Hence, the Lower Mekong Basin yields about 4.5 million tonnes of fish and aquatic products annually. The total economic value of the fishery is between USD 3.9 to USD 7 billion a year.[3] Wild capture fisheries alone have been valued at USD 2 billion a year.[16] This value increases considerably when the multiplier effect is included, but estimates vary widely.
An estimated 2.56 million tonnes of inland fish and other aquatic animals are consumed in the lower Mekong every year.[14] Aquatic resources make up between 47 percent and 80 percent of animal protein in rural diets for people who live in the Lower Mekong Basin.[16][19][20] Fish are the cheapest source of animal protein in the region and any decline in the fishery is likely to significantly impact nutrition, especially among the poor.[11][19][21][22] The size of this impact has not been established[21]
It is estimated that 40 million rural people, more than two-thirds of the rural population in the Lower Mekong Basin, are engaged in the wild capture fishery.[3] Fisheries contribute significantly to a diversified livelihood strategy for many people, particularly the poor, who are highly dependent on the river and its resources for their livelihoods.[15][16][20]
They provide a principal form of income for a large number of people and act as a safety net and coping strategy in times of poor agricultural harvests or other difficulties.[15][16][20] In Lao PDR alone, 71 percent of rural households (2.9 million people) rely on fisheries for either subsistence or additional cash income. Around the Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia, more than 1.2 million people live in fishing communes and depend almost entirely on fishing for their livelihoods.[3]
Navigation[edit]
For thousands of years the Mekong River has been an important conduit for people and goods between the many towns situated along its banks. Traditional forms of trade in small boats linking communities continue today, however the river is also becoming an important link in international trade routes, connecting the six Mekong countries to each other, and also to the rest of the world.[3] The Mekong is still a wild river and navigation conditions vary greatly along its length. Broadly, navigation of the river is divided between upper and lower Mekong, with the 'upper' part of the river defined as the stretch north of the Khone Falls in southern Laos; and the 'lower' part as the stretch below these falls.