(KH): Rare Water Birds Recovering in Cambodia

April 18, 2008

Link: http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=220 & sid=1380253

Rare Water Birds Recovering in Cambodia

April 4, 2008 - 5:51pm

In this photo released by Wildlife Conservation Society, large water birds are

seen congregating on top of a tree at Prek Toal bird sanctuary on the

northwestern side of the Tonle Sap lake, northwest of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Dec.

27, 2007. The populations of seven species of rare water birds have recovered

significantly in Cambodia's Tonle Sap lake due to a program that employs former

hunters as park rangers, conservationists said Thursday, April 3, 2008. (AP

Photo/Wildlife Conservation Society, HO) PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - The

populations of seven species of rare water birds have recovered significantly in

Cambodia's Tonle Sap lake due to a program that employs former hunters as park

rangers, conservationists said Thursday.

A report by the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society found the

populations have increased by as much as 20 times for some of the species since

2001, when the program started.

The findings mark a " success story " in efforts to protect the bird colonies from

poachers, said Noeu Bonheur, the Cambodian Environment Ministry's deputy

director of the Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve.

" It is definitely exciting news that we should be proud of, " he said.

His office and the WCS have worked together for several years on a conservation

project at Prek Toal, a flooded region on the northwestern edge of the Tonle

Sap.

The lake is Southeast Asia's largest freshwater reservoir, which can expand to

12,000 square kilometers (4,630 square miles) at the peak of the rainy season

and recede to about 3,000 square kilometers (1,160 square miles) in the dry

season. It is rich in biodiversity and provides a breeding ground for many

species of birds and fish.

The WCS report, released earlier this week, said the Prek Toal bird colonies

hold the largest _ and in some cases the only _ breeding populations in

Southeast Asia of the seven globally threatened large water bird species.

The species are the spot-billed pelican, milky stork, painted stork, lesser

adjutant, greater adjutant, black-headed ibis and the Oriental darter. There

were over 20,000 birds in 2007, compared to 5,000 in 2001, the report said.

All seven species are listed as " threatened or near-threatened " by the World

Conservation Union, Tom Clements, a WCS technical adviser in Cambodia, said in

an e-mail Thursday.

" Prek Toal is the most important large water bird breeding colony in Southeast

Asia. In some cases, Prek Toal supports up to 30 percent of the global

population, " Clements said.

When the colonies there were discovered in the late 1990s, they were threatened

with extinction as a result of villagers' rampant harvesting of eggs and chicks,

the report said.

But during the past seven years, a colony protection and monitoring program has

resulted in a gradual decline in poaching incidents, allowing the birds to stage

" remarkable comebacks, " it said.

The program employs some 30 park rangers, many of whom are former poachers, who

work in shifts around the clock to monitor the bird populations.

" The approach was extremely effective, " Clements said.

He said some of the hunters who were not employed did try to collect the birds'

eggs and chicks in the early years of the project, " but since 2004 this threat

has effectively ceased. "

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PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - The populations of seven species of rare water birds

have recovered significantly in Cambodia's Tonle Sap lake due to a program that

employs former hunters as park rangers, conservationists said Thursday.