News

The Japan International Cooperation Agency has agreed to oversee a project to help recover water quality in the Tonle Sap lake in response to the appearance of a large bloom of algae. ...

A government minister has sounded the death knell for Tonle Sap picturesque floating villages after outlining a long-term plan to rehome all those living on the lake. Agriculture Minister Veng Sakhon yesterday told Khmer Times he wants to relocate thousands of families living on the lake ...

A government task force charged with eliminating illegal fishing on the Tonle Sap lake has destroyed more than 100 km of nets and other equipment seized in Kompong Chhnang and Kompong Thom provinces this month, officials said on Monday.   ...

Cambodians can expect up to 14,000 tons of fish caught from the Tonle Sap, Mekong and Bassac rivers this year, a 5,000 ton increase compared with last year, which will be sufficient to meet all local demand, said the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries ...

Government officials are predicting a better haul of fish, typically used to make prahok, this season due to higher water levels in the Tonle Sap Lake and River. The fishing season, which began on Thursday and is expected to last until February, will see higher yields ...

Pursat provincial police have launched a week-long campaign to crack down on widespread illegal fishing. Authorities say they have confiscated and destroyed many kinds of illegal fishing equipment on the Tonle Sap Lake from Kampon Loung in Krakor district to the Kampong Chhang province border. Pursat deputy ...

About 20 environmental activists called on the government to stop all new dam projects on the Mekong River to protect fish stocks and communities slated to be affected by construction. The appeal was made by the group as they gathered in front of the parliament building ...

Ethnic Vietnamese residents of Tonle Sap Lake are continuing to head back to Vietnam in droves due to overbearing and costly rules being strictly enforced by local authorities, robbing many of them of the only homeland they have ever known. Minority Rights Organization (MIRO) official Seorn ...

From the snowy plateaus of Tibet to the mountain gorges of China’s Yunnan province and beyond to the jungled borders of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and down to the plains of Cambodia and paddy fields of Vietnam – the Mekong River is of crucial importance to ...

Scientists warn that plans to build dams across Tonlé Sap, south-east Asia’s greatest lake, could be an ecological timebomb threatening the food security of millions. In a few months’ time, monsoon rains will more than quadruple the size of Cambodia’s Tonlé Sap, south-east Asia’s greatest lake ...

One of the largest and rarest freshwater fish in the world was netted by local fishermen near Phnom Penh earlier this month.A two-metre Mekong giant catfish, weighing an estimated 90 to 114 kilos, one of only a handful left of a species that faces extinction, ...

Fishing communities along two of Cambodia’s principle rivers say their livelihoods are threatened by droughts that have reduced water levels and devastated fish numbers.“The Tonle Sap is 3 metres lower than last year,” Long Sochhet, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Fishing Communities, said yesterday. ...

Thailand’s fishing industry has received a “yellow card” warning from the European Union for failing to address illegal fishing operations. ...

At least 19 people were killed and thousands have been evacuated from their homes in Cambodia due floods caused by heavy rains and overflowing rivers, an official said Saturday. According to the official, more than 8,000 families have been evacuated to higher grounds, Xinhua reported. ...

As the sun rises on Tonle Sap Lake, fishermen head out from floating villages like this one, past half-submerged mangroves and flooded shrub land, to check their nets, much as they have for centuries. Every year, the lake yields about 300,000 tons of fish, making it ...

Already under attack by overfishing, pollution and deforestation, Tonle Sap Lake fisheries face an even bigger threat in the form of hydropower dams, according to experts. Laos’ planned Don Sahong Hydropower Project in particular has environmentalists fearing an emptier, less bio-diverse lake, and a nation pitched ...

Business is booming on Koh Pich. Since development began in 2006—and about 300 families were pushed off what was then farmland—the island has slowly grown into the symbol of commercial modernity in Phnom Penh. The developer, Overseas Cam­bodia Investment Corp., is also extending the island by ...

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 ...

A week after British researchers released a study warning that the nation’s grasslands would soon be lost if drastic action was not taken to protect them, some agricultural experts have called for moderation, noting that the intensive rice cultivation blamed for the grasslands’ destruction is ...

The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund has committed to provide another $10 mln U.S. in grants to address the environmental crisis engulfing mainland Southeast Asia. The ground-breaking biodiversity fund was launched in 2008. During the first phase, $10 mln was invested in efforts to conserve the critical ...

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 ...

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 ...

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, ...

Fish production in Cambodia’s great Tonle Sap Lake is on track to reach last year’s level, an official said Wednesday, despite concern from fishermen that yields are dwindling due to environmental problems. Nao Thouk, director of the Fisheries Administration under the Ministry of Agriculture, said that ...