Tonlé Sap Biosphere Reserve
The Tonlé Sap Biosphere Reserve is a unique ecological phenomenon surrounding the
Tonlé Sap
The lake is linked to the
Biosphere Reserve
In 2001, the Tonlé Sap Biosphere Reserve (TSBR) of Cambodia was established by Royal Decree of the government of Cambodia to fulfil 3 key functions. These are:
- a) a conservation function to contribute to the conservation of biological diversity, landscapes, and ecosystem, including genetic resources, plant, fishery and animal species, and to the restoration of the essential character of the environment and habitat of biodiversity;
- b) a development function to foster sustainable development of ecology, environment, economy, society, and culture;
- c) a logistic function to provide support for demonstration projects, environmental education and training, research and monitoring of environment related to the local, national and global issues of conservation and sustainable development.
The Biosphere has been divided into 3 core areas for protection. These are; Prek Toal in
Some people still live in these areas and are allowed to fish in them according to fishery law in Cambodia.
TSBR Secretariat
A TSBR Secretariat was established to further the goal of protecting the biosphere and implement and support the functions of the Royal Decree. Since 2003 the Cambodian Government has supported the TSBR Secretariat with funding from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).[5] The major goal of the Secretariat is to develop a coordinated management strategy. Coordinated management is important because different stakeholders have various objectives. For example, farmers build channels to irrigate their fields. However, this leaves less water in fishing areas. Or farmers use pesticides on their crops which can get into the water; then people who live on the lake use this same water for bathing and other household uses and can become sick. This creates conflicts between user groups. The TSBR Secretariat attempts to lower these conflicts and find a solution that provides sustainability for all user groups and protects the biosphere reserve at the same time. The Secretariat is also responsible for developing and maintaining a web based knowledge repository for information about the lake and the biosphere. This website contains over 10,000 textual documents, over 150 tables and over 200 maps all relevant to the biosphere.
References
- ^ Complete list of biosphere reserves (pdf), Publication Date: 03-11-2008, retrieved from UNESCO website, 29 December 2008
- ^ "Home". mekonginfo.org.
- ^ http://www.tsbr-ed.org Archived 2008-09-05 at the Wayback Machine
- Christian Science Monitor, March 16, 2006
- ^ ADB Provides $20M to Assist Cambodia's Tonle Sap Region, Press Release - Asian Development Bank, Dec 6 2007 [1]
External links
- TSBR website Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve Environmental Database.