For those unfamiliar with this concept, the Tragedy of the Commons is a concept based on the idea that no one person owns an environmental resource (“commons”). The “tragedy”, then, lies in the fact that overexploitation is inevitable because everyone has access to the resource. The assumption is that individuals act according to their own self-interest, depleting the resource instead of considering what is best for everyone else using the resource.

Because overexploitation of the Tonle Sap Lake as a common pool resource could lead to its eventual collapse, governmental policies and cooperation from local communities are crucial. However, regulations set by the government efforts have so far proved insufficient and local communities are largely uninformed or unwilling to change their behaviour.

To apply some conservation psychology concepts to this phenomenon, the lack of the success of governmental policies can be explained by the fact that the regulations are dependent on locals’ compliance to them, or rather, a lack thereof in this case. Punishments for overfishing enforce rules through fear, and thus there is a lack of internalization of the desired sustainable behaviour norm. Additionally, the corruption of local officials makes it difficult to enforce the laws because punishments for illegal activity are inconsistent. Thus, although the desired norm should promote sustainable behaviour, the actual norm that was created encourages corruption and unsustainable behaviour.

The lack of transparency in government decisions, as well as the lack of participation of the local communities in creating these laws, also results in a lack of trust and contributes to locals’ negative attitudes and reactions to the regulations. Overall, the local communities do not seem to have the same conservation goals as the government, and this lack of community cooperation affects management negatively.

In relation to that, the conditions seem unsuitable for community management of the lake. To reiterate some of the points brought up, the community is polarized, population growth is rapid, and the common pool resource is currently in bad shape. Many people in the community are ambivalent about the issue – more concerned about earning an income, these people have turned their focus to the tourism industry instead of solving the current problems surrounding the lake. There is also an alarming lack of knowledge of the resource, which has likely contributed to the locals’ attitudes.