Pailin Province
Khmer Rouge gem stronghold (rubies, sapphires) exchanged amnesty for 1996 province creation. Mines exhausted; pivoting to longans. By 2026: agricultural succession from depleted extraction economy.
Pailin demonstrates how resource windfalls can fund regime survival while simultaneously ensuring eventual resource collapse. The province's ruby and sapphire deposits—once considered among the world's finest—became "conflict gemstones" funding Khmer Rouge operations throughout the 1980s and 1990s. This extraction pattern followed classic boom-bust dynamics: short-term revenue enabling military persistence at the cost of long-term resource depletion.
The 1996 amnesty deal that created Pailin province represents one of history's more pragmatic peace-for-impunity exchanges. Ieng Sary, Pol Pot's third-in-command who had controlled Pailin's gem fields since 1989, received royal pardon in exchange for defection with his forces. The newly carved province (separated from Battambang) became a de facto autonomous zone where an estimated 70% of older men were former Khmer Rouge fighters living openly until international tribunal proceedings commenced in 2007.
The gemstone economy's decline reflects irreversible resource extraction. "Mines are now nearly exhausted and the real Pailin Sapphire come out stone by stone," notes current market analysis. What industrial operations extracted in decades cannot regenerate in human timeframes. Contemporary artisanal miners scrape riverbeds during dry season for remaining deposits—ecological succession toward lower-intensity extraction following resource crash.
Pailin's 2024 pivot to longan cultivation illustrates adaptive niche construction post-resource depletion. From 425 hectares producing 1,000 tons in 2012 to nearly 4,000 hectares by 2024, the fruit represents economic succession from minerals to agriculture. Chinese demand drives export growth, creating new external dependency replacing Thai gem buyers.
By 2026, Pailin's trajectory involves completing the transition from extraction economy (gems) to cultivation economy (longans), while managing lingering questions about justice deferred for aging former fighters. The gem market persists as tourism attraction rather than economic engine.