Cambodia

Asia

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Cambodia is organised around the Mekong and Lake Tonlé Sap, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia and the country's ecological engine. Its shores are occupied by a seasonally flooded forest where fish breed and where floating villages settle, moving with the water level. To the southwest, the Cardamom mountains keep one of the best-preserved blocks of rainforest in Indochina, with elephants, sun bears and Siamese crocodiles. To the north and east, the dry dipterocarp forest plains once held great herds of ungulates and remain the last refuge of the giant ibis and of Southeast Asia's vultures. The stretches of the Mekong at Kratie hold the country's last Irrawaddy dolphins.

The nature of Cambodia

National animal: The kouprey, a wild bovid declared national animal in 1964 and with no confirmed sightings since the 1980s; the giant ibis is the national bird

Did you know?

The Tonlé Sap stages an almost unique hydrological phenomenon every year: during the monsoon, the Mekong's flood is so strong that it reverses the river draining the lake and forces it to flow inland. The lake can multiply its surface fivefold, flood the surrounding forest and offer fish an enormous nursery. On that annual reversal depends one of the largest freshwater fisheries on the planet.

Biodiversity profile

Sudeste Asiatico continental (hotspot Indo-Burma, cuenca del Mekong)Red de areas protegidas que incluye 12 parques nacionales (7.422 km2), 20 santuarios de vida silvestre (20.300 km2), 8 areas de uso multiple y 8 santuarios de peces, entre otras categorias

Climate

•Tropical monzonico (Am), con estacion seca y humeda bien diferenciadas, fuertemente influenciado por el rio Mekong y el lago Tonle Sap

Main biomes

•Bosque humedo de la Cordillera Annamita (compartido con Vietnam y Laos)
•Bosque humedo de los Montes Cardamomo (uno de los ecosistemas mas ricos en especies del pais)
•Bosque seco de Indochina central
•Ecoregion de agua dulce del Mekong y el lago Tonle Sap
•Lago de crecida invertida
•Bosque inundado estacional
•Selva húmeda de las Cardamomo
•Bosque seco de dipterocarpáceas
•Río de llanura
•Manglar costero
•Humedal de papiro

Marine and coastal ecosystems

•Costa del Golfo de Tailandia con manglares e islas costeras

Flagship wildlife

•Elefante asiatico (Montes Cardamomo)
•Delfin del Irrawaddy (rio Mekong, aprox. 90 individuos remanentes)
•Ibis gigante (ave nacional, En Peligro Critico)
•Tigre indochino (funcionalmente extinto en el pais, con esfuerzos de reintroduccion en marcha)
•Cocodrilo siamés
•Bagre gigante del Mekong
•Buitre dorsiblanco bengalí
•Oso malayo
•Banteng
•Grulla sarus
•Nutria lisa

Notable endemic species

•Camboya alberga el mayor bloque continuo de bosque natural remanente del continente asiatico
•55% de especies vegetales unicas segun ASEAN Biodiversity, con 31.746 especies de plantas vasculares registradas
•Bosques de la Cordillera Annamita con 134 especies de mamiferos endemicos y casi endemicos
•Kouprey

Notable threatened species

•Ibis gigante (En Peligro Critico, ave nacional)
•10 especies de mamiferos y 6 de aves catalogadas "casi extintas" por el propio gobierno camboyano
•23 especies de fauna clasificadas como globalmente en peligro segun la Lista Roja IUCN

Notable protected areas

•Montes Cardamomo (uno de los ultimos grandes bloques de selva del sudeste asiatico)
•Bosque Protegido de Preah Vihear (Parque Patrimonio ASEAN)
•Reserva de la Biosfera del Tonlé Sap
•Santuario de Aves de Prek Toal
•Parque Nacional de Cardamomo Central
•Santuario de Vida Silvestre de Keo Seima
•Llanuras Secas del Norte
•Parque Nacional de Virachey

Main conservation threats

•Mas del 50% de los bosques humedos de la Cordillera Annamita ya han sido talados para madera y leña
•Represas hidroelectricas en el Mekong que han impactado negativamente el ecosistema fluvial
•Mineria de arena y sobrepesca en el sistema Mekong-Tonle Sap

Notable natural phenomena

•El lago Tonle Sap invierte estacionalmente el flujo de su rio conector con el Mekong, generando uno de los pulsos de inundacion mas productivos del sudeste asiatico para la pesca de agua dulce

Conservation

Prek Toal is the last great refuge for large waterbirds in Southeast Asia, with colonies of adjutant storks and other storks that were on the brink of collapse and recovered when the former egg collectors became wardens. The region's vultures suffered the same poison-driven collapse as those of South Asia.

Where and when to watch wildlife

Prek Toal between December and February for the waterbird colonies. Kratie year-round for Irrawaddy dolphins. The northern dry plains in the dry season for the giant ibis.

Sources: ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity - ASEAN Biodiversity | Interactive Country Fiches (UNEP-GRID) - Biodiversity Cambodia | worldatlas.com - Ecological Regions of Cambodia | WWF - Greater Mekong

Freshwater Ocean