Southern Cambodia
More actions
| Southern Cambodia | |
|---|---|
| ActiveCannabis last recorded here in 2026 | |
| |
| Grasslands near Prateak Krola lake, Kampot Province | |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 11.000000, 104.500000 |
| Gene Pool | Southeast Asian Gene Pool |
| Regional Complex | Mekong Basin |
| Country | Cambodia |
| Provinces/States | Takeo Province,Koh Kong,Kampot Province,Kandal,Preah Sihanouk,Kampong Speu,Pursat |
| Elevation | 0–1,700 m |
| Area | 40,000 km² |
| Climate | Tropical monsoon |
| Primary Rivers | Mekong River,Bassac River,Prek Tnaut River |
| Primary Mountains | Cardamom Mountains,Elephant Mountains,Bayong Kor Range |
| Growing history | |
| Dated accessions | 2022–2026 |
| Dated news reports | 1995–2025 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
Southern Cambodia is the primary landrace cannabis cultivation region in Cambodia, encompassing an arc of terrain from the dense mountain forests of the Cardamom Mountains in the west, through the coastal lowlands of Koh Kong, Kampot and Sihanoukville, to the Mekong River corridor of Kandal and the Bayong Kor mountains of Takeo on the Vietnamese border. The region has been documented as a centre of cannabis production since at least the early 1980s, with production peaking in the late 1990s when the US State Department estimated national output at 700–1,000 tons annually, the majority originating from southern provinces.[1]
Cannabis cultivation in Southern Cambodia is inseparable from the country's broader ethnobotanical tradition. For centuries, cannabis (គញ្ជា, kaanhcha) was a routine feature of Khmer cuisine, traditional medicine and social life, described by the ethnobotanist Marie Alexandrine Martin as "a plant that is socially beneficial."[2] The 1996 Law on Drug Control, drafted under US diplomatic pressure and targeting heroin transit rather than cannabis,[3] criminalised a crop that had been freely cultivated, sold and consumed for generations, driving production from open fields and household gardens into dispersed mountain plots under ongoing eradication.
A 2012 IUCN survey of coastal villages calls the cannabis once grown at Koh Sralao, in Koh Kong, "Indian Hemp (Cannabis indica)".[4]
Geography
Southern Cambodia spans several distinct physiographic zones, each associated with different patterns of cannabis cultivation.
The Cardamom-Elephant Corridor
The Cardamom Mountains (Chuor Phnom Krâvanh) and the Elephant Mountains (Chuor Phnom Dâmrei) form a continuous mountain chain running northwest to southeast across the western half of the region, reaching 1,771 m at Phnom Aural, Cambodia's highest peak. Dense tropical forest, rugged terrain and limited road access made this corridor the epicentre of commercial cannabis production during the 1990s and early 2000s, with cultivation documented in Koh Kong, Pursat, Kampong Speu and Kampot provinces.[1] The same inaccessibility that sheltered cannabis cultivation also harboured large-scale illicit safrole oil extraction during this period.[5]
The Mekong-Bassac Lowlands
The Mekong River and its distributary, the Bassac (Tonle Bassac), flow through Kandal province immediately south of Phnom Penh before entering the Vietnamese delta. This flat, fertile alluvial corridor supported open cannabis cultivation along the riverbanks through the 1990s. Martin (1975) observed that "along the river and closer to Vietnam, cultivation of these plants is of greater importance,"[2] and traditional Mekong corridor cultivation reportedly involved simply scattering seeds along the riverbanks and allowing plants to grow unattended.[6] Associated Press footage from 1996 documented open cannabis fields on "New Island" outside Phnom Penh on the Mekong, with irrigation pipes running through banana-intercropped plots.[7] In December 1996 about a hundred police officers cut down more than ten hectares of cannabis on Koh Anlong Chen, one of four islands in Kandal Province with substantial plantations at the time.[8]
The Bayong Kor Range
The Bayong Kor mountains in Kirivong district, Takeo province, form a low range along the Vietnamese border that has become the primary centre of cannabis cultivation since the early 2000s. The terrain spans four communes (Preah Bat Choan Chum, Prey Ampok, Som and Kiri Chung Koh) and is described in police reports as "ideal for growing marijuana and smuggling to Vietnam."[9]
Coastal Zone
The Gulf of Thailand coastline running through Koh Kong, Sihanoukville and Kampot historically served as the primary export corridor for Cambodian cannabis. The deep-water port at Sihanoukville and the Koh Kong coastline near the Thai border were identified as major trafficking routes in the 2003 INCSR.[1]
Climate
Southern Cambodia has a tropical monsoon climate characterised by two distinct seasons. The wet season runs from approximately May to November, driven by the southwest monsoon, with annual rainfall ranging from 1,500 mm in the eastern lowlands to over 4,000 mm on the windward slopes of the Cardamom Mountains. The dry season extends from December to April. Temperatures in the lowlands typically range from 25°C to 35°C year-round. Higher elevations in the Cardamom range are modestly cooler.
Cannabis harvest traditionally occurs between late December and early January, coinciding with the transition to dry-season conditions.[1] Martin (1975) documented that plants reached inflorescence after four to five months, planted during the rainy season and harvested dry.[2]
Culture
Main articles: Cannabis in Khmer culture, Cannabis in Khmer cuisine, Cannabis in Khmer medicine, Recreational cannabis in Khmer culture
Cannabis in Southern Cambodia historically served overlapping culinary, medicinal and social functions integrated into everyday rural life rather than segregated as a distinct drug culture. Cannabis soup (sngao moan) was a common dish, fresh leaves were used as condiments and fritters, and the plant served as an analgesic in traditional Khmer medicine with applications ranging from appetite restoration to post-delivery care.[2] Smoking was social: dried cannabis mixed with tobacco was shared on straw mats after the evening meal using bamboo water pipes (rut sey), a practice associated with well-being (sruol khluan).[2]
Most ancient Khmer medical manuscripts (sastra) were destroyed during the Khmer Rouge period (1975–1979), when traditional healers were systematically targeted, severing continuity with the deeper ethnobotanical tradition.[10]
Cultivation History
Post-Khmer Rouge Reconstruction (1980–1991)
The earliest documented large-scale cannabis cultivation in the region comes from the post-Khmer Rouge period. An IUCN vulnerability and capacity assessment published in 2012 found cannabis in the histories of two island villages in the Koh Kapik growing area. At Koh Kapik, cannabis "was widely grown from 1980 to 1985". At Koh Sralao, people from other provinces who had "moved to Koh Sralao motivated by personal safety" cut mountain forest from 1980 to plant "Indian Hemp (Cannabis indica)" and to sell timber.[4] The cutting stopped in 1991, when a ban on the plant was introduced and, in the assessment's account, the area was declared protected by the Ministry of Environment.[4]
The Thai Investment Era (1992–2002)
Main article: Thai investment in Cambodian cannabis
As Cambodia opened to foreign engagement through the UNTAC period (1992–1993), commercial cultivation expanded dramatically across Southern Cambodia, fuelled by Thai capital investment in Koh Kong, Kandal and Kampot provinces.[7] Koh Kong became the epicentre of production, described in 2002 as a zone for "some of Asia's finest quality marijuana, grown in staggering quantities."[11] A two-tier quality system emerged: poorly cured bulk cannabis for domestic sale and superior export-grade product channelled through Sihanoukville and Koh Kong to international markets.[6]
Peak Production (Late 1990s–Early 2000s)
See also: Cambodia: Peak Production
The 2003 INCSR estimated total national output at 700–1,000 tons annually, with production concentrated across nine provinces.[1] Southern Cambodia accounted for the majority: Koh Kong, Kampot, Kandal and Kampong Cham were among the primary producing areas, with harvest between late December and early January.[1] Europe was identified as the major destination, with Cambodia ranked as the second-largest source of seized cannabis on the continent behind only Colombia.[6]
Geographic Shift to Kirivong (2000s–present)
As enforcement pressure and new road infrastructure reduced Koh Kong's viability, the centre of gravity for cultivation shifted southeast to Kirivong district in Takeo province. Takeo provincial police chief Chheang Phannara stated in 2021 that growing marijuana in Preah Bat Choan Chum commune "is not a new practice and it has been going on for many generations."[12]
The scale of Kirivong cultivation is significant. In the first half of 2017, district police destroyed 134,886 marijuana plants.[13] A single operation on 1 February 2020 destroyed 180,367 plants across 24 locations. Between 2019 and mid-2021, police documented 97 operations, burned crops at 443 locations, destroyed 282 water reservoirs and confiscated 80.5 kg of dried marijuana across 60.97 hectares.[9]
Cultivation is characterised by dispersed small plots on remote mountain slopes, concealed through intercropping with cassava, cashew, sesame and forest trees. Irrigation systems including wells, ponds and piped water supply the plots. Growers typically flee before police arrive and replant elsewhere after each raid in a persistent "whack-a-mole" pattern.[14]
Dispersed Cultivation
Cannabis cultivation has also been documented in the Cardamom Mountains corridor spanning Pursat, Kampong Speu and Kampot, where remote deep-forest plots are concealed among sesame crops and other cover.[15] A pattern of cultivation expertise export has been documented: a grower from Takeo established a 7,000-plant operation on Bunong indigenous land in Mondulkiri,[16] and the 2015 Pursat operation involved plants sourced from Kandal province,[15] suggesting established growing zones serve as sources of agricultural knowledge that radiate outward under enforcement pressure.
Genetics
Martin (1975) distinguished male and female plants by local naming conventions (kanhcha: chmo'.l and kanhcha: nhi:) but did not attempt taxonomic classification beyond the species level.[2]
French colonial attempts to cultivate textile hemp in lowland Indochina consistently failed: seeds sown in 1907 at Hanoi's Agricultural Museum never exceeded 0.6 metres, while Meo-grown hemp in the Centre-Annam mountains produced only 0.7 metres of "mediocre fibre."[17][2] These experiments tested fibre varieties, not the drug-type cannabis already growing to 2–4 metres across Cambodia's lowlands. Crévost and Lemarié (1919) observed that the "hashish variety" in southern Laos and Cambodia "would without any doubt have another origin" from the Meo textile hemp, pointing to a separate introduction pathway, likely Indian maritime trade.[17]
A two-tier quality system documented since the 1990s (poorly cured bulk cannabis for domestic consumption versus superior export-grade product) suggests that grower selection and post-harvest processing, rather than genetic distinctiveness alone, may account for observed quality differences.[6]
Growing Areas
| Growing Area |
|---|
| Cardamom Mountains |
| Kampot |
| Koh Anlong Chen |
| Koh Kapik |
| Takeo |
Areas documented in eradication reports
The following areas appear in enforcement records but do not yet have dedicated growing area pages or accessions:
- Koh Kong Province: Epicentre of commercial production during the 1990s and early 2000s, now largely suppressed by enforcement and infrastructure development.[11]
- Kandal Province: River islands near Phnom Penh. In 1996 four islands in the province had substantial cannabis plantations, and in December that year police cut down those on Koh Anlong Chen, about 20 km south of the capital.[8]
- Pursat Province: Cardamom Mountains foothill cultivation documented in 2015, with plants sourced from Kandal province.[15]
Accessions
| Accession ID | Name | Collected | Locality |
|---|---|---|---|
| ZOM-KHM-KAM-0220260001 | Stung Kaeo General Population 2026 | Stung Kaeo | |
| ZOM-KHM-KAM-0420230001 | Kampot 'Chumkiri' General Population 2023 | Secret | |
| ZOM-KHM-KAM-0420230002 | Kampot 'Kao Sla' General Population 2023 | Secret | |
| ZOM-KHM-KOH-0420220001 | Tatai General Population 2022 | Secret | |
| ZOM-KHM-KOH-0420230001 | Koh Kong 'Chamka Kas' General Population 2023 | Secret | |
| ZOM-KHM-KOH-0420230002 | Koh Kong 'Prek Svey' General Population 2023 | Secret | |
| ZOM-KHM-PUR-0420220001 | Pursat General Population 2022 | Secret | |
| ZOM-KHM-TAK-002024001 | Kirivong General Population 2024 | Kirivong (appellation) | |
| ZOM-KHM-TAK-0220260001 | Kirivong General Population 2026 | Kirivong (appellation) | |
| ZOM-KHM-TAK-0420220001 | Kirivong General Population 2022 | Secret | |
| ZOM-KHM-TAK-0420220002 | Kirivong 'Lime' General Population 2022 | Secret | |
| ZOM-KHM-TAK-0420220003 | Kirivong 'Cambodian Red' General Population 2022 | Secret | |
| ZOM-KHM-TAK-0420220004 | Kirivong 'Mango Passion' General Population 2022 | Secret | |
| ZOM-KHM-TAK-0420230001 | Kirivong General Population 2023 | Secret | |
| ZOM-KHM-TAK-0420230002 | Kirivong 'Lime' General Population 2023 | Secret | |
| ZOM-KHM-TAK-0420230003 | Kirivong 'Cambodian Red' General Population 2023 | Secret | |
| ZOM-KHM-TAK-0420230004 | Kirivong 'Phnom Bayang' General Population 2023 | Secret | |
| ZOM-KHM-TAK-0420230005 | Kirivong 'Ta Ou' General Population 2023 | Secret | |
| ZOM-KHM-TAK-0420230006 | Kirivong 'Pha-aok' General Population 2023 | Secret |
Botanical Characteristics
Regional Traits
Cambodian cannabis is traditionally drug-type, selected for smoking and culinary use rather than fibre. Martin (1975) noted that cannabis fibres were "completely unknown in Khmer country", a sharp contrast with the Western Himalayan fibre tradition, and that French attempts to cultivate textile-grade cannabis in southern Indochina failed, yielding only 0.6-metre plants.[2]
Female plants (kanhcha: nhi:) yielded both the preferred smoking material and the seeds used for propagation. Male plants (kanhcha: chmo'.l) were believed to cause eye disease and lacked effective resin, though both sexes were used medicinally.[2]
Geographic Variation
Cultivation Practices
Traditional Methods
Martin (1975) documented simple household cultivation: seeds from female plants soaked in water for three days, planted in open ground during the rainy season, harvested dry. Plants reached inflorescence after four to five months, requiring only water and chicken or cattle manure.[2] Along the Mekong corridor, cultivation reportedly involved scattering seeds along the riverbanks and allowing plants to grow unattended.[6]
Modern Prohibition-Era Cultivation
Under enforcement pressure, cultivation has shifted from open lowland fields to dispersed plots on remote mountain slopes. Modern practices in Kirivong include:
- Concealment through intercropping with cassava, cashew, sesame and forest trees
- Irrigation infrastructure: wells, ponds and piped water systems
- Seasonal forest camps during the growing period
- Dispersal across multiple small plots rather than concentrated fields
- Rapid replanting at new locations after eradication raids[9][14]
The shift from open riverine cultivation to hidden mountain plots changes the growing environment and the selection pressures on the plant. In 2002 most of the plantations police destroyed in Cambodia were along the Mekong and near the Thai and Vietnamese borders.[1]
Conservation Status
Recent News
See Also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report 2003: Cambodia (PDF) (Report). US Department of State, Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. March 2003.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 Martin, Marie Alexandrine (1975). "Ethnobotanical Aspects of Cannabis in Southeast Asia". In Rubin, Vera (ed.). Cannabis and Culture. The Hague: Mouton. pp. 63–76. doi:10.1515/9783110812060.63.
- ↑ Clinton, William J. (22 February 1996). "Letter to Congressional Leaders on Major Narcotics Producing and Transit Countries". White House Office of the Press Secretary.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Bobenrieth, Manuela Erazo; Sun Kong; Kong Kim Sreng; Mather, Robert (2012). Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment of Koh Kong and Kampot Provinces, Cambodia (Report). Building Resilience to Climate Change Impacts – Coastal Southeast Asia, No. 7. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN – via Academia.edu.
- ↑ US Embassy Phnom Penh (2 November 2007). "2008 INCSR Submission: Cambodia". WikiLeaks. Cable 07PHNOMPENH1376.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Gilboa, Amit (1 November 1998). "Cannabis Cambodia: Smoker's Paradise". Cannabis Culture.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Cambodia: Farmers Turn to Growing Marijuana". Associated Press Television. 7 May 1996.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Cambodia: Police Crack Down on Growing of Marijuana". Associated Press Television. 21 December 1996. Retrieved 21 October 2026 – via AP Archive.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Sochan, Ry (1 June 2021). "Hunt on for Takeo marijuana growers". Phnom Penh Post.
- ↑ "The high life". Phnom Penh Post. 27 November 2015.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Cambodia's Wild West". Dawn. Reuters. 18 May 2002.
- ↑ Chakrya, Khouth Sophak (6 December 2021). "Officers told to tackle marijuana cultivation". Phnom Penh Post.
- ↑ Chakrya, Khouth Sophak (5 July 2017). "Field of Dreams: Marijuana crop destroyed in Takeo". Phnom Penh Post.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Sivutha, Nov (12 August 2021). "Police destroy five marijuana farms in Takeo province". Phnom Penh Post.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Chakrya, Khouth Sophak (6 May 2015). "Thousands of marijuana plants seized, burned by Pursat police". Phnom Penh Post.
- ↑ Bunthoeurn, Orm (5 April 2021). "Mondulkiri marijuana farm busted". Phnom Penh Post.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Crévost, Ch.; Lemarié, Ch. (1919). Catalogue des produits de l'Indochine, tome II: Plantes et produits filamenteux et textiles (in français). Hanoi: Gouvernement Général de l'Indochine, Direction des Services Économiques. pp. 117–119, 126.