Hun Sen Calls on Public to Help Protect Tonle Sap Fisheries

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. …