(19 Nov 2017) LEADIN:
One of Cambodia's most vital freshwater ecosystems is at risk from a combination of hydroelectric dams, overfishing, deforestation and pollution.
The Tonle Sap Lake is called 'the beating heart of Cambodia', supplying three-quarters of the nation's protein from fishing and supporting the livelihoods of around one million people.
STORYLINE:
Located in the centre of Cambodia, the Tonle Sap Lake has been the lifeblood for millions of people for centuries.
The lake yields about 300,000 tonnes of fish per year, making it one of the world's most productive freshwater fisheries.
It is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, swelling from 2,700 sq. km to around 16,000 sq. km in the rainy season.
Listed as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 2007, the lake consists of three distinct zones: an open lake at its centre, a surrounding freshwater swamp-forest and seasonally flooded grasslands at the margins.
The swamp forest is considered the most important because it's home to many rare species of animals, insects and waterbirds and it plays a key role in fish reproduction.
Around 80,000 people live directly on or around the lake with another one million people in the catchment area.
The Tonle Sap is vital for the national economy with about 60 percent of Cambodia's inland fish catch coming from the lake, which also supports migratory fish caught upstream.
But experts say it is being destroyed - by overfishing to feed a fast-growing population, by the cutting of mangrove forests that shelter young fish and by hydroelectric dams upstream.
In 2016 the Global Nature Fund designated the Tonle Sap as the world's most "threatened" lake.
Female fisherman Luan Chanti earns a living producing the popular food staple Prahok - a pungent fish paste that forms the basis of many traditional Cambodian recipes.
"In the past we would catch lots of fish using our nets but now there are so many people fishing here that we're not catching much anymore," she says.
"That means we're making far less Prahok than before. Yes, and now the water level is high again but it smells really bad and as I said there's not as much fish as before."
Om Savath is the Executive Director of the Fisheries Action Coalition Team (FACT), an NGO which works with fishermen on the Tonle Sap, and with the government, to address the problems affecting the lake.
He says the construction of many hydroelectric dams on the rivers feeding into the Tonle Sap is having a big effect.
"The issue of hydroelectric dams on the rivers entering the Tonle Sap is very important," says Savath.
"They have plans to build more dams upstream in Laos. In Cambodia we already have the Sesan 'bi' - the Sesan 2 dam. We're worried that the electric dams will affect fish migration and reproduction rates. The dams have also slowed down the rate of water flowing into the lake, in particular the Sesan 2 dam. This affects the water quality in the Mekong river too even though the Tonle Sap is just a lake of the bigger river system."
The forests surrounding the lake have been stripped for decades because many people rely on wood and charcoal for fuel.
And there are more and more people chasing fewer and smaller fish.
Some sixty floating villages are now found on the lake, twice the number 30 years ago.
Many rural Cambodians have been displaced by land grants to large agribusinesses, while others have sold their farmland to pay off debts, and migrated to the Tonle Sap.
Fishermen's nets are now being filled with a selection of small fish species with larger fish becoming rarer and some species almost disappearing.
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