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As the boat motors up the Mekong River, water birds and rare Irrawaddy dolphins play in the current. The powerful river cuts in between rocky outcrops and pristine sandy islands. On either bank, towering trees shelter a hidden network of wetlands.

This scene is as picturesque as it is remote. In Stung Treng province, in the north-east of Cambodia, every village along this wild frontier appears as isolated from the cities and burgeoning development downstream as they were a century ago.

But times are changing. Tourists and government officials keen on international trade are beginning to frequent these reaches of the Mekong river that are renowned for their natural riches.

Stung Treng province is only 37 kilometres south of the Lao village of Voeun Kham. Today, a trickle of travellers crosses the Laos border each week on the Mekong river at the International Dongkralaw border gateway under a bilateral tourism cooperation deal.

On the other side, a speedboat departs daily from Stung Treng, carrying a handful of passengers eager to have a Lao stamp in their passports.

One resident who has lived in the area for four decades still remembers an almost-forgotten isolation that is now fading with the encroachment of modern life.

Men Sarin, 71, has hardly left his island since arriving in 1964. Almost 40 years ago, King Norodom Sihanouk established the tiny village on one of the small river islands. Retired and volunteer soldiers soon moved there. Sarin was one of the few to stay.

Sarin calls himself a Kalong soldier, having served a tour of duty in the King's army before the Khmer Rouge seized control of the country in 1976. Since quitting the military, he has found little reason to leave his island.

But his seclusion is fast disappearing. It is being replaced by the first tendrils of commerce, tourism and trade that the Cambodian government insists will thrive on this remote waterway. However, much has to be done before this can be realised.

Although a paved road connects nearby Cambodian towns to the Lao border, it is in such disrepair on the Cambodian side that the Mekong river remains the easiest travel route, says Sem Samnang, 49, deputy chief of the Dongkralaw checkpoint.

That may change as Lower Mekong Basin countries - Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam - follow through on an agreement to develop economic ties in the region.

Chhim Chhorn, the governor of Stung Treng province, says a friendship pact with Laos' southern Champasak province permits residents to cross the border with passes. He foresees the emergence of a bustling tourist trade.

"The trade there now is only cargo of fish, resin trees and wildlife between villagers," says Chhorn. But he adds: "It is easy for international tourists to cross the border by boat."

He says that the influence of international and local tourists will be good, as his province is pursuing development.

The changes in Stung Treng are a small part of a greater wave of change and economic integration sweeping through the Mekong region, composed of China, Laos, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Formal cooperation and economic integration are being promoted both bilaterally among the Lower Mekong Basin countries and regionally, including through the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) initiative launched by the Asian Development Bank (AsDB) in 1991.

The GMS initiative includes projects aimed at improving land networks, including a North-South economic corridor from China's south-western Yunnan province down to Vietnam.

The GMS project also includes the construction of a section of the Asian Highway (AH1) in Cambodia, expected to be finished in 2005. Eventually, the Asian Highway network will extend across 32 Asian countries with more than 140,000 kilometres of highway, says the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).

Tourism is another key area of regional cooperation, as are initiatives to promote trade and investment and environmental sustainability.

Thong Khon, Cambodia's secretary of state for tourism, says a "tourism triangle" could be established between Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam in the spirit of cooperation. "There is discussion for a concrete strategy in the future," says Khon.

"Now we have had nothing concrete, but we have a plan, and it is a long-term plan."

According to Khon, ecotourism is vital in helping Cambodia eliminate poverty along the Mekong River and promote better living conditions. However, there are environmental, social and economic concerns about exploiting the area before adequate safeguards are put in place.

As one of the largest river systems in the world, the Mekong and its tributaries are crucial to the lives of the 55 million people who live in the Lower Mekong Basin.

More than 70 percent of the people who live in the basin are subsistence farmers. The rice they grow is supplemented with wild fish and plants and animals foraged from nearby forests and wetlands, to be used as food, material and medicines.

The need to plan and monitor development on a basin-wide scale so that gains in one sector or one geographic area do not result in losses in others is therefore pressing. Water-related resources must be developed in ways that are equitable and sustainable.

The protection of the river's biodiversity is also crucial. According to a 2003 State of the Basin report issued by the Vientiane-based Mekong River Commission (MRC), 700 species of animals live in the Mekong Basin.

Yen Run, manager of the Culture and Environment Preservation Association in Stung Treng province, says the area used to be rich in now-endangered bird species before speedboats began operating in 2000. At least 30 motorboats now make the trip to Laos from Stung Treng.

"I don't know how the increased transportation will impact the environment in the wetland protection areas, but I have noted that the number of birds species is declining seriously," says Run.

Indeed, several institutions have been working to preserve the region's rich biodiversity amid the onset of big infrastructure and economic integration schemes.

For instance, the MRC in partnership with the United Nations began a five-year, 32.6 million U.S. dollar programme in 2003 to promote regional cooperation in assessing and conserving biodiversity. The World Wide Fund for Nature has a five-year Indochina Strategy for the conservation of biodiversity in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

Part of that means preserving natural resources for people like Sarin on his island. But so far, the moves have yet to halt declines in the river's crucial biodiversity.

Sarin says the Mekong of today is not the teeming river he fished 40 years ago. The sounds of birds searching the waters for fish have been largely replaced with the roar of speedboats.

Thirty years ago, Sarin started a fire each morning secure in the knowledge that a fish would be roasting on it a few hours later. Now, he sometimes spends a whole day in order to pull a meal from the river.

"I don't know the reason for the decline in fish species, but I think that maybe the fish and the birds are afraid of the noise of motorboats and they run away from the basin," says Sarin.

He recalls: "During my lifetime, we did not need to catch fish with any equipment. We just caught the fish with our hands from the pond during the dry season."

*Vong Sokheng of the 'Phnom Penh Post' wrote this for the 'Our Mekong: A Vision amid Globalisation' media fellowship programme, which is run by IPS Asia-Pacific and supported by the Rockefeller Foundation.