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Sustained by Snakes? Seasonal Livelihood Strategies and Resource Conservation by Tonle Sap Fishers in Cambodia

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Abstract

This paper situates concerns for conservation of aquatic snakes and livelihood sustainability in Cambodia within a social–ecological systems context and thereby presents a challenge to conventional species-based conservation programmes. Fishing for low-value water snakes has become a widespread activity within the floating communities of Tonle Sap Lake in the last 20 years in response to new market opportunities, provided primarily by a crocodile farming industry. The scale and intensity of this new form of exploitation and reports of declines in catch per fisher have highlighted this activity as a conservation concern, yet its role within local livelihood strategies was previously unknown. We show that it is of increasing importance to the less well-off, and is linked to higher incomes within this group, where it potentially reduces their vulnerability to fluctuations and declines in fish catches. It is particularly important as a means to smooth seasonality of incomes in this flood pulse-driven social–ecological system. We argue that shifts between snake-hunting and fishing, as a market-driven adaptive livelihood strategy by the poor, may be more compatible with wider ecosystem conservation and development goals than alternatives such as increased fishing effort or converting floodplain habitats for seasonal agriculture.

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Notes

  1. Fishing lots are state owned, physically demarcated commercial fishing domains within the floodplain and lake that get publicly auctioned by the governmental Fisheries Administration every two years to fishing lot owners. Fishing lot owners subsequently sublease areas within lots (ponds and streams).

  2. New Scientist 7th July 2007. “Snakes Alive? Not in Cambodia.” Geographical January 2007 vol. 79 (1). “Tipping the Scales.” Associated Press August 19th 2006 “Snake Harvest Threatens Cambodian Lake.”

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Acknowledgements

We owe a great debt of thanks to our field assistants and translators, Si Pich, Chhey Sem, Ro Ya, Prokrotey Khoy, Van Sambor and Touch Bunthang in Cambodia for their concerted efforts in the field, as well as the many hunters, traders and crocodile farmers who gave their time to this project. We would like to thank Colin Poole, Joe Walston, Sun Visal, Heng Sovannara and Long Kheng from the Wildlife Conservation Society Cambodia program and Kristen Davies, Frédéric Goes and Yok Pathomrath from the Sam Veasna Center for Wildlife Conservation for their logistical and technical support throughout this research project. We would also like to thanks the Fisheries Administration of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forests as well as the Ministry of Environment for their support and cooperation. Additionally we would like to thank Bryan Stuart, Jenny Daltry and Keo Omaliss for introducing us to this system. Thanks also to Chris Béné and Yumiko Kura for their comments on this manuscript. This work was funded by the Research Fellowship Program of the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York, the North of England Zoological Society, the Sophie Danforth Conservation Biology Fund and the UK Research Councils (NERC and ESRC). This is WorldFish contribution number 1854.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EN, UK

    Sharon E. Brooks

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, Canada

    John D. Reynolds

  3. WorldFish Center, PO Box 500, GPO, 10670, Penang, Malaysia

    Edward H. Allison

  4. School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK

    Edward H. Allison

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  1. Sharon E. Brooks
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Correspondence to Sharon E. Brooks.

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Brooks, S.E., Reynolds, J.D. & Allison, E.H. Sustained by Snakes? Seasonal Livelihood Strategies and Resource Conservation by Tonle Sap Fishers in Cambodia. Hum Ecol 36, 835–851 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-008-9205-2

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