Protection of Cambodia’s flooded forest is of global concern, as these types of forest have been wipe out across Southeast Asia and now rank as the most threatened forest in the world, a conservation group said. A newly released UN report, meanwhile, found that Cambodia’s dry land forests have been among the fastest shrinking forests in the region during the past decade. Conservation International said in a news release that the seasonally flood forests along rivers and in the wetlands of mainland Southeast Asia topped its list of 2010 Most Threatened Forest Hotspots in the world.
Flooded forests, such as those located around the Tonle Sap lake and along the Mekong river, were “tremendously important for the local people and for the conservation of birds, freshwater turtles and fishes,” the group said. It warned the only 5 percent of these original forest areas remained in mainland Southeast Asia. David Emmet, regional director at Conservation International Cambodia, said protecting the Tonle Sap’s remaining flooded forest was of importance for conservationists, as these forests had often disappeared in other countries in the region. The lake’s flooded forests have come under pressure from rampant development of irrigation reservoirs for rice cultivation, and 160,000 hectares out of 700,000 of forest were lost since 2005, according to the government.
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