Intensifying rice farming is threatening the ecosystem and fishing community of one of southeast Asia’s most important wetland areas.

“The floodplain is undergoing a fairly rapid shift away from natural habitat that supports bird populations when they’re flooded to rice cultivation,” says Simon Mahood at the Wildlife Conservation Society in Cambodia.

Cambodia’s largest lake, Tonlé Sap, gathers a massive volume of water from various tributaries whose changing ebb and flow means a huge shift in water level over the course of a year. It is …