Tonle Sap wetland forests are burning uncontrollably

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Mangrove forests around the Tonle Sap lake in Cambodia are under serious threat of destruction as nearly 250,000 hectares of the flood forests, about a third of the total, have been ravaged by forest fires since January, The Phnom Penh Post reported on Friday.

Conservation International Cambodia director Bundra Seng described the situation as a “disaster.”

Data from NASA’s MODIS satellite shows that 230,000 hectares of the wetland forests have been burned in Zone 3, said Mr Seng.

Experts blame a combination of man-made and environmental factors are at play while negligence and land grabbing are suspected to be the immediate causes of the fires.

Climate change and a strong El Nion-induced drought, deforestation and upstream hydropower and irrigation projects all factor into the extreme dry conditions that allowed the forests to burn.

Wildlife Conservation Society director Ross Sinclair blames degradation of these “water catchments” on large-scale deforestation.

Seng and Sinclair also pointed to hydropower and irrigation projects upstream being contributing factors to changes in the flood cycle.

Tonle Sap wetland forests are burning uncontrollably - Thai PBS English News