The history of wildlife conservation in Cambodia in the twentieth century reveals the tensions that existed between the Khmer kingdom and international nature conservation networks, colonial or global. Wildlife conservation in Cambodia was not a priority for the French colonial administration. It only regulated hunting. While the global conservation movement was expanding via international conferences, local French administrators managed to obstruct the implementation of a conservation policy. After the Second World War, Western scientists and activists sought to establish reserves, particularly to protect a new species of wild cattle, the kouprey. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), through the notable efforts of Harold Coolidge, succeeded in convincing Prince Sihanouk to adopt such a policy in the 1960s. However, although 12 per cent of the kingdom's land was protected, funding and means for conservation remained largely inadequate. The war put an end to all conservation programmes. The IUCN renewed its efforts in the 1980s successfully establishing a network of protected areas in Cambodia in 1993. The various twentieth-century Cambodian wildlife conservation policies, which all imposed external models, often without prior adequate field studies or involvement of local populations, have failed to prevent emblematic species from disappearing.

二十世纪柬埔寨野生动物保护的历史揭示了高棉王国与国际自然保护网络、殖民地或全球之间存在的紧张关系。柬埔寨的野生动物保护不是法国殖民政府的优先事项。它只规范狩猎。当全球保护运动通过国际会议扩大时，法国当地的行政人员设法阻止了保护政策的实施。第二次世界大战后，西方科学家和活动家寻求建立保护区，特别是为了保护一种新的野牛，即kouprey。国际自然保护联盟 (IUCN) 通过哈罗德·柯立芝的显着努力，在 1960 年代成功说服西哈努克王子采取了这样的政策。然而，尽管王国 12% 的土地受到保护，但保护资金和手段仍然严重不足。战争结束了所有的保护计划。IUCN 在 1980 年代再次努力，于 1993 年在柬埔寨成功建立了保护区网络。 20 世纪柬埔寨的各种野生动物保护政策都采用外部模型，通常没有事先进行充分的实地研究或当地人口的参与，但都以失败告终以防止标志性物种消失。