Srekor village has stood on the banks of the Se San River in northeastern Cambodia for generations. In a few years it will be gone, submerged along with more than 300 square kilometres of surrounding farmland and forest. ...
For 37-year-old rice farmer Pa Tou, the future looks bleak. The relocation... continue
A major Hong Kong investor in Cambodia has claimed that a government duty on seafood exports is stunting the country’s fish processing industry.
Hong Kong-based Sunwah Group began operating a shrimp-processing factory in Sihanoukville in 1994, and its plans in the country now include building a $400 million skyscraper in central Phnom Penh.
In a press briefing on Tuesday, the group’s chairman, Jonathan Choi, said that a levy of 10 percent on exporting seafood had prevented the company from growing its operation here, and was a major factor in Cambodia’s seafood industry’s small size. …
A Northeastern section of the Mekong River that is home to a number of endangered species has been designated a conservation site by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
A prakas issued by Minister Chan Sarun on April 23 officially declared a 56-kilometre section of the Mekong mainstream between Kratie and Stung Treng towns, known as the Mekong Flooded Forest, as a “management and conservation site for biodiversity and fisheries resources”. …
BANGKOK: Demand for farmland may strip the Greater Mekong region of a third of its remaining forest cover over the next two decades without swift government action, a leading conservation group warned Thursday.
Forests are being cleared for commodities such as rubber and rice while illegal logging is decimating many protected zones, WWF said in a report, adding a contentious dam on Mekong river will deepen already severe ecosystem damage.
“The Greater Mekong is at a crossroads,” said Peter Cutter of the WFF, adding Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar lost between 22-24 percent of their forests from 1973 — the first point of available data — to 2009, while 43 percent of woodland was stripped from Thailand and Vietnam. …
The US$3.8 billion hydroelectric project, which is due to be completed in around five years, has sharply divided the four Mekong nations — Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. …
The Ministry of Commerce has released figures showing Cambodia’s export of fishery goods including fresh and dried fish products have decreased drastically in the first quarter of the year, though several government officials viewed the figures with scepticism.
Cambodia exported 49.9 tonnes of fish products in the first quarter of the year a sizable drop from the 620.14 tonnes exported over the same period in 2012, the ministry’s data showed. …
Om Savath, executive director of Cambodia’s Fish Action Coalition Team, said that in general fishery production had declined this year, as the government had reduced the number of fishing lots throughout the country. …
Rising water temperatures are affecting fisheries and marine life, said several representatives of Cambodia’s aquaculture industry, and the effect is decreasing seed production and lowering aquaculture farmers’ productivity.
Say Sorn, president of aquaculture seed production in Siem Reap province, told the Post yesterday that water temperature is an important factor for marine life sustainability. However, temperatures have been rising much higher than in previous years, and this is affecting fish farming in his province. …
Cambodia’s first-ever agricultural census is under way, tasked with addressing the lack of reliable statistical information on one of the Kingdom’s most crucial economic sectors. …
The census is being taken by the government with assistance from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in two rounds. The first round runs through May 31. After the July elections, the second round will commence in August and run through September. …
According to FAO Cambodia, in the first round of the census, an estimated 2.7 million households engaged in agricultural activities will be identified. In the second, five per cent of these households will be interviewed about their agricultural activities, before experts eventually examine the data. …
Climate change will have a significant effect on major industrial and food crops in the Lower Mekong basin countries of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, says a new study.
The study, conducted by the Mekong Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change Project for the U.S. Agency for International Development, marks the first step of the project’s aim to help communities in the four countries to develop local climate change adaptation assessments and action plans.
Considered one of the most fertile areas of Southeast Asia, the Mekong basin is known for its production of rice and maize. About 70 percent of the basin’s population of 60 million people earns a living as farmers and fishers. …
Aside from the looming danger of climate change, plans to build a series of mega-dams across the river to generate electricity also pose a threat to the Mekong countries, experts say. …
“By blocking the transport of sediment, the dams will contribute to even greater erosion in the fertile Mekong Delta, which is already threatened by increasing saltwater intrusion as a result of rising sea levels,” Aviva Imhof, [International Rivers] group’s campaigns director told Voice of America.
The Pursat Provincial court on Friday charged Krakor district’s judicial police bureau chief for taking bribes in order to allow illegal fishing in the Tonle Sap Lake, officials said yesterday.
[Hong Bunthoeun] stands accused of accepting bribes to allow illicit fishing in parts of the Tonle Sap Lake, in which commercial fishing is banned, said Krakor district deputy police chief Meal Soth.
The government withdrew all licences for large scale fishing lots in the Tonle Sap in February last year after concerns that the lake was being overfished arose. …
Advocacy groups, environmentalists and policy-makers have wrapped up five days of events surrounding Mekong River issues in Washington.
“Mekong Days,” a series of talks, films and other forums that ended Tuesday, highlighted issues in the region, where some 60 million people live.
The Mekong River, a major source of food for many in the region, is currently under increased pressure from hydropower dam projects and the potential impact of climate change. Environmental advocates say the dams could hurt fish stocks in the river, even as temperature and rainfall changes threaten agriculture and livestock. …
A recent study funded by USAID, “Mekong Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change,” found increasing threats to livestock, fisheries and other agriculture. …
At least 11 dams are currently planned for the lower Mekong, a major concern for fish populations that migrate up and down the river. China has built four dams upstream already, and Laos is in the process of building a dam in Xayaburi province, despite objections from Cambodian and Vietnam.
An updated documentary, “Where Have All the Fish Gone?,” examines the impacts of hydroelectric dams on the Mekong River.
The Xayaburi dam, which would produce hydropower for market, has become a divisive issue among Mekong River countries. Critics say it could severely damage ecosystems on which lower countries like Cambodia and Vietnam rely. It is one of 11 dams under consideration on the lower Mekong. …
Some 60 million people live along the Mekong River, relying on it for food and agriculture. The use of the river is supposed to be supervised by the Mekong River Commission, which has representatives from regional governments. …
Residents of a village in the middle of Cambodia’s Tonle Sap “Great Lake” live surrounded by water, but don’t have enough access to clean water for drinking, cooking, and washing.
The Tonle Sap, a combined lake and river system that swells in the rainy season to form Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake, has for generations supported fishing communities living in floating villages of moored houseboats.
But the silt deposited by the flow of the Mekong River, which nourishes the Tonle Sap’s abundance of fish that form a key source of food for millions of Cambodians, makes its brown, muddy waters unsuitable for daily use by households. …
During the wet season, residents can get clean water from nearby ponds and wells, but during the dry season villagers have to buy bottled water. …
Around half of Cambodia’s tropical flooded grasslands have been lost in just 10 years according to new research from the University of East Anglia. The seasonally flooded grasslands around the Tonle Sap, Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake, are of great importance for biodiversity and a refuge for 11 globally-threatened bird species, including the Bengal Florican. They are also a vital fishing, grazing, and traditional rice farming resource for around 1.1 million people. …
The grassland area spanned 3349 km² in 1995, but by 2005 it had been reduced to just 1817 km² – a loss of 46 per cent.
Despite conservation efforts in some areas, it has continued to shrink rapidly since, with a further 19 per cent lost in four years (2005-2009) from the key remaining grassland area in the southeast of the Tonle Sap floodplain.
Factors include intensive commercial rice farming with construction of irrigation channels, which is often illegal. Some areas have also been lost to scrubland where traditional, low-intensity agricultural activity has been abandoned. …
As examples, Laos broke ground on a new Mekong River dam that’s causing concern bordering on fury in Cambodia and Vietnam. India is enraged about a new Chinese dam going up on the Brahmaputra River. And Ethiopia’s new dam on the Nile is angering Sudan, while Egypt has threatened war. …
Perhaps the most egregious example is Laos, which broke ground on a new hydroelectric dam on the Mekong late last year – ignoring the howls of complaint from downstream. Just south in Cambodia, for example, the Mekong provides the livelihood for much of the population because of an unusual natural phenomenon.
Cambodia’s Tonle Sap River is a Mekong tributary that flows southeast from a lake of the same name. Each spring, the Mekong swells, and its current grows so strong that it forces the Tonle Sap River to reverse course, carrying tons of rich, fertile mud and millions of young fish back up to the lake. the lake floods, depositing new, rich soil on thousands of acres around its perimeter. the fish provide meals for Cambodians through the year. By potentially restricting the river’s flow, the Laotian dam threatens all of that. …
Cambodia economic growth was 7.3 percent in 2012. …
Agriculture grew by 4.3 percent, crops by 4.9 percent, fisheries by 6.7 percent, industry by 9.2 percent, garment [sector] by 6.9 percent and the service industry by 8.1 percent, said Dr Hang Chuon Naron, Secretary of State for the Ministry of Finance of Cambodia. …
Moreover, gross domestic product per capita increased from 760 US dollars in 2008 to nearly 1,000 US dollars in 2012, with a projection of $1080 in 2013, he stresses [sic]. …
Cambodia’s rice export reached almost 180,000 tons in 2011 and 187,000 tons in 2012 of which more than 8 percent was exported to the EU. …
During the first 11 months of 2012, rubber exports increased by 23.9 percent … although value decreased by 19 percent down from a total of $181.1 million to $146.7 million.
In 2012, tourist arrivals increased by 24.4 percent to reach over 3.5 million from 2.88 million in 2011. …
Garment exports increased by 17.4 percent from $4.2 billion in 2011 to $5 billion in 2012. …
In 2012 … some 1980 construction projects worth $1.6 billion were approved. … The increase in the number of projects [displays] a steady recovery of the real estate sector, Mr Naron adds.
He also said [tax revenue] is estimated to increase by 27 percent to 2, 5 01 reil ($625 million) in 2012. …
Microfinance has experienced rapid growth over the last five years, reaching 1.3 million borrowers and 1.1 savers in 24 provinces. …
Cambodia’s trade volume reached $12.4 billion in 2012 while Cambodia’s export was worth 5.58 billion in 2012 [Dr. Hang Chuon Naron stated].
Exports of Cambodian fish and shellfish products reached 1,618 tonnes last year, worth $3.5 million, a 16 per cent increase from 1,391 tonnes in 2011, according to figures from the Ministry of Commerce.
“A major share of the total exports last year was from saltwater fish species and some other processing products,” said Khuon Savuth, director of the Camcontrol department at the Ministry of Commerce. …
Om Savath, executive director of Cambodia’s Fish Action Coalition Team, questioned the ministry’s numbers, saying the 2012’s freshwater fish yield was unlikely to eclipse 2011 because of environmental changes, an increase in illegal fishing and a water level about 2.7 metres lower than in 2011. …
“When the level of water is low, the water gets dirty and doesn’t flow to areas where fish can reproduce.” …
Cambodia’s annual prahok season began Wednesday along the Tonle Sap River, with fishermen unloading boatloads of tiny fish onto weigh stations along the riverbank.
But due to low water levels during this year’s five-day migration season, fishermen and buyers were predicting a poor catch, both in the size and quality of fish being pulled out of the river.
“There are a lot of small fish this year and I’ll be losing money because the fish harvest is going to be poor,” said Nop Chanthol, 44, the owner of dai 10C in Sen Sok’s Samraong commune, one of 64 dais—or large fishing docks anchored in the middle of the river—situated along the Tonle Sap. …
The planned construction of hydropowered dams on the Mekong River in South-East Asia could jeopardise livelihoods, water access and food security for 60 million people, across Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, according to a study.
The study reports that dams will block fish migration routes and decimate fish supplies in the lower Mekong region.
As fish dwindle, communities will have to look for alternative sources of protein, such as livestock and poultry. Raising these will require more land and water, and be prohibitively expensive. …
