The latest survey report by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) shows that the number of river terns in the Mekong has been stable in the past two years.

The total number of the birds recorded so far is 74, including three newly-hatched — an encouraging increase of about 130 percent compared to its population of 31 seven years ago, said the report.

The survey of the river terns was led by a team of WWF researchers between February and April this year found 31 nests of the river terns along the Mekong areas in Kratie and Stung Treng provinces.

The stable population of the river bird living safely implies hope for its existence after it had dropped worryingly by 80 percent in the last 20 years due to human-caused threats.

It is a positive sign for not only in Cambodia but also the world as the river terns was listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species and considered as one of the rarest birds in Southeast Asia.

The positive trend of the river tern existence in Cambodia was credited to strong participation of the community people in the conservation activities.

The conservation was led by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and WWF through the Community-based Bird Nest Protection Programme supported by the Government of Belgium (DGD) and WWF Belgium and the Climate Resilient by Nature (CRxN) Programme funded by Australian Government and WWF-Australia. AKP-Lim Nary