The impact of Invasive Species: Giant Mimosa,

Mimosa pigra in the Floodplain Wetland in Cambodia

SOPHANY PHAUK
Conservation Biodiversity Center
Royal University of Phnom Penh

Resubmitted to
Dr. CARL TRAEHOLT

Introduction
Cambodia lies in the south western Indochina peninsula between Thailand to
the west and Vietnam to the east, and shares a north eastern border with Laos which
these four countries provide a good habitat for the biodiversity in wetland of the Lower
Mekong Basin (see Figure 1). Wetlands are vital to the livelihoods of hundred of
millions of people residing in the Lower Mekong region, and particularly to the food
security of many of the rural poor (J. Chong, 2005).
With the common sharing of similarity in the region,
ninety percent of Cambodia’s 12.8 million people
live and derive income from the floodplain
wetland in the centre and south which
occupies less than 30 percent of the
country (ICEM, 2003). Concerning
to the ecosystem in the Lower Mekong
Basin, one of the worst environmental
weeds of wetlands, Mimosa (Mimosa pigra) is
found along the main Mekong channel and major
tributaries from northern Laos to the Mekong Delta in
Vietnam (Tran Triet, unpublished report).
Figure1. The Geographic scale of Mekong River system
(Source: Baran E et al. 2007)

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 The genus Mimosa (Mimosaeae) contains 400-500 species (http://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/mimosa), which are mostly native to tropical America where it occurs in
Mexico and Central and South America. Mimosa can be 6 m height, steams armed with
broad-based prickles 7mm, each flower containing a seeds that may remain dormant for
many years (http://www.hear.org/pier/species /mimosa_pigra.htm). Giant mimosa, M.
pigra is a prickly shrub with a fern-like appearance. It grows in dense stands and is
know for its ability to aggressively colonize flooded plains. Due to their woody
widespread plant, M. pigra is became the invasive species through seasonal flooding
around the world including the floodplain Lower Mekong Basic - Cambodia, Loa PDR,
Thailand and Vietnam (see Figure. 2).

Figure2.
Mimosa pigra infestation areas in Cambodia, Laos,
Thailand and Vietnam
(source: Tran Triet, unpublished report)

In Cambodia, M. pigra has

rapidly proliferated in inundated zones
since the early two decades, raising concerns
about its impact on agriculture, fishing, and
flooded forests. The invasion species,
M. pigra can reduce land availability
for agricultural production, increase costs for farmers to remove the weed from their
land, and result in less productive fisheries due to decreases in fishery habitat and
reduced access to fishing areas (Bruce, unpublished report). For example, the threat
from the exotic, fast spreading water hyacinth (Eichhornia crsassipes) and giant
mimosa (M. pigra) has been highlighted by fisheries officers and local fishers (So and
Bouy, 2005).
As the target of the project, Mimosa pigra is one of the concerning ecological
threat to the native plants species and the productive yield in the fishery and agriculture
a long the wetlands in Cambodia especially The Mekong River and Tonle Sap Lake. In
term of Conservation, the project aims to study about 1) The distribution of Giant
Mimosa a long the floodplains in Cambodia, 2) The impact of the Mimosa pigra to the
Biodiversity and local community that gain benefit from the wetlands and 3) The
controlling and managing the widespread of the Mimosa pigra along the wetland in
Cambodia.

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Methodology

The data and information about the M. pigra in Lower Mekong Basin and
around the world was collected. The secondary data collection was used to utilize
existing data collected by others to support the findings of the study. The focuses of
secondary data collection were on the previous or similar projects of scientific
publication regulated to case study in wetlands management in Cambodia such as
Stung Treng Ramsar site, Kandal and Kompong Cham Province, and other correlated
reports. The relevant literature, media, books, websites, documents and other related
publications were used.

Results

Distribution of Mimosa pigra in Floodplains of Cambodia

The Mekong River Basin is one of the world’s greatest rivers in terms of length,
catchments area and annual discharge volume (Tran Triet, unpublished). However, the
Mekong River and many wetlands along the river are quite threatened by the invasive
alien species, M. pigra. With the survey of invasive M. pigra, it has rapidly proliferated
in Kandal Province; a lowland area located about 13 km from Phnom Penh where rural
people subsist largely on rice and fish. In addition to the study, Kandal’s flooded forests
have decreased from an estimated 61,359 ha in 1985 to 5,275 ha in 1998-99 (Bruce,
unpublished report).

Figure3. The distribution of the invasive plant, Giant Mimosa,

along the banks of Stung Treng Ramsar site.
Source: (Channa et al., unpublished)

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 The preliminary survey at Stung Treng wetland Ramsar site (see figure.3) is located in
the upper Cambodian reaches of Lower Mekong River. Giant Mimosa was more prevalent in
river banks subjected to the cultivation of vegetables, in the northern part of the Ramsar
this species has also invaded into the seasonal inundated riverine forest and sand bars as
well (Channa et al., unpublished report).
According to the exotic plant species recorded at Tonle Sap Lake, the only
potentially problematic weed at present is Giant Mimosa, M. pigra L. this aggressive,
invasive weed, forms large, mono-species stands to the detriment of indigenous biota
(see figure 4), and cause a significant economic damage, primarily to livestock and
fisheries (Julien, M et al. 2004). Moreover, concerning to the loss of ecosystem
integrity in wetland which covers more than 30 percent in Cambodia is further brought
about by the introduction and spread of invasive alien M. pigra (Magnus et al., 2004).
As shown in the figure.2, the introduced species Mimosa pigra was not only invaded
almost the part of the wetlands but also in the agricultural land fields in Cambodia. This
issue is very important for Government to take a control and manage on the Giant
Mimosa.

Figure4. M. pigra plants growing in the rice fields at Kompong Cham (Left),
on the Tonle Sap (right). (Source:Julien, M et al,. 2004)

The Impact of Mimosa pigra in Cambodia

Impact on Biodiversity

The proliferation of dense Giant Mimosa in Kandal Province stands in the

fishing lots reducing fishery productivity (see figure. 5) by decreasing the amount of
suitable habitat for aquatic species (Channa et al., unpublished report). Due to standing
plant with spinning, most of flora and fauna can not against the thick M. pigra plants.
For example, in Kompong Cham Province, several white fish species have disappeared

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from Boeung Thom wetland, and wildlife as well birdlife habitats degraded (Julien, M
et al. 2004).

Figure 5. Proportion of unscaled fish in Total Annual Fish Catch for 16 Fishing Lot owners in
Kandal Province. (source: Bruce, unpublished report)

Concerning on the impacts of Mimosa in the wetlands, Birds migrate annually

to shallow wetlands to breed or feed en route to more northerly areas could encounter
great seasonal and year-to-year variation (Milton W. Weller, 2003, pp 153). Herein,
Mimosa pigra maybe remove their seasonal habitat such as food and breeding. In
addition, the Sarus Crane, Grus antigone sharpii, the only native and vulnerable bird
species in Cambodia maybe be disappeared due to habitat loss by the Giant Mimosa.
For instance, the brolga (Grus rubicundus) have either disappeared or are now much
less common in other parts of Australia due to M. pigra (D Walden. et al, 2004).
Another example in Vietnam, Mimosa is the most major impact on the wetlands of
Tram Chim National Park stems from its ability to invade quickly and replace the
native vegetation (Tran Triet, unpublished report).

Impacts on Social-Economic Yield

In addition to the adversely affecting to the native fauna and flora, the spread of
M. pigra caused significant declines for many farmers in Agricultural Farming. For
example, in Kandal Province more than 40% of the rice farmers surveyed indicated that
Mimosa pigra on their rice land was a “serious” problem in 2000 (see Table.1),
whereas only 10% of the farmers recalled M. pigra being a serious problem in 1995
(Bruce, unpublished report). Concerning on the water resource and waterways, Mimosa is

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causing sedimentation and making river width narrower not only in Cambodia but also
in Southeast Asia (D Walden. et al, 2004).

Table1: Impact of M. pigra removal costs on Rice Farming Revenue in

Kandal Province in 2000 (source: Bruce, unpublished)

According the social-economic loss, for instance, every year farmers from
Boeung Thum wetland, Kompong Cham Province, spend a lot of money on mimosa
clearance and they get less income from the agricultural product (Julien, M et al. 2004).
It is significant difficulty for the local community to find out food and pasture for their
animals and also difficult to access the wetlands services such as food and wetland
product collection. Due to seriously invasive alien mimosa, if we don’t have the
mechanism to control this species, Cambodia will face the worst solution of a
widespread species, M. pigra.

Other Impacts

The surveyed reported about 40 percents of the households that M. pigra caused
problems to irrigation canals, where the density of M. pigra in canals were high, it
reduced the flow of water to rice paddies (Bruce, unpublished report). On the one hand, the
integration between ecotourism and wetlands grabbed together for stakeholders especially local

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communities which gain a lot of benefic from the tourism such bird watching. In Cambodia,
ecotourism refers to tourism and geared to raise ecological and environment awareness and
include cultural and historical site that are closely related to ecosystem and provide
opportunities for learning about the environment (Torell, et al, 2004). For instance, in
Australia, the Northern Territory is an attractive tourist destination because of its natural beauty
environment; the total expenditure by 786 000 visitors to the Top End of the Northern Territory
in the 2001/02 financial year was approximately $498 million (D Walden. et al, 2004).
Hereby, if the mimosa invaded to the Northern Territory, the negative impacts of the
tourism income will decreased.

Managing and Controlling of Mimosa in Cambodia

In Cambodia, there are significant harder for the processing in controlling the
M. pigra due to less of awareness in local community and materials supporting. For
example, about 25% of households in Kandal province used Mimosa as fuel wood, but
it was not good quality fuel (Bruce, unpublished report). As the result of communities’
experience in management in the three local communities in Boeung Thom wetland, shown that
mimosa plants are very difficult to burn or destroy (Julien, M et al. 2004). In Australia,
Giant Mimosa was controlled by release biological control agent at the start of
treatment. For example, Chalcodemus serripes, insect introduced from Mexico,
Venezuela, and Brazil all shown the same restrict to the M. pigra (TimA, et al, 1999).
Another example in Australia, Herbicides is widely used to control mimosa, should be used
during the period of growth of the mimosa and before any seed mature. However, this increases
the risk posed by herbicide drift to non-target plants in the vicinity (http://en.wikipedia
.org/wiki/Mimosa).

Discussion

The above result of the study aims to provide the information about the M.
pigra that invaded the floodplain wetlands in Cambodia. The distribution and their
potential risk are not only to the biodiversity or native species but also the productivity
yield for the local communities, such as fishery products in Great Lake. Concerning to
the rare and vulnerable species, Sarus Grane (Grus antigone sharpii) maybe disappear
in the future due to loss habitat. According to the study, Cambodia is less of in
controlling on Giant Mimosa due to less of material and supporting. In conclusion, the
current area of mimosa in the wetland in Cambodia is not obvious certainly. Without
maintaining or increasing resources for mimosa management, it will continue spread
out in Cambodia.

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 Based on the findings, this study recommends that the Royal Government of Phnom
Penh should make the effort on conservation and protection laws in Fauna and Flora in
wetlands such as the law of prevention from the alien species. Education is the primary
awareness for supporting the M. pigra's management. In the Northern Territory, for
instance, efforts have been made to ensure that the general public, recreational
fishermen and hunters, pastoralists, farmers, aboriginal communities and other landowners
and managers are aware of the threat in M. pigra (D Walden. et al, 2004). In order to
accomplished the mimosa's management, the Government of Cambodia, local
communities and NGOs all have to aggregate the future research in controlling and
managing the Giant mimosa.

References:

Baran E., P. Starr, and Y. Kura. 2007. Influence of built structures on Tonle Sap
fisheries. Cambodia National Mekong Committee and the WorldFish Center. Phnom
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Channa Bambaradeniya, Alvin Lopez, Will Darwell, Kim Sreng Kong, Anna
McIvor, Eddie Allison, Lucy Emerton, Richard Friend, Marcus Chambers and Sharon
Brooks (unpublished report). Preliminary Observations on the Biodiversity and
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimosa

http://www.hear.org/pier/species /mimosa_pigra.htm