A few dozen minutes off the coast of Kep, a former wartime outpost is being reborn as a sanctuary for Cambodia's marine life. Marine Conservation Cambodia, a partner of Kep West's Art for Kep programme, runs its research base here — and Kep West organises trips out to the island for guests curious to see the work firsthand.

Ten years ago, the Kep archipelago was an exhausted sea: seagrass meadows ploughed under, dugongs gone, dolphins reduced to rumour. Today that same sea carries an international label, a quarter of a vast national restoration plan is already deployed, and fishermen are watching species they thought lost for good come back. A look back at two decades of stubborn work that turned this forgotten corner of the gulf into one of Southeast Asia's finest marine conservation success st