South-East Asia’s largest waterbird colony, the 21,342 hectares Prek
Toal has been designated as a Wetland of International Importance (also
known as a ‘Ramsar Site’), by the Royal Government of Cambodia and recognised
by the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.
Prek Toal’s Status as South-East Asia ’s
largest waterbird colony was under threat due to overharvesting of the
waterbirds until the Ministry of Environment in close cooperation with the
Wildlife Conservation Society started working back in 1999 to conserve the
colony. The colony was a fraction of its current size, due to decades of egg
and chick collection. Former egg collectors were employed as nest guardians,
stationed on tree-top platforms throughout the breeding season to protect and
monitor the breeding birds. The protection continues to this day, and Prek Toal
now supports more than 50,000 breeding waterbirds of at least ten globally
threatened species. These include Southeast Asia ’s
only breeding Spot-billed Pelicans, nearly half of the world’s Greater
Adjutants and many thousands of storks and darters. It is for this reason that
Prek Toal has received recognition as a Ramsar Site. Prek Toal attracts
thousands of tourists annually and supports the most productive fishery in the Tonle Sap Lake
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