This is the second of a two-part Mongabay series about hydropower dams in the Cardamom Mountains. Read Part One. PURSAT/KOH KONG, Cambodia — “Fifteen years ago, this whole village was forest,” said Phan, sipping an energy drink and leaning back in his plastic chair. “At first, I didn’t want to stay here because the road conditions were so bad, and even though we had some money, it was difficult to find food and to survive.” But those times, and much of the forest in Pursat province’s O’Soam commune, are long gone as hydropower dams have prized open the remote Cardamom Mountains since 2012, literally paving the way for communities like Phan’s. Plumes of dust rose from the red dirt road as Phan sat watching the construction crew working a few hundred meters farther down the road, waiting for them to rehabilitate the section in front of his small wooden home. Phan, who requested neither his full name nor the name of his village be published for fear of retribution from authorities, has lived in O’Soam for more than 15 years. “We’re all migrants here; we cut the forests to build our houses here. We can’t do that now,” he said, chuckling to himself. “This whole area is under the management of a conservation NGO, Wildlife Alliance.” Most residents of O’Soam farm for a living, growing cassava, bananas, durians and other cash crops. Image by Gerald Flynn / Mongabay. O’Soam commune sits in the southwestern province of Pursat, on the border…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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