FACT: Protecting Tonle Sap's Fish and Flooded Forests

Founded in 2000, the Fisheries Action Coalition Team (FACT) supports community fisheries and advocacy for fishers around Tonle Sap Lake, the Mekong River and Cambodia's coast. With partners including IUCN, FACT has helped roughly 20 communities across the Tonle Sap and Upper Mekong strengthen locally managed fish conservation areas inside the lake's seasonally flooded forest. At Phat Sanday, one of these community fisheries, a 921-hectare fish conservation area of flooded forest — patrolled daily and closed to fishing during the breeding season — helped push household fish catches up 45% over three years and brought back endangered giant barb, otters and langurs. FACT continues to mobilize provincial NGOs and community-based organizations to defend fishing grounds and freshwater resources that lakeside communities depend on for food and income.