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... continue
A new long-term project aims to boost fish stocks in rice fields. That was not a typo.
For years, rice farmers in Cambodia have swept up fish – as well as frogs, snails and other aquatic fauna – that make their way from streams, canals and floodplains into rice fields. They then sell the fresh catches on the side or eat them at home.
And now a four-year project funded by USAID is kicking off that reaches across four provinces in an attempt to replenish declining stocks, increase yields and provide an ongoing protein-rich source of food in poorer communities. …
A decision on whether to build the Xayaburi dam on the Mekong River in northern Laos is a life and death one that will affect Cambodians downstream, according to Foreign Minister Hor Namhong.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Namhong said the controversial 1,260-megawatt hydropower dam has the potential to threaten fish numbers in the Mekong, a problem that would affect Cambodian communities who rely on the river for their livelihood. …
Two Cambodian fishermen, trafficked into slave labour in South Africa in mid-2011, returned safely to Phnom Penh on Friday after being rescued by legal resource group the Community Legal Education Center. …
Kompong Thom provincial military police confiscated 29 excavators and arrested four drivers in a four-day operation ending yesterday aimed at stopping the illegal construction of reservoirs around the Tonle Sap lake, officials said.
The reservoirs, which are used to retain water for use in dry-season farming, are blamed for reducing fish populations by wiping out vital breeding areas at the edges of the lake.
Construction on them has persisted despite periodic crackdowns by authorities attempting to enforce a 2009 ban. …
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday marked National Fish Day by urging the public to report anyone fishing inside the Tonle Sap conservation area he established earlier this year to help protect and revive the lake’s vital fish stocks.
“People have to dare to stand up and speak out against the people, villagers, commune chiefs and district governors who use the lots in the wrong way,” he said at an event in Kompong Cham province’s Kroch Chhmar district.
The prime minister announced the permanent cancellation of all 35 private fishing lots on the Tonle Sap in February, converting some of the lots into a conservation zone to save the lake’s wild fisheries, on which tens of thousands of subsistence fishermen depend. …
At least 500,000 baby fish and 100,000 young shrimps had been released into a reservoir in the Eastern part of Cambodia on Sunday to mark the 10th National Fish Day. …
Annual event is aimed at encouraging people to actively join forces to preserve fish species in national habitats and to increase fish raising activities. …
Officials and experts yesterday questioned the likelihood of Cambodia and Vietnam’s proposal to hike bilateral trade by more than US$2.5 billion by 2015.
The pledge of $5 billion in total trade, made by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Vietnamese counterpart, Nguyen Tan Dung, last week, reflected a similar Sino-Cambodian trade goal made at the beginning of April. Last week’s announcement, however, would be from a lower trade base and within a shorter period of time. …
The figure proposed in Vietnam last week would be difficult to reach without an increase in competitiveness on the Vietnamese side, Cambodian Economic Association president Chan Sophal said yesterday. …
Cambodia’s main exports to Vietnam were seafood, corn, dried tobacco and other agricultural goods. Vietnam exported iron, steel, garments and plastic materials to the Kingdom.
The State Department on Tuesday cited abuses in Thailand’s huge fishing industry as part of an annual worldwide report on Trafficking in Persons. The report noted that men from Cambodia and Myanmar, also known as Burma, are trafficked aboard Thai ships and forced to work against their will. They include men like Vannak Prum, a Cambodian who spent three years on such a boat. Prum was among those honored at the State Department on Tuesday.
In the second of two stories, we pick up Prum’s tale when he was aboard the Thai boat.
Vannak Prum’s boat was fishing illegally deep inside Indonesian waters when the Indonesian navy spotted them. As the Indonesians neared, the captain hit the throttle.
“At first the soldiers didn’t want to fire on us,” Prum says. “But the captain wouldn’t stop.”
The patrol fired and, when that failed, they lobbed Molotov cocktails onboard. The vessel caught fire, and Prum — a former soldier — braved gunfire to put it out. The Burmese and Cambodian workers begged their Thai captain to stop, but he wouldn’t. The boat had stolen fish and kidnapped crew onboard.
With very little oversight or regulation, rogue Thai captains buy crew members from human traffickers and use them to plunder the fishing grounds of surrounding nations. If the workers disobey or slack off, they’re beaten with stingray tails, tire irons, engine belts and, in one case, a sword. …
More than 1,000 people marched in Sihanoukville yesterday to raise awareness of the exploitation of child labour, said rights workers.
Kong Socheat, child rights advocacy co-ordinator for Licadho, said the province had been chosen for its high rate of child labour, especially in the fishing sector…
The Ministry of Agriculture’s fisheries administration announced yesterday that the seasonal nationwide ban on commercial fishing is now in effect, according to a statement.
Signed by the director general of the fisheries administration, Nao Thuok, the announcement states that the fishing ban north of Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changvar bridge will last until Sept. 30, while the ban will last a month longer, until Oct. 30, south of the bridge. …
In an effort to increase fish stocks, the Ministry of Agriculture on Wednesday adopted a sub-decree to create four conservation areas in Kandal, Kompong Cham, Prey Veng and Takeo provinces where all fishing activities will be prohibited.
Signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen on April 6, the sub-decree does not outline how big the conservation areas will be, though it does say that the Fisheries Administration will be mandated with marking borders for the protected areas….
The number of complaints filed in Kampong Chhnang province by the families of maids working in Malaysia has jumped exponentially compared to the same period last year, a rights worker told the Post yesterday.
Provincial Adhoc coordinator Soum Chankea said 39 requests for the NGO’s intervention in maid cases had been filed in the first five months of this year.
An additional 23 complaints were filed regarding fishermen working overseas. …
Improved quality coupled with growing international demand has sent crab prices escalating over the past year, officials said on Wednesday.
In some provinces, the price has jumped as much as 66 percent during the past 12 months.
Lang Kery, chief of the Koh Kong provincial Fishery Administration’s inspectorate, said that fishermen in Koh Kong are trading crab for $5 per kg, up from $3 last year, as fisheries are increasingly choosing to sell only adult crabs, while bringing females carrying eggs to local nurseries. …
A study the Lao government has used to claim the Xayaburi dam would be harmless if redesigned has been criticised for not addressing concerns about the project’s effect on fish in the Lower Mekong river.
Lao Vice Minister of Energy and Mines Viraponh Viravong was reported as saying last week that a redesigned Xayaburi dam in northern Laos would allow a steady flow of sediment downsteam, thus allaying environmental concerns. …
Two Cambodians were repatriated yesterday after being rescued from a fishing vessel at a port in Senegal on Friday, thanks to collaborative intervention by the International Organization for Migration and Senegalese authorities.
Toy Koeun, 29, from Pursat province, and Som Pich, 20, from Kampot province, said they had been sent to work in slavery-like conditions on the boat in October, just one day after being promised a $200 monthly salary by Phoenix International Co to work as fishermen in Japan. …
Tonle Sap fishermen and fisheries experts said yesterday that illegal fishing on the lake had increased substantially since Prime Minister Hun Sen cancelled commercial fishing lots in March and urged authorities to crack down on violators.
The prime minister suspended commercial lots across the country last year in hopes of reviving diminishing stocks for subsistence fishermen and signed a sub-decree cancelling the lots outright in March…
In Sihanoukville, just north of Cambodia’s only deep-water port, stands the headquarters of Chenla Seafood.
A uniformed guard stands watch at the gate, which opens on to manicured grounds and a two-building facility that houses what will likely become the country’s premier seafood processor.
A few kilometres up the hill and away from the water lies the former plant of Nautisco Seafood Manufacturing, which once held the mantle soon to be captured by Chenla. …
And the link between the rise of the first and the collapse of the second, according to Nautisco Seafood’s majority shareholders, is Leopard Capital, the Kingdom’s bellwether private-equity firm. …
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday blasted local officials for not working hard enough to curb illegal fishing in and around the Tonle Sap lake, where fisheries crimes are still rampant despite 90,000 hectares of protected areas.
“Don’t do illegal fishing, use illegal equipment to fish, or fish in conservation areas,” Mr. Hun Sen said at the annual Ministry of Agriculture conference at the Royal University of Agriculture in Phnom Penh. …
