In 2016, massive fires burned as much as a third of the 750,000 acres of flooded forest in the Tonle Sap region. This year, the fires began in February.

The initiative aims to restore and better manage the region’s most vulnerable wetlands, including the Mekong Delta, Tonle Sap Lake, and the flooded forest in northern Cambodia.

KAMPONG PHLUK, Cambodia (AP) — Em Phat, 53, studies his eel tanks with the intensity of a man gambling with his livelihood.

Fishermen in Southeast Asia's largest freshwater fishery, the Tonle Sap lake, hope that raising eels will help them adapt to new realities stemming from climate change and environmental damage.

But dams upstream in China and Laos are cutting the Mekong's flow, weakening that flood pulse. The lakes have been depleted by overfishing and much of the forest surrounding it has been logged or ...

But dams upstream in China and Laos are cutting the Mekong’s flow, weakening that flood pulse. The lakes have been depleted by overfishing and much of the forest surrounding it has been logged ...

KAMPONG PHLUK, Cambodia (AP) — Em Phat, 53, studies his eel tanks with the intensity of a man gambling with his livelihood. For millennia, fishermen like him have relied on the bounty of the ...

Associated Press KAMPONG PHLUK, Cambodia (AP) — Em Phat, 53, studies his eel tanks with the intensity of a man gambling with his livelihood. For millennia, fishermen like him have relied on the ...

Associated Press KAMPONG PHLUK, Cambodia (AP) — Em Phat, 53, studies his eel tanks with the intensity of a man gambling with his livelihood. For ...

FILE - Eel farmer Luy Nga, 52, sits next to jars where eels are reared at Tonle Sap complex. north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, July 31, 2024. Expanding aquaculture is helping increase Cambodian exports.