Cambodia to protect land around Tonle Sap lake

2010-06-10
Associated Press

Cambodia announced plans Thursday to conserve forested shore areas around Tonle Sap, Southeast Asia's largest freshwater lake.

Sam Nov, a deputy director of the country's Fisheries Administration, said that some 1.6 million acres (640,000 hectares) of forest land that floods during rainy season with be declared off-limits for development, including encroachment by farmers planting rice.

The lake covers about 618,000 acres (250,000 hectares) during the dry season and expands to about 3 million acres (1.25 million hectares) during the rainy season. It is the habitat for more than 200 species of fish, 42 types of reptiles, 225 species of birds and 46 kinds of mammals.

"The flooded forests are very vital shelters for several species ... and their offspring," Sam Nov said. "We urgently need to conserve this forest. If not we will lose it forever."

Several areas of flooded forest and wetlands have already been cleared by farmers and agribusiness companies in recent years to convert the land for dry season farming, he said.

Officials from the six provinces that surround the lake, located about 120 miles (200 kilometers) northwest of the capital Phnom Penh, will soon begin informing villagers of the ban on destroying the forest areas, said Sam Nov.

ADB has offered 10 mln USD for fishery development in Cambodia's Tonle Sap Lake

March 06, 2007

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has provided some 10 million U.S. dollars of loan in the past years to empower the fishery communities in the Tonle Sap Lake area, officials said Monday.

"We got about 2 million U.S. dollars (in revenues) from fresh water fish products each year from the lake," partially as result of the help from ADB, said Nao Thouk, director of fisheries department of Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.

Thanks to years of consistent development with the help of ADB, an average family in the Tonle Sap Lake area can now catch some 600 kg to 800 kg of fish each year and over 1 million people directly benefit from the lake, he said on the sidelines of a national forum on the development of the Tonle Sap Lake.

The forum was organized by ADB and the Cambodian government and attended by about 300 people, including diplomatic corps and top government officials.

Also at the forum, C. Lawrence Greenwood, deputy president of ADB, said that Cambodians' fortunes depend on the lake's reliable ebb and flow and it provides the daily sustenance and livelihood for over 1 million people, many of them among the poorest in the kingdom.

According to official statistics, the lake area boasts about 200 kinds of fish, 42 kinds of reptiles, 225 species of birds, 44 types of mammals and 200 kinds of plants.

Source: Xinhua