How local groups are fighting to revive world's largest inland fishery

Close to 1,200 different fish species dart beneath the waters of the Mekong River. Yet as continuous threats are damaging its ecosystem and threatening the well-being of communities that live on and around the river, local groups are finding ways to adapt.

The Mekong runs through six Asian countries before hitting the South China Sea. As the world’s largest inland fishery, over 40 million people are reliant on the river as a source of sustenance and income.  

But hydropower dam construction, mostly toward the head of the river in China; unsustainable sand mining and fishing practices; habitat destruction; and warming waters and heavier precipitation as a result of climate change are depleting fish numbers and affecting the communities reliant on them.