24 April 2007By Channel NewsAsia's IndoChina Correspondent Anasuya Sanyal
PHNOM PENH : Cambodia's great lake Tonle Sap provides nearly 70 percent of the fish consumed by Cambodians, but deforestation and overfishing are just two threats to its long-term sustainability.
In Chong Kheanos [KI-Media: Chong Khneas] floating village, poor families use every conceivable kind of fishing method to eke out a meagre living, at the mercy of this great lake.
During monsoon season, the lake expands almost five times its size, flooding the land, forcing inhabitants to move, as the surrounding 15,000 square kilometres are completely submerged.
However the inundation, though it causes many hardships, is not all bad.
David Thomson, Team Leader of Natural Resources Management Specialist at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, said: "The annual flooding gives the fish an opportunity to breed. The flooded forest is part of their environment. Young fish are protected there. The fisherman say, "If there is no forest, there is no fish."''
But the fish are disappearing, due to dry season encroachment of their natural habitat.
And when they go, livelihoods in this, one of Southeast Asia's poorest nations, will also inevitably suffer.
After 15 years living on Tonle Sap, one fisherman said things were getting worse.
Nem Lay, Fisherman, said: "Out of the ten species of fish in these waters, three have completely disappeared."
Life has become progressively harder for the fisherman who live there on Tonle Sap.
They said illegal fishing methods were hampering their livelihoods. Huge U-shaped nets engulf their smaller gill-type nets causing their catches to go down and less fish for everyone.
Fisherman Soun Reth said illegal fishing had increased his costs and made it difficult to get by.
"I used to use 70 metres of gill net to catch 10 kilogrammes of fish, now I need to use 2,000 metres," he said.
But some community fisheries have found a way to stem the tide.
Bamboo poles sticking up from the water on Tonle Sap show a way to a halt the over exploitation of fisheries.
David Thomson added: "They are deciding that we set aside part of our area for a fish sanctuary. We will mark it, police it and protect it. Now this is not an easy thing for a fishing community to do. All their instinct is to harvest every fish, but they are grasping the principles involved in long-term sustainability."
Supplemental activities to fishing like raising livestock and planting mushrooms and vegetables are also ways to ease the pressure on the lake's fishing grounds.
In Chong Kheanos [KI-Media: Chong Khneas] floating village, poor families use every conceivable kind of fishing method to eke out a meagre living, at the mercy of this great lake.
During monsoon season, the lake expands almost five times its size, flooding the land, forcing inhabitants to move, as the surrounding 15,000 square kilometres are completely submerged.
However the inundation, though it causes many hardships, is not all bad.
David Thomson, Team Leader of Natural Resources Management Specialist at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, said: "The annual flooding gives the fish an opportunity to breed. The flooded forest is part of their environment. Young fish are protected there. The fisherman say, "If there is no forest, there is no fish."''
But the fish are disappearing, due to dry season encroachment of their natural habitat.
And when they go, livelihoods in this, one of Southeast Asia's poorest nations, will also inevitably suffer.
After 15 years living on Tonle Sap, one fisherman said things were getting worse.
Nem Lay, Fisherman, said: "Out of the ten species of fish in these waters, three have completely disappeared."
Life has become progressively harder for the fisherman who live there on Tonle Sap.
They said illegal fishing methods were hampering their livelihoods. Huge U-shaped nets engulf their smaller gill-type nets causing their catches to go down and less fish for everyone.
Fisherman Soun Reth said illegal fishing had increased his costs and made it difficult to get by.
"I used to use 70 metres of gill net to catch 10 kilogrammes of fish, now I need to use 2,000 metres," he said.
But some community fisheries have found a way to stem the tide.
Bamboo poles sticking up from the water on Tonle Sap show a way to a halt the over exploitation of fisheries.
David Thomson added: "They are deciding that we set aside part of our area for a fish sanctuary. We will mark it, police it and protect it. Now this is not an easy thing for a fishing community to do. All their instinct is to harvest every fish, but they are grasping the principles involved in long-term sustainability."
Supplemental activities to fishing like raising livestock and planting mushrooms and vegetables are also ways to ease the pressure on the lake's fishing grounds.
