Using local ecological knowledge to monitor threatened Mekong megafauna in Lao PDR.

ABSTRACT: Pressures on freshwater biodiversity in Southeast Asia are accelerating yet the status and conservation needs of many of the region's threatened fish species are unclear. This impacts the ability to implement conservation activities and to understand the effects of infrastructure developments and other hydrological changes. We used Local Ecological Knowledge from fishing communities on the Mekong River in the Siphandone waterscape, Lao PDR to estimate mean and mode last capture dates of eight rare or culturally significant fish species in order to provide conservation monitoring baselines. One hundred and twenty fishermen, from six villages, were interviewed. All eight species had been captured, by at least one of the interviewees, within the waterscape within the past year. However the me

SUBMITTER: Gray TNE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5562319 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature