Cambodia's Kun Sreynich and Philippines' Lopez Leah in action during individual judo finals at Chroy Changvar Convention Centre Hall C in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on May 15, 2023. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

A mine detection rat is given banana as a reward after successfully identifying an inactive mine on July 2, 2015 in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC) working with the Belgian NGO APOPO has recently begun testing the feasability of using large mine detection rats from Tanzania to help clear fields of mines and unexploded ordnance in one of the most bombed and mined countries in the world. (Photo by Taylor Weidman/Getty Images)

A confiscated pet lion poses with a dog as it arrived back home from the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center after Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered authorities to return the animal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, July 5, 2021. (Photo by Cindy Liu/Reuters)

A rat being trained by the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) is pictured on an inactive landmine field in Siem Reap province July 9, 2015. Gambian pouched rats were deployed to Cambodia from Tanzania in April by a Belgian non-profit organization, APOPO, to help clear mines. They've been trained since they were 4 weeks old. Cambodia is still littered with landmines after emerging from decades of civil war, including the 1970s Khmer Rough “Killing Fields” genocide, leaving it with one of the world's highest disability rates. APOPO has used the rodents for mine-clearing projects in several countries, including Angola, Mozambique, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. (Photo by Samrang Pring/Reuters)

A partial solar eclipse is seen as a labourer works at a construction site in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, March 9, 2016. (Photo by Samrang Pring/Reuters)

A boat commutes across the Mekong river in Phnom Penh on August 8, 2014. The Mekong is the world's twelth longest river running from the Tibetan Plateau through China's Yunnan province, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. (Photo by Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP Photo)

Street vendosr prepare grilled pigs to sell for the Chinese New Year celebrations at a market in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 11 February 2021. Chinese people around the world celebrate the Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, which marks the year of the Ox. (Photo by Kith Serey/EPA/EFE)

Among the fish populations that could be harmed by the Xayaburi dam in Laos is the critically endangered Mekong giant catfish, considered by the Guinness Book of World Records to be the world’s largest freshwater fish. The fish, which grows to 650 pounds and about 10 feet long, is only found in the Mekong River. It is migratory, moving between downstream habitats in Cambodia upstream to northern Thailand and Laos each year to spawn. Some experts fear the Xayaburi dam could block the migration and drive the giant catfish to extinction. (Photo by Courtesy of Zeb Hogan/University of Nevada, Reno)