From New England to Cambodia: How rivers unite us
These two far-off places might seem as different as can be, but they actually share many similarities. Cambodia, for instance, is a small country similar in size and population to New England. And like New England, Cambodia is rippled with rivers. Fish are important dietary and cultural staples in both places, though significantly higher in Cambodia where fish provide 76% of people’s animal protein intake — Cambodians are actually the largest consumers of freshwater fish per capita in the world.
But, while New England went through its most significant development period two hundred years ago, Cambodia is in the process of developing — with potential impacts on fish and rivers.
“You see new high-rises going up across the capital of Phnom Penh, but out in the rural areas many people still live in small houses on stilts to manage water level fluctuations during the rainy season,” explained Cathy Bozek, a fisheries biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service North Atlantic-Appalachian Region.
In July 2019, Bozek had the opportunity to visit Cambodia with the goal of understanding and helping influence how fish passage work is evolving in the country. Bozek spent two weeks in Cambodia as part of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s International Technical Assistance Program (DOI-ITAP) — a unique program that connects DOI staff with international governments to share expertise and knowledge in areas such as wildlife management and conservation.
“I’ve always had an interest in sustainable international development, so having the chance to help work on policies and regulations for fish passage in Cambodia really excited me,” said Bozek.
Fish diversity is high in Cambodia, second only to the Amazon, so protecting and conserving these fish resources is critically important as the country continues its growth with major new projects in hydropower, irrigation and transportation.
“Infrastructure without consideration for fish passage will block fish migration,” explained Bozek. “Cambodia is already seeing big impacts from some dams built with nonfunctioning fishways, and many barriers are built with no fish passage consideration at all.”
Opportunities to Put Fish First
Bozek is no stranger to Southeast Asia. As a Fulbright awardee in 2004, she lived in South Korea for a year and traveled through Cambodia and other places during this time. But being there for work was a different experience.
“On a typical vacation trip, I might hear about some issues related to rivers or fish passage and have to dig to get more information. But on this trip, everything was focused on a topic that I’m super interested in!” she said.
In Cambodia, Bozek met someone equally as enthusiastic about fish passage as she was — Chann Aun Tob, Deputy Director of the Inland Fisheries Research and Development Institute in the Cambodian government. She described him as “charismatic, direct and very passionate about fish.”
“Everywhere we went, people would greet him with an enthusiastic “CHANN AUN!” she laughed.
Tob grew up in a poor family living near a river in the countryside, and he witnessed first-hand the value of fish to his family and community. He understands that protection of rivers means sustaining a source of food and livelihood for people, and he tries to deliver this message everywhere he goes.
With Tob and a few other counterparts, Bozek spent a week meeting with government ministries about fish passage policy and implementation, and then traveled around the countryside to observe fish passage projects to better understand the issues and opportunities. At one small village, they sat down with the community chief and other local leaders. In this village, there was a lake with a water gate in the dam that routed water to three separate communities for irrigation. But because of the gate, only the bigger, strong jumping fish were able to enter the lake, and none of the smaller, weaker fish could pass. During heavy rains, erosion would undermine the structure, causing the dam to breach. The community wanted to have a better system that would allow for irrigation, a safe dam and better fish passage.
“We talked about some potential options,” said Bozek. “I asked them if they would like to improve fish passage so that the fish could get into the lake and they said yes, definitely — almost everything they eat is fish.”
At times the trip was a difficult experience, as members of her group recalled life under the Khmer Rouge (1975–1979), a time of mass genocide when millions of Cambodians died.
“On the way to one village, passing by the endless flat rice fields and kids peddling their bikes to school, we drove by an area our colleague remembered had been a big killing field where some 5,000 people were murdered,” said Bozek. “It was sobering.”
The Khmer Rouge legacy has had a huge and lasting impact on every aspect of Cambodian life. The country is slowly rebuilding knowledge and skills and is just now seeing its first generation of students entering the workforce that have gone all the way through school and attained higher education, including in engineering and biological science.
Tob’s goal is to continue raising awareness of the social and economic ramifications of fish conservation in Cambodia. He requested assistance from ITAP in writing fish passage needs into law and official documents so that all agencies will have something to guide them, and that’s where Cathy’s work fits in. This effort will also help keep fish on the radar of the big international development groups that are supporting growth in the country.
She hopes her work to improve fisheries laws and write a framework for fish passage in Cambodia can be of some value to help Cambodia build a better future.
“I think the U.S. can be a cautionary tale for developing countries like Cambodia. We have seen the impact of our industrial-era dams on fish and we’ve learned the hard way that barriers to fish passage are a key factor in the decline of fish populations,” she explained.
Bozek cited the growing movement in the United States to remove obsolete dams and other barriers when possible, coupled with regulations to incorporate fish passage systems into existing dams or when new dams do need to be built.
“The question is, Can we help places like Cambodia do it right the first time?”
