Value of Fisheries Productivity in Wetland Area, Kampong Traolach District, Kampong Chhnang Province

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1 Page 1 of 10 Back Home Value of Fisheries Productivity in Wetland Area, Kampong Traolach District, Kampong Chhnang Province Introduction Floodplain fishery is known for its high productivity. This high productivity results from the presence of a complex environment/ecosystem where an important fish fauna is found exploiting large expanse of seasonally inundated land made of diverse habitat types. The population living along the Mekong River basin exploits intensively these rich aquatic resources. Much is known about commercial fisheries, such as the Dai or lot fisheries, whereas the small-scale family fisheries, which researchers believe to account for an important part of the whole Mekong fishery, have only recently began to receive more attention. The main objective of project sub-component (Assessment of Mekong Fisheries Component), the monitoring of small-scale, family fisheries, is to estimate the total production/yield from small-scale, primarily subsistence family fishing activities taking place within the confine of a floodplain area, thus excluding the fisheries from the neighboring main river. The long-term monitoring study started in mid-september. A site for a detailed fishery assessment study was selected. A full season study ("longitudinal" study) was implemented that included social, biological and economic assessments of the value and utility of wetland areas for fisheries. Most logically the site was be in an area fished with barrage fences at the Tonle Sap River draw-down (so at that period the study can estimate total catches per unit area at that time); that is, in a clearly defined " fishing lot" region. Radarsat imagery (provided to and analyzed by Hatfild Consultants Ltd., Canada) was be incorporated into the research effort. The Radarsat imagery was primarily help locate (or confirm) discharge channels and villages. It could also possibly be of use identifying the location of larger fishing gears. It can provide supplementary data to meet the main objective of our study, which is to assess the value of floodplains/wetland areas (specifically along the Tonle Sap River) in term of fish production on a per unit of area basis as well as per habitat basis. 1. Study Area 1.1. The selection process There were two main considerations driving the decision process during the selection of the study area, one was finding a location where the population and the fisheries was typical and representative of other similar part of Cambodia. Second, since one of the main objectives needed to be clearly defined or definable as precisely as possible. Potential sites that offered natural boundaries (e.g. island) or man-made barriers such as roads or 1.2. The Location Early in 1999, a team from AMFP assisted with the help of Hatfield consultant set off and surveyed areas along the Tonle Sap River. Armed with maps and aerial photos they looked for an ideal location to conduct a longitudinal study, both in term's importance of flooded area as well as being defined in space, i.e. presenting boundaries. It was also important that selected site be within a few drive from Phnom Penh since the project team live and work in the city and are expected to conduct regular visits to the study area. The study area is located in Kampong Chhnang Province, approximately 60km north of Phnom Penh, with a smaller crescent-shaped section overlapping Kandal Province, see Fif.1.

2 Page 2 of 10 Following the Tonle Sap River on Road No 5, the study area begins at the point when the road bends to the west, just before entering Kampong Chhnang Province. The study area's southern and western boundaries followed road No. 5 for approximately 18km. The top west corner is at a road intersection where Salalekpram is found. A smaller road, connecting Road No. 5 to the Tonle Sap River, forms the study area's north boundary Characteristics of the Study Area The area covers approximately 82km2 of floodplain seasonally inundated by rising water from the Tonle Sap River (and ultimately from the Mekong). The site is delimited by the Tonle Sap River, along one side and the road No. 5 on the other. Agriculture activities dominate the economic sector followed with fishery. Rice paddies and palm trees are widespread giving the area its general aspect so characterize of Cambodia's lowland along the Mekong and Tonle Sap floodplain. Floodplain The land use map shows a wide band of land, approximately 3 to 4km wide flanking the Tonle Sap River, this land being flooded for several months of the year. During the peak of the monsoon season, the extents of flooded land reach as far as road No. 5. In the center of the area shows a narrow strip of higher and drier grounds where several villages are established. Population This area can be considered as moderately populated, with 29 villages ( 31 depending of political boundaries) and a total population of about 23,902 (4,676 households, with a mean of 5 persons/hh), 2. Village Selection The selection of the eight villages for the long-term monitoring study was made with the attempt of covering a broad segment of village types found in the locality. Village types defined both in terms of village's socioeconomic make-up as well as the fisheries prevailing locally the fisheries mainly determined by the nature of the surrounding water bodies. To meet these selection goals, RRA/PRA methodologies were favored over conduction a stratified random sampling approach for more details. Eight villages were selected. For the selection, an emphasis was given on finding village having access to a variety of water bodies Village Types The main criteria that were used during the village selection, was the presence of different water bodies type surrounding the village's locality. Three main categories were defined according to the degree of inundation. The first category applied to villages along the Tonle Sap River (Piem Chumnik and Lungvek). Second, there are the villages removed from the Tonle Sap but having immediate access to a range of fishing areas, and third, the villages both removed from the Tonle Sap and having limited access to fishing habitats. There are two villages that belong to the latter, Leach and Ampil Deumteuk and both are located along road No. 5. Other criteria such as village size and wealth were also used to make the selection. Among the villages that were selected, three have less than 100 households, four have between 100 and 200 households, and one has more than 200 households. 3. Participants/Self-monitoring Fisherfolks 3.1. Selection The initial intention was to select a group of villages that was representative for the whole village community, using criteria based on gender, age groups, level of involvement with fishing, and literacy. With these in mind, the village headman was asked to find, among all the different strata, a group of volunteers willing to participate in the study. People involved in fishing activities were more readily available to join than nonfishers, and people with literacy problems were mostly left out. In each village, a group of eight villagers were

3 Page 3 of 10 selected. To date, 111 persons have been involved in the study, 96 men and 16 women, including people that have dropped out. Adults constitute the largest group, 85% than children with 10%. There are nine boys and two girl among the group of children. The remaining 5% belongs to the group of people older than Monitoring the monitors The selected monitors were asked to record on a daily basis, information about their fishing activities. The difficulty of the task made it impossible for project to find a representative group of villagers, instead the focus was put on fisherfolks, which were more readily willing to participate in the study. 4. Data Collection 4.1. The Logbook System Logbook from and content There are two main section in the logbook questionnaire. The first part covers details about the catch, i.e. where, how, and what was caught, and the second is about disposal of the catch. Additional information concerning related fishery activities such as boat and gear repairs is also include. Fishing activities, habitat, gear and species Eight habitat categories have been identified. The most important ones, as it will be presented in the result section, are the so-called "dry rice and wet rice". The term refers to wetland land where rice is grown once floodwater recedes. In term of fishing habitat, dry rice differs from wet rice, roughly by the amount of water and the extent of flooded duration. Dry rice fields are commonly found in low laying land, in closer proximity to larger rivers, whereas wet rice are further removed from main rivers and are flooded for shorter period of time. These areas are rainfed, where rice fields are mainly found. The other habitat types are lake, reservoir, stream, pond, and other. For each habitat visited, the participants were asked to record the fishing gear types used and all the species caught, fish and all other aquatic animals combined. The list of fishing gear types covers 16 main categories, among which included gillnet, lob, cast net, etc. The complete list of fish and aquatic animals used for the long-term study comprises 224 species names. The first level of information is about fishing location/habitat. We are asking villagers to all the fishing habitat visited each day. Than the next level is about fishing gears and fish species, however gears and species are being grouped together, the list of species caught by gear is not specified. Fishing period, effort and yield of fish and aquatic animals, Fishing days are divided into four even periods: morning, afternoon, evening, and night. For each period, fishing duration (in hours) and yield is reported, fish and aquatic animals are accounted separately. 5. Summary of Results 5.1. Aquatic biodiversity in Kampong Traolach wetlands Fish At least 75 fish species among the list of 224 species names from migration list were found in the wetland area (see Table I). All these species can be said to be important to local people living in the floodplain. The species caught in each habitat visited were recorded but it is not known which species were caught by what gear. On occasion, villagers only provided the list of habitats, gears, and species without specifying the connection between the three parameters. Table 1. List of fish species found in the study area No Species ID Local name Scientific name 1 1 Bobele Dasyatis laosensis

4 Page 4 of Antong Tunleir Anguilla marmorat 3 3 Kray/kaey Chitala ormata 4 5 Slat Notopterus notopterus 5 7 Kbork Tenualosa thibaudeaui 6 9 Chhmar Lycothrissa crocodilus 7 11 Komtors Plukh/Sleok Rusey Paralaubuca typus 8 13 Dangkhteng/Dangdao Macrochirichthys macrochirus 9 18 Chroleong/Prolung Leptobarbus hoevenii Keatsrong Cyprinus carpio Kamput Chramos Amblyrthychichthys truncatus Kampoul Bai Cosmochilus harmandi Sraka Kdam Cyclocheilichthys armatus Cha Keng Puntioplites proctozysron Kulprich Systomus binotatus (puntius binotatus) Ampli Tum Systomus orphoides (puntius binotatus) Keat Srong poropuntius deauratus Loloksor Hypsibarbus malcomi Kanh Chrea Systomus partipentazona Ankat prak Scaphognathops bandanensis Kulreang/kahor Catlocarpoi siamensis Linh Thynnichthys thynnoides Phkarkor Barbichthys nitidus Kaek Morulius chrysophekadion Kroleng/pruol Cirrhinus microlepis Krom Osteochilus melanopleurus Seis/chungchuk Gyrinocheilus pennocki Chhar Hemibagrus wyckioides (mystus wyckioides) Khlang hai Belodontichthys dinema Ta aun Hemisilurus mekonggensis Kromom Ompok krattensis Chhke nhy/kropaut/sandai Wallago attu Keir Pangasius bocourti Ses/tro ses/ivier Pangasius krempfi

5 Page 5 of Andeng Clarias batrachus Phtong Xenentodon cancila Kchung Mastacembelus armatus Chhlong Macrognathus siamensis Andtong beng Momoperus albus Proma Boesemania microlepis Kantrop pristolepis fasciata Kranh Anabas testudineus Kanthor Trichogaster pectoralis Ros/phtok Channa striata Chhdor/diep Channa microprltes Kachtoncheiy Channa grandinosa Damrey Oxyeleotris marmorata Khane Glossogobius giurus Klar Coius undecemratiatus Kanhchea sla Toxotes chatareus Kantrang preng Parambassis siamensis Andat chhke Cynoglossus microlepis Bondol ampov Clupeichthys aesarnensis Ach kok Dangila sp.cf. lineata Kanchanhchras Parambassis wolffi kros (group) Dan-linea, ost-hass-lini Kanchos (group) Bag-macro, pse-siam, mys-sing-boco Chang wa (group) Esomus, Rasbor, Lucio, Labeo, Lobo, steochilus Riel (group) Hen-siam-cryp Chpin (group) Bar-goni, sca-stejn Khman (group) Ham-disp-macr Chkok (group) Cyc-enop-furc Kanchruk (group) Bot-mode-helo-leco Pra (group) Pan-waan-conc-hypo Kahair (group) Bar-schw-altu Trosoc (group) Pro-jull-labea Chlang (group) hem-nem-wycki, Bag-yare-baga

6 Page 6 of Kampleav (group) Kry-bici-cryp Kampleanh (group) Tri-tric and osp-gour Kes (group) Mic-apog-blee Chveat (group) Pan-poly-macro-pleur-siam-hexa-sine Po (group) Pan-larn-sani Chunlounmon Coilia macrognathos Tilapia Tilapia 75? Beikambet Aquatic animal There are a nuber of bivalves mollusks like as Pila ampullacea and Sinotaits ingallsiana. Molluscs are not nearly as economically significant as fish, but they are nevertheless important (baird et al., 1998). There are a number of species of crustaceans found in the study are, including many kinds of shrimp (Macrobrachium lanchesteri) and crabs (Somannia thetpurabrandti). However, detailes taxonomic investigations have not yet been conducted locally. Shrimp may not appear to be an important source of food, but during the rainy season, scoop nets are commonly to cache shrimp in the area for subsistence. Frogs have been found to be important indicators of environmental health, and are an important part of the biological diversity (Kottelat and Whitten, 1996). The wetland habitat in our study area also support varieties of frogs, water snakes (raptiles), aquatic turtles, and toads, which are found in the flood plain (see in Table I). Although there were consumed in relatively small quantity, but it seems to be significant to the local people. Table 2: Aquatic animal found in the study area No ID Local name Scientific name 1? Kadam Somanniathelpusa brandti 2? Kaong Pila ampullacea 3? Kchao Sinotaia ingallsiana 4? Kankeb Ranatigrina 5? Kampeus Macrobrachium lanchesteri 6? Pours Snake 7? Andeuk Tortoise 5.2. Fish productivity yield The total fish quantity the target area for year round is calculated: 35,378.50kg or tones. We have separately the quantity to the various villages and follow by month, these are detailed in Table 3. Table 3. Month fish quantity by village (kg)

7 Page 7 of 10 Villages Name Year Month AT BK KT LC LV NH PN TB Total 1999 Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Total by village Table 4. Average individual daily effort (in hour), size of catch (in kg if fish and aquatic animal), an CPUE (in kg/hr) by habitat type for single habitat only Fish Qty Aquatic Qty First habitat Sum N Mean Std deviation % of Total sum Sum Mean Std deviation % of Total sum Dry rice Canal Reservoir Lake Steam Wet rice Pond Other

8 Page 8 of 10 Total Duration CPUE First habitat Sum Mean Std deviation % of total sum Mean Std deviation Dry rice Canal Reservoir Lake Stream Wet rice Pond Other Total The number of records for each habitat (column N) was derived from the subset of database. Mean values are calculated from individual daily quantity of fish and other aquatic animal collected, and total hour spent fishing. The column " % of sum " is calculated using overall sum of the total for each parameter. Mean and standard deviation of Catch per unit of effort is calculated from individual daily values (kg of fish and other aquatic animal combined) divided by total daily effort (in hour). The average quantity of fish collected daily is approximately 2.4 kg per fishers, when running the calculation on the subset. CPUE values for the six main habitat types are found within a few points of the overall average (0.85 kg per hour). 5.3 Catch disposal In average, villagers have sold about 60% of their catch and eaten the remaining 1/3, which includes processed fish. Piem Chumnik and Leach villages illustrate the extreme case in the way catch is allocated, from large to small catch sizes. Peim Chumnik larger proportion of fish sold is indicative of the village's higher yield, hence having a higher surplus. Leach villagers have caught the least amount of fish among all the villages. Although, the proportion eaten is comparable with other villages presenting similar low catch, in the case of Leach, processing fish surplus has been favored over selling them. Table 5. Catch Disposal by villages (%) Village EAT SELL GIFT Process Other PN 17% 79% 2%

9 Page 9 of 10 TB 45% 40% 4% 1 BK 40% 54% 5% 0% LV 24% 73% KT 33% 65% 0% AT 26% 7 2% 0% LC 63% 16% 6% 14% 0% NH % Grain total 34% 60% 2% 4% 0% Table 6. Catch Disposal by villages in total per year round (kg) The summary data in bellow, presenting the total of the catch allocated to selling, gift processing and others, per village. Catch disposal in total (kg) per all year round Village Eat Sell Gift Process Other Total AT BK KT LC LV NH PN TB TB Grain total Conclusion Although, the main activities data collection just completed finished, but the data analysis has not go in depth yet. It mean, we will find out many aspect from data set in term of individual catch daily per effort, by habitat, by gear type, and especially, the extrapolation the productivity per hectare in the hole study are and so on. It

10 Page 10 of 10 still too early to draw any conclusions. In personally, we try to make some conclusion, any way, such as this as this study have shown a part of fisheries value in the wetland area of Cambodia. From this longitudinal stunt, many kind of data base were be obtained, and very useful for Department of Fisheries to link and as to improve as possible in fisheries management in wetland area. Results of the study are important for consideration, taking in to account the planning of water resource management in national and regional as well. Presented by Ms. Ouch Poeu DNPD, DoF/MRC/AMFC, Cambodia Written by Ms. Ouch Poeu and Pierre Dubeau, consultant, for National Wetland Planning Workshop, Siem Reap October 2000 Back Home