Forests that walk on water: inside Cambodia's mangrove sanctuary at Peam Krasop

Cambodia is famous for the stone temples of Angkor and the white beaches of its islands. But along its southwestern coast lies a very different kind of wonder, a vast green labyrinth of trees that seem to stand directly in the sea, their roots plunging down into salt water and soft grey mud.

A forest between land and sea

These are mangroves, among the most extraordinary forests on Earth. Growing where rivers meet the ocean, they survive in salty water that would kill almost any other tree, balancing on tangled stilt roots that rise from the water like the legs of some patient wooden creature standing in the tide.

For a long time these coastal forests were overlooked, seen as muddy wasteland rather than as treasure. Today, however, scientists and travellers alike are discovering that mangroves are among the richest and most valuable ecosystems that Cambodia, and indeed the whole planet, still has left to protect.

Cambodia's largest mangrove haven

The heart of this world is the Peam Krasop Wildlife Sanctuary in Koh Kong Province. Covering some 23,750 hectares, it is the largest mangrove forest expanse in the country, protected since 1993 and carefully managed by the national Ministry of Environment along this remote coast.

Right beside it lies the Koh Kapik Ramsar site, a further 12,000 hectares of protected wetland recognised under an international treaty. Together they form one of the most important coastal wildernesses in the region, a vast maze of channels, low islands and dense green forest laced with waterways.

A nursery of life

Step into the sanctuary and life is everywhere. Migratory birds rest in its canopy, reptiles slip through the shallows, and the muddy floor is home to a remarkable variety of crabs, some of them rare and found in very few other places anywhere on the planet today.

The greatest gift of the mangroves, though, lies hidden beneath the surface. Their tangled roots form a sheltered nursery where countless fish and other marine creatures breed and grow, feeding not only the local wildlife but also the fishing communities who live along this quiet coast.

Nature's climate heroes

Mangroves have another, quieter superpower. They are among the most effective forests in the world at absorbing carbon dioxide, storing it away in their waterlogged soils for centuries and earning a reputation as some of nature's most important heroes in the fight against a warming climate.

They also stand guard over the land itself. Acting as a living wall, mangrove forests soften the blow of storms and rising seas, holding the shoreline together and protecting the villages behind them from the erosion and flooding that would otherwise creep steadily inland year after year.

Walking the boardwalk

Visitors can now experience this world for themselves without harming it. Community based ecotourism projects have built wooden walkways that wind through the trees, allowing travellers to wander deep into the forest, while local boats carry others quietly along the hidden channels between the islands.

Such tourism does more than simply delight visitors. It gives local families a real reason to protect the forest rather than clear it, turning the mangroves into a source of lasting income and pride, and proving that conservation and community can grow together side by side.

A fragile future

Yet the mangroves remain under threat. Despite their protected status, stretches of forest are still cleared for shrimp farms and development, destroying habitat that took decades to grow and putting both the wildlife and the coast's natural defences at serious and lasting risk.

For now, though, Peam Krasop endures as one of Cambodia's quiet marvels, a forest that truly walks on water. Beyond the temples and the beaches, it offers a rare chance to stand among the roots of a living wilderness that the whole world has every reason to help protect.