This story excerpt was translated from Khmer. To read the original story in full, visit Camboja News.
Rising water levels during the dry season in the Ramsar site of Stung Treng province are catastrophic for the unique ecosystem and people in the area. Image by Andy Ball/The Third Pole. Cambodia, 2022.
Kong Chanthy shows a fresh face as he recalls the past. Thirty years ago, the flooded forest in the middle of the Mekong River in northeastern Cambodia, south of the border with Laos, was full of thriving life and community.
Kong Chanthy, head of the fishing and ecotourism community in O'Svay commune, said the area's forests not only provide food for the 13,000 people living along the river north of Stung Treng. It feeds on endangered birds and fish, some migrating to the Mekong River from the Tonle Sap Lake in the northwest of the country, the world's largest freshwater fishery. 60% protein to the Cambodian population. Trees and small plants also provide shelter for river creatures, escape from predators, and provide safe spawning grounds.
Reminiscing about night fishing in the 1980s, Kong Chanthy said: “We put salt in the boat [to keep the fish fresh], used a mason lamp to remove the oars. The fish jumped into the boat. ” Kong Chanthy has spent years researching this unique ecosystem and fish species in the area for government research institutions and NGOs.
Thai Sakhan, a farmer with nine children who lives in O’Svay commune, removes leaves from a tree branch cut from the flooded forests. Locals use the leaves of some of the area’s tree species in soups and sauces. Image by Andy Ball/The Third Pole. Cambodia, 2022. Local fishers sometimes also gather fruit from the trees of the flooded fruit to use as bait. These plum-like fruits are from the Nauclea orientalis tree, which usually grows at the edge of the water. Image by Andy Ball/The Third Pole. Cambodia, 2022. A fisher works between the trees of the flooded forest. This unique ecosystem is not found on any other stretch of the Mekong. Image by Andy Ball/The Third Pole. Cambodia, 2022.
The unique biodiversity in the area has not been forgotten. In 1999, the floodplain was designated a wetland of international importance under the UNESCO Ramsar Convention.
Covering an area of 14,600 hectares, the Ramsar site is an ecosystem that can be found along the 40-kilometer-long Mekong River. The spectacular forest landscape, such as the surrounding branches and acacia trees, adapts to this particular condition and attracts the same international visitors as the freshwater dolphins in the nearby deep pool. Its last member died last year.
Dead trees in a section of the flooded forest in December, the middle of the dry season. Researchers say that unseasonably high water levels due to upstream dams in Laos and China releasing their water is preventing the forest from drying out as it should at this time of year, killing the trees. Image by Andy Ball/The Third Pole. Cambodia, 2022. Strangler figs growing on Stung Treng’s large riparian trees. Image by Andy Ball/The Third Pole. Cambodia, 2022. The skeleton of an Irrawaddy dolphin in Preah Rumkel commune that locals say died in 2021. Until the last individual died in February 2022, Preah Rumkel was one of two sites in Cambodia that attracted tourists to see the dolphins. Image by Andy Ball/The Third Pole. Cambodia, 2022. An endangered Mekong freshwater stingray at a fish market in Stung Treng town. In June last year, just upstream from here in the Ramsar site, a giant freshwater stingray weighing 300kg was discovered. It hit international headlines as the largest freshwater fish to ever be recorded worldwide. This much smaller stingray may have been killed when inadvertently caught in a fisher’s nets. Image by Andy Ball/The Third Pole. Cambodia, 2022. Illegal electrical fishing gear, motorbikes, boats and engines, all confiscated by rangers, sit in a storage unit at the Stung Treng Ramsar site’s headquarters. Image by Andy Ball/The Third Pole. Cambodia, 2022. The 260 MW Don Sahong hydropower dam in southern Laos, in October 2022. Construction of the dam began in 2016, and it started operating in 2020. Image by Andy Ball/The Third Pole. Cambodia, 2022. A recently fallen dead tree in the Stung Treng flooded forest. Research by Professor Ian Baird of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has found that 40-50% of the Ramsar site’s tall trees have now died. Image by Andy Ball/The Third Pole. Cambodia, 2022. Carp, which are known to consume the flooded forest’s fruits and leaves, for sale in Stung Treng town. The fish migrate up the Mekong from Tonle Sap and on into Laos. Image by Andy Ball/The Third Pole. Cambodia, 2022. Construction workers lay concrete on the eighth floor of a block of flats in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh. The country’s construction sector is booming, with many workers migrating from the countryside to earn money. Image by Andy Ball/The Third Pole. Cambodia, 2022. A worker sprays a mixture of fertiliser and pesticides on banana trees in Cambodia’s Kampot province. Plantations like this are another draw for rural migrants. Image by Andy Ball/The Third Pole. Cambodia, 2022. Chief Sai Fang in his home in Koh Cheu Teal Touch village. His two granddaughters travelled to Thailand early last year in search of domestic work. As fisheries collapse in the area, many young people are leaving to find alternative ways of making a living. Image by Andy Ball/The Third Pole. Cambodia, 2022.
Additional reporting and translation by Vutha Srey.
January 31, 2023
