ScandAsia.Finland
Global warming and economic exploitation destabilise key lake's ecosystem. The Great Lake of Tonle Sap has always been Cambodia's spring of life. Abundant fish stock and seasonal flooding to fertilise rice fields have blessed the region long before the builders of Angkor Wat arrived 900 years ago.
But economic development policies are having the reverse effect. Locals are finding it more difficult to survive, a trend that may only worsen as climate change continues to take hold.
Tonle Sap is Southeast Asia's largest lake, and the source of protein-rich food for Cambodia's 14 million people. As such, the government has sought assistance to aggressively exploit its fisheries under the banner of poverty reduction. But Cambodian sociologist Mak Sithirith of the Fisheries Action Coalition Team said it is not the poor who are benefiting.
Under the scheme, the Cambodian government built infrastructure and introduced market economy to Tonle Sap communities. This has resulted in the end of interdependence between fishing and farming communities, Mak said. The traditional barter system between those growing rice and those catching fish disappeared after an industry of middlemen evolved to wander from village to village, exchanging rice and fish for cash.
"Neighbouring communities who used to rely on one another now compete for material consumption and accumulation obtained by cash and loans," Mak said.
The traditional small-scale fishermen are losing out entirely. The Cambodian government sold fishing concessions to large fishing businesses, banning villagers from the waters that ensured their livelihoods.
Scientists also suspect that changes of water flows caused by dam construction on the lower Mekong River and tributaries may affect the delicate relationship between the Mekong and Tonle Sap. During the rainy season, water flows from the Mekong to fill the lake, with the reverse occurring as the dry season settles in.
Climate change is adding a new level of anxiety. A coalition of Thai and Finnish scientists will soon begin a project to examine the potential climate-change impacts that those around Tonle Sap might experience in the next 50 years.
"Tonle Sap's topography makes the lake very sensitive to changes," Suppakorn Chinvanno of the Bangkok-based Southeast Asia Start Regional Centre said. "A water-level rise of just 0.3 metres can mean a kilometre more flooding on land because of the flat landscape."
This article is based in part on a presentation by Mak Sithirith at the third International Conference of the Asian Rural Sociology Association in Beijing.
But economic development policies are having the reverse effect. Locals are finding it more difficult to survive, a trend that may only worsen as climate change continues to take hold.
Tonle Sap is Southeast Asia's largest lake, and the source of protein-rich food for Cambodia's 14 million people. As such, the government has sought assistance to aggressively exploit its fisheries under the banner of poverty reduction. But Cambodian sociologist Mak Sithirith of the Fisheries Action Coalition Team said it is not the poor who are benefiting.
Under the scheme, the Cambodian government built infrastructure and introduced market economy to Tonle Sap communities. This has resulted in the end of interdependence between fishing and farming communities, Mak said. The traditional barter system between those growing rice and those catching fish disappeared after an industry of middlemen evolved to wander from village to village, exchanging rice and fish for cash.
"Neighbouring communities who used to rely on one another now compete for material consumption and accumulation obtained by cash and loans," Mak said.
The traditional small-scale fishermen are losing out entirely. The Cambodian government sold fishing concessions to large fishing businesses, banning villagers from the waters that ensured their livelihoods.
Scientists also suspect that changes of water flows caused by dam construction on the lower Mekong River and tributaries may affect the delicate relationship between the Mekong and Tonle Sap. During the rainy season, water flows from the Mekong to fill the lake, with the reverse occurring as the dry season settles in.
Climate change is adding a new level of anxiety. A coalition of Thai and Finnish scientists will soon begin a project to examine the potential climate-change impacts that those around Tonle Sap might experience in the next 50 years.
"Tonle Sap's topography makes the lake very sensitive to changes," Suppakorn Chinvanno of the Bangkok-based Southeast Asia Start Regional Centre said. "A water-level rise of just 0.3 metres can mean a kilometre more flooding on land because of the flat landscape."
This article is based in part on a presentation by Mak Sithirith at the third International Conference of the Asian Rural Sociology Association in Beijing.
7 comments:
ការពារប្រសើរជាងព្យាបាល។អ្វីៗទុកទាល់តែខូចចង់អស់
រលីង ទើបផ្ដើមដោះស្រាយ។បញ្ហាមិនមែនមានតែបឹងទន្លេសាបមួយទេ វាមានច្រើនណាស់ដូចជាព្រៃឈើ។ល។
stop this shit..we can wait..no khmer scientist?..what about many who got phd in Cambodia,,like hunsen, soy samrin and others..etc..hmmmmm?????/
There is no issue in Tonle Sap. It has limitation like everything else. It certainly can't supplied the need for the continuing population growth forever. Thus, Cambodia needs to expand it fish farming industry to compensate for the Tonle Sap natural limitation.
hey, tonle is in cambodia, so make sure to have cambodian newly trained scientists too in any study on cambodia as khmer people are not so fond of thai or siem people coming to cambodia to act like they own cambodia or something. go home, siem!
you bet, cambodians are racist against the thai or siem people. so just keep on harrassing cambodia on preah vihear temple and khmer people will continue to be racist with thai forever. stay out of cambodia, thai or siem thieves!! cambodia don't need you people. you are nothing to us!
of course, we are racist against the thais. look at what they've done to cambodia.
It takes no brainier in the history of mankind to understand what the hell is going in Tonle Sap!
There is serious pollution upstream and there is serious pollution downstream and Cambodia is fuck!
No need for the Thaicong scientist to show that there is serious mismanagement issue with AH HUN SEN government, which allowed the middlemen to destroy the livelihood of dirt-poor Cambodian people!
Post a Comment