In the TSBR, land use varies at any location depending on the water level, with the amount of inundated land ranging from 2,000 km² during the low water period to 12,500 km² when the water level is high. 

About 36% of land in the TSBR, or 4,370 km², is cultivated for wet season, recession and floating rice, with small quantities of vegetable crops planted as annual floodwaters recede. In the recent month and years, irrigation systems for dry season rice farming have been developed in the lakeside provinces, converting grass land into agricultural land. Rice production in the Tonle Sap floodplain makes up about 12% of Cambodia's total production.

Land use management within the TSBR is in its infancy, whereas unsustainable and inequitable uses are increasing.  Determinations of current land use are needed, coupled with detailed boundary mapping and demarcation of fishing lot leases and sub-leases, community fisheries, and administrative jurisdictions.  An incremental process of land use zoning, involving relevant stake-holders for a particular location, should follow, resulting in a variety of land use classifications and permissible uses (as many as 15), conforming roughly to human and natural ecological uses. 

Flooded Forests

Covering about 300,000 ha, the flooded forest is unique in its floristic composition and constitutes the largest example of its kind in Southeast Asia. The vegetation can be divided into three broad categories:

• gallery forest (10% of the floodplain): stunted in nature, consisting of only five species of trees, found mainly along streams or the lake shore
• short-tree shrub lands (80% of the floodplain): diverse woody species reaching 3-4 meters in height, form dense, inextricable undergrowth which is completely submerged under water for most of the flood season
• herbaceous aquatic vegetation: found in permanent wetlands, dominated by emergent-rooted, submerged and floating plants.

The flooded forests provide invaluable resources for the local people of the Tonle Sap. Local people use as much as 90% of the flora in their daily lives, ranging from material for houses, fishing gear and firewood to edible plant parts and traditional medicine.

Land clearing in the TSBR has reduced forest cover from 80% in 1965 to about 40% at present with the greatest loss occurring since 1990. The flooded forest covered more than 1 million ha originally, 614 ,000 ha in the 1960s, and 362,000 ha in 1991. Forest destruction in the TSBR is mostly due to conversion of land for agriculture, burning for hunting or access and cutting for fishing gear or firewood. The loss rate is estimated at around 1% per annum.

Flooded forests serve a number of ecosystem functions by protecting the shoreline of the Lake from wave erosion, providing breeding refuge for fishes, birds and other forms of wildlife, and contributing essential needs for communities of people living on the Lake. 

Preservation of forests, including natural and human induced reforestation, should be a key priority of land use zoning efforts.  Other key priorities are securing access to land held in common for community fisheries and household farm plots, and agricultural productivity in the multiple use area.