Hun Sen Ends Tonle Sap Fishing Lot System
Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday that he would permanentlycance all 35 fishing lots on the Tonle Sap lake – which had already been suspended in recent months – and turn them into a conservation zone to protect the lake’s pressurized wild fisheries, on which tens of thousands of subsistence fishermen rely. “I need to send a message to people: In the whole Tonle Sap [lake], there are no longer any fishing lots,” Mr. Hun Sen said, while speaking to students at the Institute of Technology of Cambodia in Phnom Penh. “After we cancel these fishing lots, the government will determine the area as conservation [zone].” He said that he had ordered Deputy Prime Minister Bin Chhin to soon draw up a sub-decree to officially establish the lots as conservation areas. “We keep it for fish breeding he said, adding that next year he would cancel private lots on the Mekong River in Kompong Cham and Prey Veng provinces. …
