapes. The project titled “Building Resilient Livelihoods through Nature-based Solutions in the Tonle Sap Basin and Landscapes (Siem Reap/Phnom Kulen)” will run for five years from 2026 to 2031.
The initiative is led by the Ministry of Environment in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme and is financed through a grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The project targets approximately 100,000 direct beneficiaries and an estimated more than four million people living in Siem Reap province and the wider Tonle Sap basin.
Institutional Role
The Ministry of Environment is the implementing agency and is coordinating with Siem Reap provincial administration, national and local authorities, development partners and civil society to operationalize activities at landscape and community levels. A project workshop and launch meeting was convened on the morning of 19 August 2026 at Bayon Era Hotel in Siem Reap, attended by roughly 70 participants from central ministry departments, provincial offices, the APSARA National Authority, UNDP representatives and local community and commune-level authorities.
Operational Implications
Project workstreams include dissemination of core results and implementation strategies to stakeholders, on-site assessments to refine project design, and a scheduled revision of the monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) framework. Planned activities also encompass measures addressing gender integration and environmental and social safeguards, the assignment of roles and responsibilities to the project steering committee, and the formal commencement of project implementation.
