Protests, Regulations and Environmental Accountability in Cambodia

In the realm of global environmental governance, accountability has been key to the debate concerning pervasive environmental deterioration. Among the factors underlying this deterioration, a perceived challenge is the lack of clear mechanisms for identifying to whom the actors in environmental governance in general, and in other sectors, e.g. hydropower, agricultural land, mining and infrastructure in particular, are accountable to for their actions. To investigate the challenge of this situation, this paper explores the ways in which the protest movements of grassroots communities and NGOs endeavor to hold government and foreign corporations accountable for the actions they have taken which have contributed to environmental degradation in Cambodia. Drawing on two case studies, this paper argues that these protest movements have played an increasing role in requiring environmental accountability from both government and corporations