SBR- Content.pmd - INBO

State of the Basin Report - 2003townships around Angkor itself is thought to have been based on an extensive irrigation systemwatering the flat fertile land, and the abundance of fish provided by the Tonle Sap Great Lake.After Angkor Wat was abandoned in the15 th Century, the palaces and temples werereclaimed by forestAlthough the population in the basin during theAngkorian period was likely to have been higher thanduring the subsequent centuries, its footprint on thelandscape was likely to have been light in the contextof the basin as a whole. The extent of forest clearingaround Angkor was likely to have been no more than aradius of one or two hundred kilometers. With thedecline of the Angkorian Empire, the area was largelyreclaimed by forest.At the time of early European accounts written duringthe 16 th and 17 th centuries, the population of the basinwas relatively small and distributed in small settlements,separated by extensive areas of forest. Presumablydiseases, including malaria and other parasiticinfections, and warfare provided significant limitationson human populations. Trade had become anincreasingly important activity within the basin by thattime, but the arrival of the European colonial powersmarked a significant change in the economicexploitation of the lower Mekong.Following the establishment of a British colony inMyanmar and French colonies in what are today LaoPDR, Cambodia and Viet Nam, the basin began for the first time to export its resources to a significantextent. Thailand remained free of colonial occupation, but signed the Anglo-Siamese treaty in 1826and the Bowring treaty in 1855, which connected Thai resources to western markets. Prior to thattime, products such as spices had been exported, but these were in relatively small amounts. Withthe coming of the colonial powers, timber, most notably teak, began to be exported in significantamounts. Thus for the first time, the resources of the basin were being used to support a populationlarger than that living in the basin.Following the Second World War, the basin began to see relatively rapid increases in populationand extensive conversion of forest to agricultural land. This was particularly true in NortheastThailand, which now has little forestcover remaining and one of the highestpopulation densities in the basin. The1980s and 1990s saw rapid industrialdevelopment in some of the countries inthe region, most notably Thailand and VietNam. However, relatively little of thatdevelopment has taken place within theMekong Basin.Rapid population growth andindustrialisation in the countries that sharethe Mekong Basin have meant that thebasin has continued to act as a resourceWith rapid population growth in the LMB, pressure todevelop resources is rapidly increasing as well2