Overall Objectives for Classroom Activities
1) The Mekong and Riverine Communities of Southeast Asia
2) Wet-Rice Cultivation
3) Sustainable Development and Environmental Advocacy

• Development of knowledge of societies and environments

• Development of key concepts:

* Time, Continuity and Change - Interpretations and Perspectives
* Place and Space - Features of places, People and places, Care of places
* Culture - Cultural cohesion and diversity, personal, group and cultural identity
* Resources - Use of resources, People and work, Management and enterprise
* Economic and Social Systems

• Development of

- sense of interdependence
- global awareness
- social responsibility

A. Waterways and society
B. Student portfolios
C. Student-led water ecology curriculum

A. Waterways and society

Using both of the maps enclosed in the packet, ask students to

1• Locate the Mekong River and other significant bodies of water in Cambodia.

2• Trace the Mekong, its source and courses as it traverses the many countries of Asia

3• Research and discuss the importance of rivers and water bodies to the people and society of Cambodia (and Southeast Asia).

4• Research and discuss the potential of the world’s waterways to feed the world's population adequately and supply many other necessary resources.

• What are some of the possibilities?
• What are the challenges and constraints

5• read old travel logs of Mekong expeditions. Compare them with contemporary travel logs of the Mekong and riverine communities of Southeast Asia

6• compare and contrast the following in terms of
a) characteristics
b) local and global importance
c) tales, myths and legends

-The Mekong and the Amazon (and respective communities)
- The Mekong and the Mississippi

After reading the introduction provided in the teachers’ notes (to be adapted to appropriate grade-level), students are asked to investigate and create their own portfolios on any of the following themes. Students can select any one of the topics listed below for in-depth exploration:

1. Agrarian lifeways and communities

- characteristics of a Cambodian village

- architecture (as it reflects usage of local resources, accommodation to local climate etc.)

- foods

- Cambodian social system:

social relations
belief systems
symbolism (of animal characters, names etc.)
calendar (lunar vs. solar)

- identify products found in local imports and department stores that are made in Southeast Asia

- identify products found in local imports and department stores that are of raw materials found in Cambodia and other parts of southeast Asia

- research other agricultural products of Cambodia/ Southeast Asia

- types of crops
- export to the US market (e.g. coffee from Southeast Asia, the significance of the term “Java” and coffee, prevalence of Southeast Asian products in our daily lives (cotton, textile, rubber, sugar, coconut etc.)

- visit a local Cambodian/Southeast Asian restaurant.
Identify herbs and other ingredients used in the cooking

- visit local neighborhoods- identify herbs and vegetables that are grown in family gardens.
Investigate their nutritional and medicinal importance

- Invite parents, community elders or herbalists to come and speak to the class

- Create a community herb garden

C. Student-led development of water ecology curriculum:

Students are asked to imagine themselves as an educator involved in the development of a curriculum on water ecology

1. Identify and list issues to be addressed in the curriculum

2.Develop classroom activities around these issues

3.Identify and list resources needed

• Field trips and research activities

-Class visits to local libraries
-Class visits to local imports and department stores.
-Class visits to local Southeast Asian neighborhood and stores

• Students can then re- group for sharing and discussion of findings

2) Wet Rice Cultivation

Suggested Activities

1. Students can investigate the following:

- process and method of wet rice cultivation

- social relations in a Cambodian village

- Varieties of rice and nutritional importance

- Symbolism of rice

- in ceremonies
- rituals
- dance

- How does the natural environment influence local architecture?

- How does the natural environment influence traditional clothing?

4. Students can investigate the theme of women and development in Southeast Asia

Process:

• Class visits to local libraries and museums
• Student interviews of Cambodian elders with agricultural backgrounds
• Students can engage in individual or team project, constructing a Khmer village

Activities

1. Students can research the state and condition of the Mekong.

• what are the potentials for development?
• what are the current plans for development?
• what are the concerns (implications for individual lives and for communities)?
• What are some of the major environmental issues in Southeast Asia?
• why should Americans be concerned about developments in Cambodia and other parts of the developing world?

3. Students can compare and contrast the threats to, and destruction of, the major bodies of water in Cambodia with those in other parts of the world

- compare the recent flooding of the Mississippi river with that of the Mekong, and linking it to ecological destruction

- compare ecological destruction of the Mekong and Tonle Sap to the Nile and/or Amazon

• Explore links to important marine and environmental sites.
• Select one issue and create a poster informing the public about it and suggesting strategies to address the challenges.
• Extend the poster campaign to a global to promote awareness about the environment and about water ecology

• Students are asked to break into two large groups.

• Create round table discussions and brainstorming sessions

• Break each large group into “sub-committees” to research, gather information and develop “campaign strategies”

In the smaller groups, students are asked to
-- discuss selected issues.
-- record ideas on chart papers.

II. Selected Resources
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Chandler, David The Land and People of Cambodia , HarperCollins 1991

Global Witness , The Untoucheables , A Briefing Document, December 1999

Meng Srun Sin “Deforestation and Relationship to Flood in Cambodia” (online article)

Tooze, Ruth Cambodia: Land of Contrasts, the Viking Press, 1962

USDA, 1980, Forestry Activities and Deforestation Problems in Developing Countries, 115 pages.

United Nations Disaster management Team, 2000, Cambodia Flood, 22 pages.

Global Awareness Reports-

Website Links:

1. Fishery:
http://www.spc.org.nc/coastfish

2. Women in development:
http://globaled.ausaid.gov.au/primary/issues/women2.html

(The Global Education website has a number of other case studies on women in development. Topics include women in development, women in agriculture, women and micro-credit and women and health.)

III. Teacher's Notes*:
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Introduction
Agriculture
Crops
The Monsoon and Cambodia’s Economy, Social and Cultural Patterns
Ecological Destruction and Flooding
Fishery

“Cambodia is a small country---about the size of the state of Missouri---situated in the heart of the Southeast Asian peninsula. Cambodia is a land of great contrasts. Its central region, a wide basin lying almost at sea level, is surrounded by mountains. Its weather changes sharply from a bleak, dry season to a steaming moist season. The life blood of Cambodia is the mighty Mekong River, fourth longest river in the world, which rises far up in the snow covered mountains of China and flows down through south China, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam to the sea, where it fans out into a great delta not unlike that of the Mississippi. Like the Amazon, the Nile and the great Yellow River of China, it brings life to a country through which it flows. During the long winter, while the northern mountains are frozen and snow-covered, no water flows, and the fields of the southern lands lie sere and dry. There is little water in pools and streams. The river’s water level is so low that its banks rise like high bluffs on either side. The sun shines mercilessly down from a cloudless sky for about six months, from October through April. During this time there is nothing to do in the fields. There is little fishing in the low waters. . Then in May, cloud masses begin to form and move majestically across the sky, like great white mountains with shadows of gray and purple…”
(Ruth Tooze, Cambodia: Land of Contrasts)

Cambodia occupies a significant portion of the lower Mekong basin. Some 86% of the total area of Cambodia is within this river basin constituting 25% of the basin total catchment area (Land Use Map of Cambodia, 1991). Like many other countries along the Mékong River, Cambodia is regularly subjected to inundation as water overflows the river in the form of flood during the monsoon season. The Great Lake or Tonlé Sap and the Mékong River are of primary importance for the navigation and the supply of fresh water fishes.
(Source: Meng Srun Sin, Deforestation and the Relationship to Flood in Cambodia)

Agriculture
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Agriculture plays the most important role in the economy and society of Cambodia. It accounts for about 45% of the country’s GDP and 70% of its labor force. Over 85% of the population live in the countryside. Though Cambodia’s natural conditions allow for year-round cultivation of many kinds of crops, rice production accounts for 89% of agricultural undertakings; of the latter, the traditional pattern of single, rain-fed crop per year is most commonly practiced.

Available estimates of the Ministry of Agriculture indicated that Cambodia has about 4.5 million hectares of arable land, of which 2.7million hectares are considered reasonably suited for agricultural production. The soils are of varying quality and generally not fertile except in the regions of the central plain which are fed and seasonally flooded by the river systems of the Mekong and the Tonle Sap. About two-thirds of the paddy areas, however, are located on infertile, sandy alluvium.

Because of the presence of significant bodies of water such as the Mekong, the Tonle Sap and Bassac rivers, Cambodia’s potential for irrigation is rather significant. The challenges and costs of dam construction, necessary to tap this potential, however, are equally significant and continue to impede the country’s agricultural development.

Crops
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Rice

When the fields are plowed boys bring bunches of shoot from the seedbeds near their homes and stack them together near the center of each field. The women come and stand knee-deep in the water with backs bent as they transplant each single shoot from the seed bed to the thick, soft mud of the field…” (Ruth Tooze, Cambodia: Land of Contrasts)

Because of the fertility of the soil, the areas around the Tonle Sap (literally translated as the ‘freshwater lake’) and along the Mekong River are considered the country’s rice baskets. Rice production remains family-based subsistence farming, relying principally on family labor and, as such, is largely non-capital and technology intensive. The average landholding per farmer is estimated at 2-3 hectares, with 70% used for wet-rice cultivation. In addition to low access to fertilizer and appropriate seeds, water shortage, and innovative technologies, the smallness of the paddy size accounts partly for the relatively low average yield of 1-1.5 tons per hectare. In managed conditions, the average yield can reach 3 tons per hectare.

“In December and January comes the harvest. The rice farmers use long, curved rice knives for harvesting. Each knife has a small sharp prong that cuts the rice on the forward swing and a large wooden curve that gathers a new bunch for cutting on the back swing. In the lowlands, the farmers carve the knife handles into the shape of the tail of a humpsa (sic), a mythical bird said to bring good luck to lowland rice growers. In the highlands, the farmers carve their knife handle into the shapes of dragons, said to bring good luck to rice growers there …

When the rice stalks are cut, they are stacked in bunches for the rice to dry, and when it has dried, the heads are cut of. Then the women toss the whole rice grains in large, round woven bamboo trays, winnowing the kernels from the husks. Each family now has much of its reserve of food for the coming year.” (Ruth Tooze, Cambodia: Land of Contrasts )

The Monsoon and Cambodia’s Economy, Social and Cultural Patterns
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The monsoon and Cambodia’s waterways, with outlets to the seas, are major factors affecting the country’s politics, trade and social development. The monsoon largely dictates the varieties of crops that could be planted as well as the planting seasons. In addition to wet-rice cultivation., Cambodia’s climate and soil condition are also suitable for the production of many other subsidiary crops. In the 1960s, 8% of the cultivated areas were used for the cultivation of corn, beans, sweet cassava, sweet potato, sesame and soy. Many of these crops, such as corn, were grown both for domestic consumption and for export. The river bank areas, with their rich soil, are most suited for these types of garden and orchard crops. The flooded forests near the Tonle Sap are especially conducive to bean production, although certain varieties of beans favor the upland red and black soils of Kompong Cham and Battambang provinces. Production of sweet cassava could be found in the red plateau soils of Kampot, south of Takeo and Kompong Cham provinces.

Local conditions are also suitable for fruit cultivation either on large plantations or on small-scale family farms. Banana, pineapple, mango, different varieties of citrus fruits, longan, rambuttan and durian rank among the more favored fruits, grown for both domestic and export markets. In addition, all throughout Cambodia’s countryside, sugar palm trees dotted the landscape. Production of palm sugar remains an important source of income for many farming families. Coconut is also an important crop, yielding many other important by –products. Coconut milk is a key ingredient in Khmer cuisine and fresh coconut juice is one of the most nutritious and refreshing drinks for the tropical climate. In the pre-war years, coffee, of both the robust and arabica varieties, as well as jute and tobacco were among the nation’s exports. These agricultural sectors are being currently revived.

Because of Cambodia’s and Southeast Asia’s rich natural resources, trade and commerce within the region and outside of it have always been vital. Evidence has shown that trade with other centers of civilization such as Rome and Alexandria was already flourishing from the very first centuries, AD. Cambodia’s trade with India, particularly in gems and silk for the China market, had been the most sustained, resulting in significant cultural exchanges. Indian influence is still evident in the Khmer system of writing, religion, foods and many other cultural aspects.

The monsoon also influences many social patterns. Because of the centrality of rain in agrarian life, celebrations are often linked to nature’ s cycle and to the lunar calendar. The new year, for instance, is celebrated in April to coincide with the end of the harvest season and of hard work.

Ecological Destruction and Flooding
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Flooding of the Mekong has become increasingly more serious in recent years. The flood in 2000 was described as the worst recorded flood in Cambodia. Vast areas of the country remained submerged under water for many months. Assessment of damage was estimated as follows:

20 provinces affected.
US$ 50 million,
270 persons killed and 2.2 million affected
535,000 ha. of rice fields affected

(Source: Meng Srun Sin, Ph. D. Deforestation and the Relationship to Flood in Cambodia):

Fishery *
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Fisheries in Cambodia play an important role in the national economy and in the provision of protein source in local diet. Main fishery sources are as follow:

• Inland fisheries from the Tonle Sap (the Great Lake) and the Mekong river and its tributaries
• Freshwater aqua culture in the Tonle Sap and ponds
• Marine fisheries from the coastal water

During the Khmer Rouge regime, which lasted from 1975 to1979, many factors contributed to the increased degradation of the lake’s ecosystem. Several thousands of hectares of inundated forests were destroyed, accompanied by construction of irrigation dikes along the coast of the Tonle Sap and construction of irrigation barrages across rivers and streams which flow into the Lake. These developments resulted in large scale ecological damage. Furthermore, destructive fishing methods persisted in many areas and led to the destruction of numerous natural stocks of fish.

As a result of death and devastation, the Fishery Department had to be rehabilitated almost from scratch in the post-1979 period. This process, however, has been seriously challenged by the limitation in human resources and scarcity of technology, materiel and know-how. (Source: Japan- Cambodia Country Study).

* Statistical information drawn from Ministry of Agriculture of the Royal Kingdom of Cambodia, the Institute de Recherche et d’Enseignement Forestier (IREF) with assistance from USAID, UN statistics and donor country studies. See also Meng Srun Sin, Ph. D. Deforestation and the Relationship to Flood in Cambodia)

IV. Cambodia: Country Facts
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Estimates for Y2000 *

Major Language: Khmer (sometimes referred to as Cambodian)

Population: 11.5 million

Urban areas: 13.5%
Rural areas: 86.5%

Life Expectancy (years)**: 48

GDP ($million): 2,364

GDP per capita ($): 216

GDP Share:

Agriculture: 43%
Manufacturing: 12%
Construction: 13%
Commerce: 10%
Others: 21%

Female Population: 60-65%

head of households: 25-40%
widows: 5-10%

Rainy: June-October
Dry: November- May

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