The lower Mekong basin (LMB) is of global significance as it supports one of the most biologically diverse aquatic ecosystems in the world, containing approximately 2,000 fish species, including 500 endemic and 300 threatened fish species including such “charismati species as the giant Mekong catfish.

Catch of the day on a Tonle Sap fishing villages

Current subsistence and commercial fisheries within the lake harvest ≈2.5 Mt of fish yr^-1, accounting for two-thirds of the protein consumed by the more than 65 million people of the region.

Fisherman on Tonle Sap floodplain