- The Cambodian government is set to begin construction of the Funan Techo Canal, a nearly $1.2 billion, 180-kilometer (112-mile) waterway navigation project that will cut across four provinces to connect the Mekong River to the sea.
- The primary rationale for building the canal is to reduce Cambodia’s shipping costs as well as to generate jobs and economic development.
- Mongabay has followed this mega-project’s development for more than a year, speaking with more than 50 people living along the canal’s proposed route. Virtually everyone we spoke with noted that the government has provided very little information about the project, and amid the uncertainty, fear has taken root.
- In coastal communities in Kep province, where the canal will meet the sea and a new port and deepwater shipping lanes will be built, fishers we spoke with said they worried they’d lose their homes and that construction would render their already meager fishing grounds barren and inaccessible.
This is the first of two stories about the potential impact of Cambodia’s planned Funan Techo Canal. Part two, about consequences for inland communities and wildlife, can be read here.
KEP, Cambodia — “Nobody from the government has spoken to us directly about how we’ll be affected,” Mae Vuthy told Mongabay while he sat on his longtail fishing boat moored off the coast of Angkoal commune in Cambodia’s Kep province. “We’re all concerned, we’re all fishers, so we need access to the water, but what can we do? We have no power.”
That morning, in November 2024, Vuthy had just returned to shore after laying crab traps and collecting fishing nets that he’d left in the Gulf of Thailand overnight. It had been a disappointing haul for Vuthy and his crew, but not a surprising one. Rampant illegal fishing and breakneck coastal development have left Cambodia’s marine fisheries reeling for years.
Now, on top of the dwindling catches he pulls from the water and the increased pressure from land privatization along the coast, Vuthy, the fishing community and the marine lifeforms of Kep’s waters face a new threat. The Funan Techo Canal, which will link the Mekong River in inland Kandal province to the sea in Kep, looks set to turn the sleepy fishing commune of Angkoal into a bustling port and logistics hub.
Mongabay has followed this mega-project’s development for more than a year. We’ve spoken with more than 50 people living along the canal’s proposed route in Kandal, Takeo, Kampot and Kep provinces during reporting trips in November 2024, April 2025 and October 2025 to better understand how life may change, should the Funan Techo Canal be completed. We also reviewed the limited public documentation related to the canal and reached out to conservationists, hydrologists and government officials to learn how the planned canal may affect the people and environment along its route.
Virtually everyone we spoke with noted that the government had provided very little information about the project, and amid the uncertainty, fear had taken root. In coastal communities in Kep, Vuthy and other fishers we spoke with said they worry the construction of the canal and port will render their fishing grounds barren and inaccessible. The port’s construction and eventual operations threaten to bring about sedimentation from seabed dredging, pollution from heavy marine traffic and the disruption or destruction of key habitats for various marine species. Inland, the canal may displace hundreds and irreparably alter the hydrology of critical farmland and habitat upon which people and wildlife depend; we’ll explore those effects in a forthcoming story.
Opaque plans
The Cambodian government approved the Funan Techo Canal as a $1.7 billion, 180-kilometer (112-mile) waterway navigation project in 2023 and held a groundbreaking ceremony on the banks of the Mekong River in Kandal province on Aug. 5, 2024 — the chosen birthday of former Prime Minister Hun Sen, who ruled for nearly four decades. Hun Sen’s son, Hun Manet, the former army commander turned current prime minister, told the ruling party faithful in attendance that the Funan Techo Canal must be built “at any cost.”
The primary rationale for building the canal is to reduce Cambodia’s spending on logistics, estimated at 26% of the country’s gross domestic product. The canal, some have argued, could reduce reliance on exporting goods via neighboring Vietnam by as much as 70%. The government states on its canal website, “Negative impact on environment and Ecology system is minimal,” despite substantial research suggesting otherwise. Likewise, the canal website states that “transparent consultation” has taken place among affected communities, which contradicts accounts by sources Mongabay spoke to on the ground. Even the number of jobs expected to be produced ranges wildly, from 50,000 direct and indirect opportunities to 1.6 million by 2050.
The government has worked to generate widespread domestic support for the canal, including through a social media campaign encouraging users to set their profile pictures to include a government-distributed banner roughly translating to “I fully support the Funan Techo Canal.” But neither the ruling party’s reach nor the canal’s appeal have extended much beyond Cambodia’s borders. Vietnam in particular has voiced concerns over the diversion of water from the Mekong River’s mainstem and the potential disruption to water and food security in Vietnam’s delta. While still prime minister, Hun Sen in 2024 dismissed criticism from Vietnam and environmentalists, calling their concerns “unnecessary.” Yet many of these concerns are shared by residents along the canal’s route and by analysts who fear the canal will divide floodplains and hydrologically alter farmlands dependent on the unimpeded flow of water.
The project’s future seemed for some time in jeopardy due to an apparent lack of interest from China, whose Belt and Road Initiative was set to fund the project. In recent years, Chinese companies have built almost every major infrastructure or economic development project in Cambodia. As such, many analysts were surprised by the delay until, in April 2025, the Chinese state-owned enterprise China Road and Bridge Corporation finally confirmed it would finance 49% of the Funan Techo Canal project on a 40-50-year build-operate-transfer model, although the project’s overall price tag was revised down to almost $1.16 billion.
Pro-government media announced in late November 2025 that dredging would begin in December 2025, but no such work has been reported since. The official website still displays 0% progress on the canal for November and December 2025, as well as January 2026.
More than two years since its approval and more than a year since Hun Sen’s birthday groundbreaking event, very little information has been conveyed to those on the ground. This has troubled both international observers and those who stand to lose land or property to the project. The government stated that it expects 2,305 households, roughly 11,525 people, to be affected by the canal’s construction. However, the Ministry of Public Works and Transport told local media that only 400 of those households would be “completely affected” while the rest will lose land, fences, walls and wells across the 180 hectares (445 acres) of residential land to be affected. The government expects the canal to affect an additional 3,469 hectares (8,572 acres) of farmland, but the ministry didn’t detail the number of farmers.
Amid the widespread confusion among affected residents regarding relocation and compensation, the government announced in February that the construction company behind the canal is waiting until these grievances have been addressed to start work. Some residents inland told Mongabay they’d been informed the canal’s route had been slightly adjusted to reduce the project’s compensation costs, but those in Kep said they had not received such information.
Mongabay repeatedly contacted the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, the Ministry of Environment and the office of Deputy Prime Minister Sun Chanthol, who is overseeing the project, between October 2024 and February 2026. But not one responded to email, message or written questions hand delivered to the deputy prime minister’s office.
Commercializing the coast
In coastal Kep province, where the Funan Techo Canal will meet the sea at the new port and connect deepwater shipping lanes to ports farther west in Sihanoukville, few current residents own land titles and most depend on fishing for a livelihood. For them, the canal is a threat multiplier, compounding the problems of tenuous land tenure and shrinking fish catches by threatening widespread displacement and disruption of the marine ecosystems that sustain them.
“There are between 30 to 40 households along the coast in Ampaeng village alone,” Vuthy told Mongabay in November 2024. “But because nobody’s got any official information from the government, rumors are spreading. People say we’ll all be evicted with no compensation, even though my family’s lived here for generations — around 60 years altogether.”
When Mongabay revisited Kep in October 2025, Vuthy’s wife said he had moved to the coastal city of Sihanoukville for work, but that the authorities had provided no more information about the canal.
Vuthy said the government has failed to grant land titles for many Ampaeng residents now living near the canal’s planned inlet and port, leading him to suspect they’d be denied compensation for relocation due to the project on the grounds that they’re “illegals.”
“But there’s nowhere else to go, so much of the coast has been sold off to tycoons already,” he added.
More than half of Cambodia’s 435-km (270-mi) coastline has been privatized, with numerous islands bought up by wealthy, politically connected elites. Even the largest Cambodian island’s status remains unclear following interest from one of the country’s most powerful men.
“When the canal project begins or is operational, I think the locals will no longer be able to fish in the area because the deep shipping lane will be in place,” local fisher Ngeth Hey told Mongabay in October 2025. “This is why the community is so worried about it.”
When Mongabay first met Hey in November 2024, he had said the fishing community was caught in the pincers of coastal development and marine conservation.
Koh Tonsay, or Rabbit Island — roughly 6 km (3.7 mi) from the shores of Kep — was sold to U.S. sanctioned timber and mining magnate Try Pheap, who has been repeatedly linked to environmental destruction. Pheap is also developing neighboring Koh Tbal and building a deep-sea port elsewhere in Kep.
Rabbit Island sits within the roughly 11,300-hectare (28,000-acre) marine fisheries management area (MFMA) that has been developed in Kep since 2018. The MFMA aims to restrict commercial fishing operations, allowing marine biodiversity to thrive and fish stocks to recover, while still allowing small-scale fishers to operate.
Hey said the development of Koh Tonsay further restricted access for small-scale fishers, and that rocks and soil dumped into the water to expand the island was smothering coral and polluting fisheries the community relies on.
When Mongabay caught up with Hey again in October 2025, he said no more official information had been shared with the community, but that he was making plans to relocate due to fear of collisions with shipping vessels.
“If I can’t earn a living in this area, the only way forward is relocation to Preah Sihanouk province,” he said. “I know only fishing; I will continue fishing.”
The construction of ports and resorts in Kep has already disturbed the marine environment, with the noise, airborne dust and sedimentation of the water making fishing tricky for those who’ve long relied on the sea for a livelihood. Now, as commercial developments sweep the coast, the Funan Techo Canal looks set to add more pressure to an already stressed ecosystem.
“Nobody’s told us anything about the canal, but we know it’ll change the coast,” said Chum Yuon, who had just returned empty-handed from a 14-hour stretch on the water in November 2024. “We won’t be able to fish here, we probably won’t even be able to dock our boats here. When they begin digging, I’ll find other work, but until then, I’ll keep trying to fish in Kep. If there’s any way to continue fishing after the canal begins construction here, I’d like to stay, because I was born here.”
Undeterred by the already deteriorating fish stocks, Yuon told Mongabay that Fisheries Administration authorities had been taking soil samples around the area slated for canal development, but when questioned by local residents, the officials had remained tight-lipped.
“I’m worried the Funan Techo Canal will only make things worse for us; there’s no benefit to fishers from this project,” he said.
Silence by the sea
The Funan Techo Canal has reignited long-running anti-Vietnamese sentiments and tapped into nationalist fervor among some Cambodians, while others remain cautiously optimistic about the new trade routes. But among those concerned about the social and environmental impacts, it’s also cast a shadow of fear in a country where freedom of expression has long been curtailed by the Hun dynasty’s ruling party.
As such, and given the sparse detail the government has characteristically released, establishing exactly how the canal will affect the marine ecosystems off Kep’s coast remains challenging. The politically sensitive nature of the canal has also kept many marine conservationists silent on the topic.
Mongabay reached out to Marine Conservation Cambodia, which has developed the Kep MFMA and is currently executing a project funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to rejuvenate Cambodia’s marine fisheries. Neither it nor the ADB responded to questions sent. Nor have Khmer Ocean Life, Fauna & Flora, the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Cambodian and regional offices, the Institute for Marine Research, Wild Earth Allies, the Southern Institute of Water Resources Research in Vietnam, Mission Blue, the Marine Mammals Protected Areas Task Force or various independent researchers and academics who have worked on Cambodia’s coasts.
However, multiple sources within some of these organizations whom Mongabay spoke to privately expressed concerns about the canal.
Johannes Krause, an assistant research professor at Florida International University’s Seagrass Ecosystems Research Lab, who has worked on the coast of Koh Kong province some 200 km (124 mi) west of Kep, was among the few marine experts who agreed to speak on record. He said he was unaware of the specific plans for the canal and stressed that without more information from the government, it was difficult to estimate the impact it would have on Kep’s coast and the life it supports.
However, if dredging the seabed is required to build it, then he said the canal’s construction would almost certainly impact the benthic habitats.
“There may be potential for impacts on seagrass beds and corals that are located beyond the actual channel and port area,” Krause told Mongabay via email. “Particularly sediment plumes come to mind, which can smother coral and deprive seagrasses of light or outright bury them.”
Considered among the most productive ecosystems on the planet, seagrass meadows support fish populations and serve as key habitats for various species, including marine mammals like dolphins and dugongs, and as carbon sinks. Unchecked coastal development, overfishing and illegal fishing have dramatically curtailed Kep’s own seagrass meadows in tandem with marine biodiversity, although conservation efforts such as the MFMA have successfully revived pockets of the habitat and its associated wildlife.
These gains will likely to be threatened by the Funan Techo Canal, which is set to meet the sea just 2.5 km (1.5 mi) from the MFMA’s boundary, suggesting heavy marine traffic could pass through the MFMA to avoid shallow near-shore waters.
“Healthy seagrass meadows really can shape what a wet market in a small town looks like, and what there is to eat on the table of a family living in a coastal village,” Krause said.
A healthy coastal ecosystem can feature heavy boat traffic, he added, but this requires well-resourced planning, management and enforcement of policies, and it’s not clear what the Cambodian government has in mind.
“From where I stand, I would hope that Cambodia is striking some sort of balance, because I do believe that there are many people benefitting from maintaining ecological integrity of coastal habitats,” Krause said. “And countless examples around the world have shown that loss can occur quickly, while restoration often is very expensive and time consuming.”
Among those currently benefiting from what remains of Kep’s fisheries is Phong Kheng, who has called Angkoal commune home since birth 37 years ago. The fisherman told Mongabay in October 2025 that his house was among those local authorities said would be affected by the Funan Techo Canal. He said he holds a soft land title, which infers ownership at the local level but not the national level of government.
“We live here and we don’t have other land, so we want relocation with land in this area, as we’re skilled at fishing,” he said, noting that local authorities had said nothing of compensation when counting affected households. “I can’t read, so my life depends on the sea.”
Banner image: Fishers had returned from a long night of fishing with a meager catch before speaking to Mongabay one morning in November 2024.
Efforts to save Cambodia’s coast tread water as fish stocks plummet
Citations:
Ho, A., Macdonald, M., Rétif, S., Lor, S., & Freneat, T. (2025). Strengthening a blue economy after habitat loss: Assessing anti-trawling structures and small-scale fisheries impacts in Cambodia’s mission blue hope spot. Frontiers in Marine Science, 12. doi:10.3389/fmars.2025.1656017
Krause, J. R., Chroeng, C., Glue, M., Mesa, L., Ngoun, T., Tak, C., … Fourqurean, J. W. (2025). The influence of seagrass traits and environmental controls on soil organic carbon stocks in Chrouy pros Bay, Cambodia. Science of The Total Environment, 993, 180000. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.180000
Costanza, R., D’Arge, R., De Groot, R., Farber, S., Grasso, M., Hannon, G., … Van den Belt, H. (1997). The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital. Nature. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/40197297_The_value_of_the_world’s_ecosystem_services_and_natural_capital_Nature
A. Reid, A. E., Haissoune, A., & Ferber, P. (2019). The status of coral reefs and seagrass meadows in the Kep Archipelago, Cambodia. Cambodian Journal of Natural History. Retrieved from https://rupp.edu.kh/cjnh/journal/CJNH-2019-1/CJNH%202019(1)%20Reid%20et%20al.,%20p24-39_fp2.pdf
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