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Fresh Water's Future (Conservation International, 17/12/09)
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News28 July 2010Emmelianna Bujak is one of the six winners of the Vodafone World Of Difference competition (out of 2000 applicants!), and will be working for us in Tonle Sap for a year, from September onward, with Vodafone covering her salary and expenses. She will be working for us to really push ahead with the education work there and also to develop out exciting new initiative: the water hyacinth project. 13 July 2010On 04 July 2010, two hairy-nosed otters, one female and one male, were caught in a fish trap by local fisherman in Chbor (Case Net) at Along Raing village. With help from from the CI/FMN community researchers, they were quickly and safely released back into the wild. You can read Sokrith's report below 26 June 2010Good news from Vietnam: the Mekong Delta Kien Giang biosphere reserve has recieved UNESCO certification. This is important habitat for the hairy-nosed otter. The Kien Giang biosphere reserve, which occupies more than 1.1 million hectares, is the largest biosphere in Southeast Asia. The reserve consists of three parts – the Phu Quoc National Park, the U Minh Thuong National Park and the Kien Luong-Kien Hai coastal forest. You can read more here at 25 May 2010
Dara's sad fate shows how delicate and precarious the position of hairy-nosed otters is. With very few now left in the wild, our failure to establish a breeding colony is a major blow. At least we have a little experience now for when the next trapped or confiscated otter is handed in. We will be ready to assume infections and ulceration are present and begin treatment immediatedy. Meanwhile, we will go on supporting the smooth-coated otters are Phnom Tamao, as their numbers are dropping world wide and they are a major target for the illegal fur trade. 18 December 2009
3 December 2009
Meanwhile, Sokrith Heng has been nominated for Young Conservationist of the Year, and we all wish him the best of luck! 21 October 2009Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre is in the news! 17 October 2009Annette has been thinking about alternative livelihoods for people on Tonle Sap, and a promising idea is the use of the water hyacinth plants found everywhere on the lake. This is an introduced species which is doing too well and at the end of the dry season covering large areas of the shallow water, crowding out native plants. It is possible to dry the plants and make them into fibers which can be used for really nice furniture (similar to rattan products but much nicer). She has also developed a good working relationship with the ' Association of Buddhists for the Environment', who is also focusing on environmental education. We are planning on working with them at our focus site at Tonle Sap. 20 September 2009The otter surveys we funded have taken place with exciting results and are now being prepared for publication 28 June 2009Save your used postage stamps! We can use them to raise money for Furget-Me-Not! 4 May 2009 - Carol Bennetto, UKWe are funding two otter surveys in Cambodia, following on from the workshop. 7th April 2009 - Annette Olsson, CambodiaThe workshop was a great success, with lots of positive actions
planned, including two surveys in Cambodia straightaway. 27th February 2009 - Carol Bennetto, CambodiaCarol phoned from the boat on the Mekong, where the workshop participants were heading to the coastal mangroves to learn surveying for otters in this environment. She says the workshop is going very well, with participants from more than 10 countries! 7th February 2009 - Annette Olsson, Tonle SapHere in Cambodia we are planning for a training workshop on otters, which will be held in 23rd February to 4th March 2009. The workshop is organized and hosted by Conservation International, with substantial support from IOSF. The two main aims for the workshop are
Several members of the IUCN/SSC Otter Specialist Group (including Vice Chair Dr Nicole Duplaix) will join the workshop to present and function as trainers, and students from Pakistan , Indonesia , Thailand, Malaysia and other countries have been invited so that we can encourage further studies in these countries. While we have so many international otter experts and OSG members here, we will also make time for discussing action steps for otter conservation in the region (building on recommendations from the 10th OSG colloquium in South Korea ). There will be a lot of practical field training, habitat assessment, scat analysis, and so on as the aim is to train people to work more effectively in hands-on conservation. The participants will also visit Phnom Tamau and meet Dara, and we will be meeting groups of school children as well. 31st January 2009 - IOSF H.R.H. Princess Michael of Kent has generously
agreed to be the Patron of Furget-Me-Not. 13th January 2009 - IOSFThe first Furget-Me-Not Annual Report
is now available. |
We have had very sad news from Mr Rattapanich at Phnom Tamao. Dara has died. He had been ill and vomiting but seemed to recover and was eating again. But then suddenly he just dropped dead.
The post mortem showed that he had some sort of lung infection and also had stomach ulcers. It is difficult to say whether it was some kind of disease or stress related, but the presence of the ulcers suggests stress. But we have no idea what was causing the stress as he seemed very happy and was generally in good shape and was well cared for. He had a good enclosure and was given good quality food, was regularly de-wormed and recently vaccinated. We must remember that there is no information at all available about keeping this species in captivity as they are so rare. For the time being, we are concentrating on setting up refuges for wildlife including otters throughout the Hairy-Nosed Otter range.
