Fight to Save Mekong Dolphin Makes Enemies
Sitting at his outpost overlooking the Mekong River, Deab Kuy remembers an incident some years ago when fishermen threatened to attack him if they were stopped from casting their nets around the river’s sandy islets here in Sambok commune. The outpost, little more than a wooden house on the banks of Mekong, is one of 15 set up in Kratie and Stung Treng provinces where a total of 77 unarmed “river guards” monitor local fishing communities to protect the area’s endangered freshwater dolphins. … While few can argue that saving the Mekong Dolphin is a noble cause, local fishermen say the conservation program is pushing them into poverty, and river guards say they are bearing the brunt of local resentment. … In September the government approved a sub-decree demarcating a 180-km-long conservation area stretching from Kratie province to the Lao border. Gill-nets fishing cages and equipment used to electrocute fish is strictly banned in the protection zone. …
