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Agricultural intensification is causing rapid habitat change in the Tonle Sap Floodplain, Cambodia

Wetlands Ecology and Management volume 28, pages 713–726 (2020)Cite this article

Abstract

The Tonle Sap Lake and Floodplain (TSLF) supports many globally threatened species and its fishery has sustained Cambodia’s people for millennia. The rate of habitat loss has accelerated in recent years due to political and economic conditions, and a warming climate and El Niño events that created opportunities for people to burn scrubland at an elevated rate. Here, we use a point-based landcover assessment method to document the impacts of local-scale drivers, in particular agricultural intensification, on habitat trends between 1993 and 2018. The areal extent of scrubland and grassland in the TSLF declined from ~ 74% in 1993 to ~ 52% in 2018, as a result of intensification and expansion of rice cultivation. During that time period, grassland cover declined from ~ 3160 to ~ 519 km2, whilst between 2008 and 2018, scrubland cover declined from ~ 8660 to ~ 6776 km2. Habitat loss has had catastrophic implications for grassland-dependant species, such as Bengal Florican, and, we estimate that habitat changes in the TSLF may have caused carbon stocks to decline by 12% while fish productivity is also likely to have dropped, with significant implications for food security. To put this habitat loss in context, losses over the past 10 years have been nearly twice as large as published predictions of the amount likely to be lost between 2010 and 2040 due to hydropower. We suggest that the expansion and intensification of rice cultivation is the greatest current threat to habitats in the TSLF and deserves greater attention from policy makers and practitioners.

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Availability of data and material

All raw data, including images used for analysis, are available from the corresponding author on request.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Phien Sayon for assistance with image processing, Jeff Silverman for advising on the sampling design and Son Virak for assistance with field data collection. The research was funded by a grant Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies to WCS (Grant no. 2994). S. P. M. is the recipient of a Prestigious International Research Tuition Scholarship at Charles Darwin University.

Funding

The research was funded by a grant Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies to WCS (Grant No. 2994). S. P. M. is the recipient of a Prestigious International Research Tuition Scholarship at Charles Darwin University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Ellengowan Dr, Casuarina, NT, 0810, Australia

    Simon P. Mahood & Stephen T. Garnett

  2. Wildlife Conservation Society, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

    Simon P. Mahood

  3. Wildlife Conservation Society, 2300 Southern Boulevard, Bronx, NY, 10460, USA

    Colin M. Poole & James E. M. Watson

  4. University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia

    James E. M. Watson

  5. Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry, Pacific Southwest Research Station, USDA Forest Service, Hilo, HI, 96720, USA

    Richard A. MacKenzie

  6. Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences, University of Malaya, 5063, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Sahadev Sharma

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  1. Simon P. Mahood
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  2. Colin M. Poole
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  3. James E. M. Watson
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  4. Richard A. MacKenzie
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data analysis were performed by SPM, RAM and SS. The first draft of the manuscript was written by SPM and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Simon P. Mahood.

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Mahood, S.P., Poole, C.M., Watson, J.E.M. et al. Agricultural intensification is causing rapid habitat change in the Tonle Sap Floodplain, Cambodia. Wetlands Ecol Manage 28, 713–726 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-020-09740-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-020-09740-1

Keywords

  • Grassland loss
  • Freshwater fishery
  • Habitat conservation
  • Food security
  • Rice production
  • Carbon stock