Prek Toal area, located on the north-western shore of the lake, shelters the largest remaining colonies of waterbirds in Southeast Asia. Thousands of pairs of pelicans, ibis, darters and storks, all globally threatened with extinction, gather to nest in mixed species colonies in the flooded forest from November to May. Until recently, eggs and chicks had been massively collected by poor fishermen to generate some additional income by selling them for food in the villages. Since 2001, the Wildlife Conservation Society, in collaboration with the Cambodian Government, has enrolled villagers to set up a local conservation team, or 'rangers'.


As of today, 25 villagers, half of whom are former bird collectors, benefit from this new job and put their intimate knowledge and experience of the forest and its fauna to protect them. Seventeen observation platforms have been built on treetops to allow night-and-day watch of the colonies and regular colony counts. From 2004 on, no case of bird poaching has been observed and the waterbird populations have progressively increased since the inception of the protection efforts. For certain species, such as the Oriental Darter, the recovery has been pretty dramatic and swift: the nesting population has progressed from only 250 pairs in 2002 to over 4000 pairs in 2007, i.e. the largest colony for this species on the planet !