Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia

Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia

The Tonle Sap Lake is an enormous resource located in roughly the western middle of Cambodia. In fact it is the "most important inland wetland in Southeast Asia," according to the Cambodia National Mekong Committee report, "Policy and Strategy for the Tonle SAP Biosphere Reserve" (2007). This paper will review the resources of the lake, including the raw materials that are available, how people live, what resources they require for their communities, how they cook, what they eat, and also environmental issues that relate to the natural resources and to the people who live near the lake and depend on the lake for their subsistence.

Background Details of Tonle Sap Lake

The Tonle Sap Lake was actually created by two tectonic plates coming together and forming a depression. The "geological stress" created by the "collision of the Indian subcontinent with Asia" (Wikipedia) lake itself and the floodplain that surrounds it. Between 40% and 70% of the protein that Cambodians eat annually comes from Tonle Sap Lake. It is a lake that changes shape and size dramatically depending on what season it is. For example, in the dry season Tonle Sap Lake is about 2,500 square kilometers -- but during the rainy season the lake expands enormously, becoming a fresh water lake of some 12,000 square kilometers, according to Mike Ibbertson, journalist. During the dry season the lake becomes shallow and drains through the Tonle Sap River into the Mekong River at the capital, Phnom Penh. But between June and November the rains come and when the "high water level" is reached in the Mekong River there is a reverse flow "up the Tonle Sap River into the Tonle Sap Lake. When the lake fills up to its capacity it is "the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia (Ibbertson, 2009).

When the lake reverses its flow and travels up the Tonle Sap River into the Tonle Sap Lake, the depth of the lake increases from one meter to 10 meters deep (Dr. Neou Bonheur / Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve / www.tsbr-ed.org).

Surrounding the lake are mangrove forest plains that are home to over 100 varieties of water birds; among those species a number of endangered birds as well, Ibbertson writes. In the lake itself there are over 200 species of fish; there are also crocodiles, otters and turtles in the wetlands associated with the lake. Twenty percent of the Mekong River's floodwaters are absorbed by the Tonle Sap, and 62% of the Tonle Sap's water actually originates from the Mekong River (TSBR).

Another thirty-eight percent of the Tonle Sap's water originates from the Tonle Sap watershed; about 1.2 million people live in the area bordered by highways #5 and #6. The rich fisheries in Tonle Sap Lake are vitally important to the entire country of Cambodia; as mentioned, the lake produces fish that account for up to 70% of the protein that Cambodians eat. This is significant because according to the CIA Factbook 35% of the population in Cambodia is under the poverty level.

Natural Resources / Raw Materials Available from Tonle Sap Lake

The CIA Factbook lists the following natural resources in Cambodia: oil and gas; timber; gemstones; iron ore; manganese, phosphates; hydropower potential. However the resources in and around Tonle Sap Lake are significant to the economy and culture of Cambodia. Importantly, Tonle Sap Lake supplies "life to one of Asia's largest rice bowls" (www.mekonginfo.org). The fresh water itself is a natural resource.

More than 200 species of fish are found in Tonle Sap Lake and seventy of those 200 species are "of commercial value" (www.mekonginfo.org). The Tonle Sap Biosphere fact sheet (www.tsbr.org) states that the Tonle Sap Lake yields "about 230,000 tons of fish" each year, which is more than 50% of the total fish caught and used for food in Cambodia. Also, the Tonle Sap Lake -- one of the "most productive freshwater fisheries in the world" -- yields "than ten times more fish than the North Atlantic Sea" (www.tsbr-ed.org). The other natural resources from the lake include: eels, crabs, and shrimp, according to the Tonle Sap Biosphere fact sheet on fisheries.

The lake also provides the natural resource of snakes -- there are 23 snake species, 13 turtle species, one species of crocodile, macaque, capped languor, leopard cat, and otter are all found in the lake or in the inundated forest surrounding Tonle Sap Lake. Virginia Fitzherbert, writing in the journal Geographical, describes being out in a boat on the Tonle Sap Lake with a snake fisherman; soon, "a small mound of bloody, writhing snakes has grown at my feet," she explains. Her assignment -- evaluate the snake harvest in Tonle Sap Lake, where

Tonle Sap Lake is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, as explained earlier in this paper; and when the monsoon arrives and the lake fills up, it reverse courts and flows upstream. Associated with that flow of water is a "nutrient rush" that creates "one of the most productive inland fisheries in the world" at Tonle Sap Lake. The lake supports "more than three million people," Fitzherbert explains, and the lake provides "more than three quarters of Cambodia's annual inland fish catch." That having been said, it is also true that the Tonle Sap basin "remains one of the poorest regions in Cambodia" (Fitzherbert).

Historically, Fitzherbert continues, large fishing industry concessions were dominant along Tonle Sap's shoreline -- however many of these areas have recently been returned to local communities and today there has been a domino effect of "overfishing, declining fish stocks, rising fish prices and a growing demand for cheaper alternatives." Because of the reduced number of fish in the Tonle Sap Lake, many fishermen -- especially those who are poverty stricken -- have turned from fishing for fish to fishing for snakes.

About four million snakes (eight species) are being harvested from Tonle Sap Lake annually, Fitzherbert explains, albeit she suggests the number is "likely to be much higher." The four million snakes taken per year (or whatever the number really is) is thought to be "the greatest exploitation of any single snake community in the world," according to Fitzherbert. Given this level of exploitation, serious worries about sustainability are being expressed in many quarters.

Fitzherbert witnessed many "crates of snakes being weighed" at the port of Chong Khneas near Siem Reap -- and after seeing the number of snakes being brought in (more than a ton a day on average) Fitzherbert was shocked. The snakes are brought ashore by "middlemen who buy directly from fisher families who live out on the lake in settlements" that float. The snakes are separated and sold; some for skins, some for human food, and some to feed the "thousands of crocodile farms that surround the lake." The crocodile farms buy more fish than the other buyers.

The author visited some of the crocodile farms and found some unhealthy situations, with perhaps hundreds of crocodiles in "cramped conditions, their mouths agape" and they lay there motionless. But when feeding time came, they "lashed about wildly as buckets of snakes" were tossed into the concrete pits where they are grown. The market for crocodiles (for food) has tapered off recently (due to sinking prices), but many people hang on to their crocodiles in hopes the market will enjoy an upswing.

Because the snakes are so readily available their popularity as food for people, especially the poor, is on the rise, Fitzherbert explains. They are now sold in outdoor markets and by roadside food vendors; Cambodians eat snakes "dried or fried with a sprinkle of chili" -- and yes they are bony but provide a "protein-rich snack" (Fitzherbert).

Many of the fishermen sell the snakes for their skins but they only use snakes that are more than 80 centimeters in length -- "typically reproductive females" -- and one snake that long can bring in 3,000 riel (about 72 cents U.S. Dollars). What are the rules for harvesting snakes? There doesn't seem to be any limits as far as how many snakes you can take, but a government official told Fitzherbert that people are arrested for trading in snakes -- although the next day she talked to an off-duty policeman who was selling snakes to supplement his salary and "wasn't aware that this might be illegal" (Fitzherbert).

The guide who took Fitzherbert out on the boat in the lake spotted a fisherman carrying a "heavy bucket of freshly caught snakes" and he bought the whole lot. "Yes," he admitted, this is part of the problem (people buying snakes and providing momentum to a disastrous overfishing situation), "But they are already dead and very, very tasty." At the end of the article, Fitzherbert admits that it isn't "just the survival of the snakes that's important. It's the delicate balance of the ecological scales that needs to be maintained." Indeed, if the scales tip too far in one direction, "it could be disastrous for the snakes and for those who depend on them" (Fitzherbert).

The Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve

The Tonle Sap Lake is such a valuable resource it was nominated in October 1997 as a "Biosphere Reserve" under the Man and Biosphere Program of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (www.tsbr-ed.org). The Tonle Sap Lake supports a "huge population" because of its fisheries, the productivity of those fisheries, and the fresh water supply provided, the Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve project (TSBR) explains. Indeed, Tonle Sap Lake provides "the last refuge for some of Asia's most globally significant biodiversity" (TSBR).

The management and funding, along with the conservation of Tonle Sap Lake is handled in large part by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), but also helping with funding: The United Nations Development Programme; the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and the Capacity 21 Program.

The Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve has as a goal the fulfillment of three important functions: a) conservation of landscapes, ecosystems and species diversity; b) culturally, socially, and ecologically sustainable development; and c) research, monitoring, and education (www.mekonginfo.org).

The Tonle Sap Lake is connected to "streams, lakes, streams, flooded plain, and wetland vegetation" (www.mekonginfo.org); it is also a unique hydrological lake and supports "a rich biological diversity…aquatic plants, fish, waterfowl, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and microorganisms" (www.mekonginfo.org).

Tonle Sap Lake's Floating Villages

There are five villages that actually float on Tonle Sap Lake. "Classrooms sit on floating platforms and children row themselves to school on small sampans," according to Ker Munthit, writing in The America's Intelligence Wire. Vendors go "door-to-door" in small boats (sampans) and life is built around the flow of water in the lake. The floating village called Chong Kneas has about 5,800 people living in it and every year during the dry season their houseboats become anchored in the mud as the lake retreats. About seventy percent of the residents of Chong Kneas live on about seventy cents a day. "Every year, they have to move and buy clothes and kitchenware that blown away by the storms of the monsoon," said one of the villagers that Munthit interviewed.

Life would have been better for the floating community, the man said, if the government of Cambodia had not abandoned a plan that was originally conceived by the Asian Development Bank. That plan would have allowed Chong Kneas to move to higher ground and become a permanent settlement instead of a floating one with radical changes every year due to the change in water level in the lake. The higher ground settlement would have meant "a clean water supply, sanitation, roads, schools and medical clinics" (Munthit, 2006).

That having been said, Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen was quoted as saying the lake "functions as part of the cultural heritage and history" (Xinhua News Agency). And despite its importance as a cultural place, the Prime Minister also said there should be oil drilling in the middle of the lake; he also promised to "develop the lake with sustainability, conserve the environment, develop tourism areas" and "promote hydroelectricity" (Xinhua News Agency). On the subject of ecotourism and tour companies, the community leader of Chong Kneas, Em Mann, said there was some resistance to the floating community's desire to move onto dry land, on higher ground. The touring companies lobbied the Cambodian government to not go through with the move. After all, tourists "like to visit the floating community," Mann said. "They must really thinking we are animals in a zoo here," he stated.